Life's Little Pleasures

An Underwater Garden: 7 Sep 08

Dear Diary. It’s quarter past 4 and my husband’s just gone out snorkelling….I never see him again…..  Sounds like a case for Mike Nelson!

Bequia - steep & colourful

Hollywood’s out fishing, Cap’n Coronary is reading (obviously way too much murder mystery) and I’ve been out snorkelling. We’re very happy to be back out at the beach again. However, our arrival back to Bequia was met with very strong northerly swells and a couple of days of wild winds and heavy rains. So, we moved camp to better protection, deeper into Admiralty Bay - in amongst the real live-aboards & lone, long-term cruisers! 

Day-to-day life on-shore is also more interesting – they sure do have some loud “discussions” over here! We also caught some model boat racing – no engines or remotes – just good old fashioned craftsmanship and strong arms to keep up on a kayak. There was much discussion over rules too – both during and after the race!!

Model Boat Racing

Just to the west of the beach is a nice little coral reef where we’ve spent many an early morning. Today I saw a large octopus trying unsuccessfully to hide himself from us under too small a rock shelf; a smallish green/black spotted moray eel also hiding his head and forgetting about his 2 foot tail, and a lone coral snake fossicking about for his dinner. They still seem to slither, even underwater! Fish are quite plentiful, though mostly littlies, and vary from some keen to remain camouflaged and others prepared to stand out in a crowd. A cute little black one with bright neon blue spots swam in and out of bowl-shaped corals, happy to ignore me. 

Traditional Fishing Boats

There’s the occasional large parrot fish (very pretty colours) and my favourite - little spotted trunkfish that look like floating samosas…..Their odd pyramid shape and large googly eyes make for amusing watching as they struggle to stay upright in current and waves. Trumpet fish are also comical as they float head down, their long thin bodies waving like weed over the corals. Sometimes you feel as if you are swimming in a cloud of fish as little ones, enjoying the safety of shallow and warm waters, swirl by. I’m a floater whereas the Cap’n likes a dive, so he’d found a couple of crayfish in deeper waters hiding under rock shelves. We’ve also seen garden eels swaying in their sandy ‘beds”, a flying gurnard with very large “wings” and amazingly, quite a few small turtles out to nibble on grass growing beneath WJ3. Anyway, they’re all safe as we’ve discovered the local fish market.

Nice toona mon!

Fishermen announce their arrival to Port Elizabeth’s market traditionally by the sound of a conch shell horn. (Oh, we wondered what that sound was!!)   The Cap’n stumbled upon their market stalls while disposing of our rubbish one day and since then we’ve dined on fresh toona and saamons. Neat! We had to eat out for lambi (conch) though; a local favourite but somewhat of a rarity these days due to over-fishing.

Scurfing again

Boy Wonder has been pursuing his own version of "surkelling" - over Devil’s Table. Those nasty northerly swells brought in a few decent waves over a large coral reef at the entrance to Admiralty Bay. Well, it’s one way to burn off steadily accumulating tummy rolls (too much good home cooking, hmmmm?), the odd bit of skin and meet underwater locals, like stinging coral…   

As you can see, life isn’t without its traumas. Our trusty Cap’n went to retrieve a towel he’d found in deep water (ever the bargain hunter!). Trouble was it was home to a 4 foot moray eel who wasn’t the least amused at the interruption to his quiet reverie. Fortunately, both swan very quickly in opposite directions!

Refueling & rewatering Bequia (Daffodil) style

GS also spend the morning rescuing a “squidgy” with little black googly eyes from our toilet bowl. Somehow he’d managed to get pumped in….say no more! Anyway, he’s now back hanging about under the boat with all his little mates!! They never learn……..