I love the pink proliferating anemone on the yellow and orange background! Such beautiful colors!! Thank you so much for sharing all your pictures and experiences.
Taking short break from Whidbey Island Critters Once a year, Maya and I try to trade the cold waters of Pacific Northwest for waters warm and clear. Since her vacation time was limited, we choose Fiji. Our winter is their summer and although the forecast was showing rain and thunder for every day of our planned stay, we traveled there anyway. Flight from Seattle to Los Angeles on the night of the moon eclipse, then boarded Fiji Airways for a long 10 hour flight to Nadi on the island of Viti Levu. Somewhere during the night we lost Monday and landed in Fiji Tuesday morning. Van ride along the northern coast to Wananavu Resort. Our worries about weather were unfounded, the few rain showers passed quickly in the afternoon and mostly sunny weather prevailed during our entire stay. The diving begun the next morning ...
First dive in truly tropical waters in 17 years. The Cabo Pulmo two years ago was not a truly tropics, since the coral was very scarce and a wetsuit was part of the diving attire. Fiji on the other hand, was a riot of colors served in 82 degree water. Dream Maker reef was our introduction to the Bligh Water currents and because of the rainy season, I guess, not so stellar visibility which ranged from only 30 feet in the upper first thirty or so feet and varied from then up to 50 in places. But the variety and number of coral, soft and hard, was a feast for the eyes. Identification of many of the inverts and marine life is difficult for my lack of knowledge of the local fauna and flora, I will try my best. I hope you enjoy the sights as much as I did. Let the show begin. Dive one: The Dream Maker.
So beautiful.... Makes my travel trigger finger itch!
Thanks for sharing this and so many other journeys with us Jan! Blessings on you and your daughter!
More Pics Than You Have Time To Look AT "Anyone who thinks this place is over moderated is bat-crazy anarchist." -Ben, Airsix "Warning: No dive masters are going to be there, Just a bunch of old fat guys taking pictures of fish." -Bassman
Thank you Tom, travel is what nurtures my soul ...
Fiji Dive 2 - After one hour long surface interval, we move to another location - Bula Maker. Less current and better visibility. I could linger on just one of the coral heads the entire hour allocated for the dive and find enough to keep me mesmerized...
While many of my fellow Washingtonians will now post pictures of this morning snow, I will throw in some more tropical colors from our dives in Fijian waters ... Amazing Maze is the name of section of Sailrock Reef, large area off the northeast end of island of Viti Levu, location of our third dive.
Whidbey Island. 21 degrees F outside my window while I process more of the photos I took underwater, which was 82 F. Our fourth dive site called "Always Cool". Flat worms pretend to be nudibranchs and more coral and colorful scenery for your (and mine) enjoyment...
Whidbey Island winter snow, Round 2. With the world around me turning white, I dig for some color into the Fiji files from dive # 5. Swim through Heaven. My new friend Mike, whom I met there and who spends winters in Fiji, probably wonders why I returned the US so soon. I am wondering myself ...
My access to internet has been limited while I was in the Galapagos. I just saw your trip photos. My goodness. My Fiji photos are so lame in comparison. Thank you, Curt
Enough of snow shoveling and longing for the warm, tropical waters. Time to return to the cold water reality of Whidbey Island diving. Valentine's Day good as any to dust off the drysuit, recharge the camera and strobe batteries and slosh through wet snow into the waters of Langley Harbor...
I don't know what earned this little slug its name, but I would certainly NOT name it Pacific Stomach Wing. I got the Pacific part, for it is found here, I could understand the wing part, but stomach ? Anyway, here are some pics of what it looks like when they make more of themselves. Even the hermit crab among them seems to be trying to figure the flying stomach thing...
Jan: You show us again and again the marvels one can see in what many consider sites not worth the effort: Langley, Coupeville, and Holmes Harbor. But you are an exceptionally gifted observer. -Curt
Fiji - dive # 8, Main Street. So many questions about the new sights presented in this new to me underwater tropical world. For example, when I saw some of the soft coral releasing what to me looked like string of eggs, similar to the spawn of Plumose anemones here in our cold water, I assumed that I am witnessing coral spawning. Not so. After long search on the internet, I found out that the coral was shedding skin, something which the Toadstool Leather coral does regularly. So now you know too
When I look at the wonders you depict, I think of an exchange I had with a cousin years ago. He asked why I didn't return to my birth state of Missouri. "It doesn't have an ocean for one thing" I replied. He answered, "What's the big deal about the ocean? It is nothing but water." Nothing but water indeed. -Curt