Sea Stars & Other Stuff!

Tuesday 8^th February

This morning there was no wind, the air was so still, and the water in the bay was motionless, it looked as though a sheet of glass had been laid across it, even though we were anchored in 30 feet of water, you could still see the sea bed.

After breakfast Katherine came across with her jewelry, and both Frieda and I bought a couple of necklaces.  The Tagua nuts that Katherine uses to make the jewelry are abundant on these islands, and Frieda and I thought it would be fun to find some and see what we could do with them.  Of course we have no idea how to go about making the jewelry, but the challenge of attempting it had peaked our interest.

Late morning we donned our swim gear and took the dinghy for an hour-long exploration of the reef and the beach.  The bright red, orange and yellow Sea Stars that are easily visible in the crystal clear water, litter the sea bed, they vary in size from just a couple of inches across to the size of large dinner plates. 

Sea Star

There were many large rays swimming in groups, their slow moving dark shadows just under the water surface made them easy to spot.  We came across a Spotted Eagle Ray resting on the grassy sea bed, the water was only a couple of feet deep so he was very easy to spot, but unfortunately so were we and he didn’t hang around, Frieda managed to get a photograph of him before he sped off.

Spotted Eagle Ray

Eventually we anchored the dinghy just off the beach and set off on foot around the island.  Frieda and I had brought a plastic shopping bag with us for the purpose of collecting Tagua nuts.  We managed to quickly fill the bag with them, much to Bob’s chagrin.  He attempted to persuade us to leave them on the beach, but we were both quite determined.  I had a vision in mind of my new jewelry store selling all my new and fabulous creations (as you probably know by now, I have a very vivid imagination).

We were on Green Island, where we had seen the Crocodile several times, but Katherine told us that she swims here every day and the croc is nothing to worry about, he’s apparently more frightened of us than we are of him (hmmmm let me think about that!) Apparently children and dogs are at risk, but we are not!

Anyway it was bloody hot, and I wanted to swim back to the boat, as the water was so clear we would easily be able to spot him if he was anywhere near, which he wasn’t, so Bob begrudgingly allowed me to swim back, with him and Frieda alongside in the dinghy ready to pull me from the water should they happen to spot him.

Needless to say, I swam back without incident, the only other life I saw in the water around me were the Needlenose fish, and the sea stars below on the sea bed, and the swim was cooling and wonderful.