Wednesday, June 24, 2009

Turtle Dive !! June 20

After a group dive earlier in the day, Harry and I came back later in the afternoon for a nice long, relaxing dive - in search of turtles. Harry strapped a 100 on me so we could stay out a bit longer for our search. There was one in the normal turtle hangout, and we took some pictures of him. On the way out to a deeper site, we ran across this anenome fish guarding his territory.
And Harry spotted this little shrimp near the small anenome fish. Can you see him? He's mostly clear, with some pink and big blue and black eyes.
I came across this scorpion fish (I think). He was laying on his side, very odd.
But eventually we spotted this turtle heading out to deeper feeding grounds. So we both followed, to see where he would go. He didn't seem to mind having us along for the journey. He was just looking for a snack.
Well, he finally found his snack, and parked right there for about a half an hour, just letting us hang out with him and take his picture. Harry actually got a great video, too. But isn't this just the best? I love this picture.
Here is Harry, happily filming away.
And here's my view from overhead, watching him enjoy his green munchies.
He stopped eating to just look at me for a few seconds. I was smiling back at him. This was just so great.
I moved back a ways, trying to get a nice shot of his whole body. He was very handsome or pretty as the case may be.
And here's a nice turtle exit. Time to go up for some air. Did I say this was just great? What an awesome turtle day.

Wing Beach June 21

Last Sunday, Harry and I did two dives at Wing Beach with Don, one of the new OW graduates. Near the crevice, we kept seeing these two fish following us - one blue fin trevali and one snapper. They were both good sized fish, and fun to watch.
Here is Harry taking a picture of Don, while exiting the crevice on our first dive.
I caught this guy playing King of the Hill on the way back to the rope.
This eel was in the coral lining the cut going out from the rope. He was very cooperative for photos.
I don't know what this is - some kind of flatworm I think. But it was very pretty.
Wedged between two big rocks, I saw this shell partially broken with a crab peeking out.
This was the arch over the crevice. I don't usually swim up that high but I was keeping myself between Harry and Don, so I got to see more things that I usually don't spot at the bottom of the crevice.
Near the cut, there were many lion fish. This one was very big and had nice coloring for photos.
I found some shrimp in one of the holes near the cut.
I think this is a nudi, or maybe a flatworm. Either way, it was really pretty. The blue was neon underwater.
This was just outside of the crevice. I found this beautiful orange fan coral and another really pretty red fan coral. Wing Beach dives are awesome.

Monday, June 22, 2009

Island Life June 2009

We always start off the month of June with Sarah's birthday, June 1. This year we had a nice birthday brunch at the Hyatt.
And I guess the rest of the month will look like I spent it all underwater. But that's where I take most of my photos, I guess. However, these photos are Harry's. I stole them because I can't find mine on the smugmug site. The picture above is a section of soft coral under the pipeline. It's always so pretty under there.
Here I am watching some fish. I think this was at Obyan. I've got my camera ready. Now if I could just get those little guys to hold still. Ha.
This is the little known sport of pipe surfing. Want to join?
We spotted some spanish dancer egg ribbons at Lau Lau. Very cool.
We saw this guy way out near Lemuria. He looked like a moth. Very weird fish.
Another "Mr. Ugly" fish. I think it's a stone fish.
Very lovely nudi.
Fish school at Obyan. Sunday, June 7 was the best visibility I've ever seen at Obyan. I felt like I was swimming in an aquarium. It was so beautiful. And it was our 29th wedding anniversary. Great day.
This looks like the shallow corals at Wing Beach. They are also very pretty all lit up in the sun.
Ok, guess I'll check out for now. I'll write another post when I can get my pictures off smugmug. I got some great ones this weekend. Harry and I spent a fun half hour with a turtle and we got some great photos and a really cool video.