Day 10

the breakfast queue,

lots to choose from,

for everybody,

plus the egg station,

clear blue skies,

all of the family here,

Mum and Dad,

Steve, Kai and myself,

Dad, Lyn,

and Daisy Mae,

as before small aircraft were coming into land,

for today Steve hired a beach hut,

the view from it,

and looking back at it,

whilst relaxing in it I noticed this Kingfisher,

and nice he looked too,

after a cup of vodka soda whilst the others were in the sea,

I bimbled along to the dive shop and hired a mask, fins and snorkel,

and took a few pictures of some tunicates,

 or sea squirts as they are sometimes called,,

unfortunately,

the water was a little cloudy,

but it was still great fun,

watching countless numbers of small bait fish swim by,

there were a few larger fish like these mullet,

and some like this Moorish Idol (Zanclus cornutus) that will be familiar to marine fishkeepers,

I bumped into this fearsome looking fellow, what a set of teeth!

I made my way through the supports of the dive shop,

and chanced upon a huge shoal of fish nearby,

with a different type near the surface,

what appears to be a refuge for just one fish,

is in fact a home to many if you look closely,

spot the fish, well four of them,

they are pipefish,

these are I believe Reeftop Pipefish (Corythoichthys Haematopterus) a relative of both seahorses and leafy sea dragons, all members of the Syngnathidae family,

as I drifted back towards the dive shop I took this picture,

then in the distance

there he was,

a lion or scorpion fish, (Pterois volitans), they are given 3 or 4 different names, but one thing they do have in common is that the first 11 or more dorsal rays have poisonous spines in them, they are purely for defence, if you go near one of these the fish will point its head down and extend the dorsal fin, if you continue to go towards the fish you will spear yourself on one of its dorsal spines, the fish will not attack you,

I was nearly finished, when something out of the shallows approached me,

it was Diana,

so one more look around under the floating part of the jetty and it was dive over,

but one thing I did want to check out was where the swallows were nesting,

they were constantly flying under the dive shop, and there was a nest in one of the corners under the shop,

dive over and back on shore,

great fun, but the top of my head was really sunburnt,

I am not sure what this vessel is but it looked like a navy boat, a fleet auxiliary perhaps?

the family were having a swim,

with the underwater camera,

all smiles,

and trying to get half above and half below water,

this picture all below water,

this one above,

and this one below again,

Ta-Da!

Diana then noticed this starfish near the shore,

I took a walk along the jetty as the sun was setting,

looking down I spotted the lion fish near the surface looking I guess for a small fish for its meal,

we then decided to hire a couple of kayaks,

Sandio and Donna,

were the first away silhouetted by the setting sun,

they had a head start,

over Diana and Dioshane,

then they two were silhouetted in the bay,

the four of them having a whale of a time,

but,

Sandio and Donna got into a bit of a pickle when they crossed over into the swimmers only section,

all was well soon enough,

Diana and Doishane seemed to have got the hang of it,

Marvin then took over from Sandio,

which gave Donna a rest,

there were in fact three kayaks in the bay,

which at this moment looked like they were all going to collide,

but good seamanship prevailed and all was well,

then time to come back to shore,

all of this exhausted Marvin,

who made the mistake of laying down, so he was buried alive!

a shower and a change,

and we were ready for our evening meal,

chips with everything,

a club sandwich for Diana was so big,

time for a picture from one,

then the other end of the table,

after the meal back to the rooms for a nightcap, then we were all off to bed.