Ravenous Sea Slugs

Yesterday (Saturday), I went out snorkeling with a couple of guys to an offshore reef near the hospital. We had spotted it from the top of the hill that the hospital is on... a darker patch in the water that waves would break over when the ocean was rough. We got up at 6 on Saturday (Why so early? We're dedicated, that's why....), made our way down to the bit of beach that we judged to be directly opposite our reef, and started swimming. The sandy bottom dropped away to murky blue nothingness, the palm trees on the shore shrank to the size of toothpicks... still no reef. Questions began to gnaw at our minds like ravenous sea slugs... Did we miss the reef? Had we picked the wrong beach to start from? Was it even really a reef we'd seen from the hill? Are there sharks around here? What about giant squid? What would it actually feel like to have ravenous sea slugs gnawing on your brain?

Suddenly, we struck gold. Actually, we struck coral. It hurt. But the coral was very pretty, so that made up for the pain.

The beach at sunrise. I don't see those very often. Sunrises, I mean. Why do they have to happen so early?

Be sure to click this guy's picture for a closer look... very cool.

A starfish. You can tell because it's shaped like a star.

By the same logic, this strange aquatic creature is known as a "nerdfish."

I hope you've enjoyed these photos. There won't be any more like them. You see, they were taken with my smaller digital camera that I always carry with me. It's actually waterproof -- you're allowed to take it out into the rain or dunk it in a few feet of water. I've gone swimming with it dozens of times and never had a problem. On this snorkeling outing, as always, I was careful not to take it too deep, where the pressure would have forced water in through its rather wimpy seals.... what I didn't realize was that it actually has a 30-minute time limit on how long you can use it in the water. Apparently it can only hold its breath for so long.... I had it out there for around 3 hours. Oops. Its little electronic brain is probably fried. At any rate, it won't turn on now. I might try to open it up and see if it's damp inside... maybe I can dry it out and revive it. I'm not optimistic on what the salt water has done to its poor little innards, though. Ah well. At least its last moments were happy ones....

Fortunately, I still have my nicer camera. The blog must go on! Actually, I recently learned that a photo blog is actually known as a "flog." So, the flog will go on. Sounds like something a weatherman would say.