Waiting patiently

This was the scene that greeted me this morning: rain at sea, waves and no other people. Oh yes, some did walk by, but no one got into the water.  So I hesitated, praying for direction, about whether I should go into the Big Pond or the Kiddie Pond. I didn't feel as if I got a clear direction from God, so I played it safe and went into the Kiddie Pond.  But not before I saw the seal on the beach:

Totally snoozing!  Two young boys had paused to watch it, so I enlisted them in helping put up the Stay Away signs.  People sometimes mistake the seal's nap for being in distress, i.e., they think it's dead.  I can't fault them for it, because with all that blubber, it is very hard to tell if they are even breathing.  This one did move a bit, so we knew it was alive.  The boys kindly helped and we had 3 signs put up quickly.  Then After thanking them, I got into the water in the smaller pond.



There were plenty of small eels, most notably what I think was a Zebra Eel:

If it is a Zebra, I don't remember it having such a stubby snout.  But it does have stripes.
There were also a few Snowflake Eels:

Very cute.  It looked up at me, as if to say hello. Actually, it was probably afraid I was going to grab it, which I would never do!  Even these eels, which I consider to be the most docile, could probably hurt my hand or finger.

And in case you need a lesson from the Soap Box, please never feed an eel!  They are first of all meant to be wild, God gives them enough food and who knows what an expectant eel would do when the next unknowing person stopped by WITHOUT the food they were expecting?! OK,  nuff said.

I found several Cowry shells, but here's the photo I'll share of two of them hiding:

These Snakeshead cowries are so glossy and pretty, especially with the sun shining down on them.
There was also a gigantic turtle that swam by me:

This was definitely the largest turtle I've been around in quite a while..maybe ever!  But it barely paused in its journey, so I snapped a few photos and let it go out to sea. 










Another Scorpion Fish today:

It was hiding in a cleft in the coral head, so its nose is at the bottom of the photo.  Tail fin just to the right of the urchin.  Good hiding spot.

Once more people were around and because I wasn't yet tired from battling the current, I slid on over to the Big Pond.  There were a mess of fish gathered around; no idea why, but this is kinda what they looked like:

Indo-Pacific Sergeants and Blue Spine Unicorn Fish.  Must have been about 25 fish at least.  

And of course, once I popped up, I saw the rainbow:

Unfortunately, I had a spot of water on the outside of the camera lens, but you can still see the palm trees and rainbow.  No rain, no rainbows!

And we did have rain while I was swimming, which was perhaps what kept others off the beach.  But Hey! If you're in the water, you're wet anyway, right?  All the clouds do mess with the light, but more sun came out eventually, so it was a good snorkel.

And I found 31 operculum....yay.


Thanks for reading!