The Canadians were in town

Met some very nice folks from British Columbia today.  Their sons had quite the conversation with me before the parents showed up!

I discovered that one brother desperately wanted to win a $50 bet with me. His brother told me that his brother had $250 in his checking account. And then after the parents showed up, he volunteered the information that this was his older brother and his younger brother was over there...and that his parents weren't married when they had the 3 kids!

I said: Who told you that was bad?! (No answer.) I said: Do they love each other?  He replied Yeah, they kiss all the time!!!  I told Mom and Dad: good job!

It is amazing what kids will volunteer when they are helping to protect turtles at the beach. I asked the elder boy if he was married. He said NO! Then I asked if he had a job?  He said NO! I said well, where did you get all that money?  No response.  HAHA. 

The parents asked some good questions about the turtles. They seemed to understand that the turtles needed their space. And they were surprised to know that we have octopuses right out there in the water! Oh yes, they do. I gave her my fave line: It's the REAL ocean!

The octopuses weren't particularly visible today though:

Hiding in its den. The best shot would have been when I first swam up: I saw the octopus slide down into the den. So even though the photo isn't great, I am sure there was an octopus in there.

I did ask one gentleman to move back from the turtles: he said I just want to take a picture! DUH! I said we all do, but with respect we do it from further away. All these heavy duty cameras have a closeup feature anyway. Even a phone has that! I wanted to ask: how would you feel if you were having a nap and awoke to see someone right in your face with a camera?!

There was heavy duty rain offshore that eventually dumped on us:

In the one below, note the small sign on the island...that cloud and rain was huge!!!

 The orange flag announcing swift currents is about a foot long, so you can see how big the cloud and rain were.

 And then it dumped on us. I think at one point, I was the only one in the water. I always think: I'm wet anyway. What does rain matter? It does mess with the amount of light, however. And it was so loud in my ears!

 Earlier, when the rain was more offshore.

Droplets on the surface 

 And raindrops from underneath.

Exciting.

There was also a small honu. That's exciting too.

 And a lovely orange colored sunrise!  It took over about 1/3 of the sky.

 And this is an awful photo of the Ambon Puffer, but it does show its nice blue fin underneath.

 Bigger Cornet

Nice morning sky, before the rain, with 2 snoozing turtles.

 This Humu was about to dash into the hole to hide.

 Black Leaf Fish

 I love the mix of clouds, especially the row of puffy ones near the water.

Pencil Urchins mashed between two rocks on the deep side.

 More turtle action. About the most they do is raise their heads or blink.

Raindrops bouncing off the surface.

 Tiny Cornet. Smaller than a pencil. So adorable.

 Too close, lady! (And yes, I kindly asked her to move back.)

 I'm not sure why this white wisp appeared. I don't know if I've seen white rain....

Whitemouth Moray eel 

The little Canadian boy tried to tell me that he saw a sea snake. I doubt it! Probably a Moray...but hubby does tell me that we have sea snakes in some of the further out islands....wouldn't mind seeing one myself.