Heron: Sailing from Olib to Cres

Next day, on Sunday, we woke to a beautifull summer day. We were enjoying the warm turquoise water and serene environment. There was lots of swimming, riding the kayak, a ride to town with dingy - once the engine was willing to start after an hour of cleaning and maintenance. And for me it was lots of snorkelling.

I saw several of small Scallops (Mala pokrovača or Proteopecten glaber), that I didn't notice here on previous visits. Look how pretty those small blue eyes are!

Whenever I'm taking photos of a Common cuttlefish (Navadna sipa or Sepia officinalis), it's trying to hypnotise me with making those weird moves with its tentacles.

I have no idea what this was. It was floating in the water, at moments I had the feeling it had some control over its movement, but I could be wrong. It could be some kind of cluster of eggs.

This was a first for me - a member of Elbow crabs (Bradavičasto morsko šestilo or Parthenope angulifrons or Delinambrus angulifrons). Even after all this snorkelling I still find new things.

And this was a biggest surprise here - a Grey triggerfish (Sredozemska balestra or Balistes capriscus). In past I met a lot of triggerfish, mostly in Indian ocean, Red sea, and also in Caribbean sea. I still remember a Giant triggerfish on Maldives giving us a fright when he attacked Captains fins, when Captain came too close to triggerfish' nest. Or feeding of Giant triggerfish with clams in Mauritius. I had a feeling this one was also protecting a nest in the burrow that you can see on first photo. Sorry for bad photos, but the fish just wouldn't stand still.

I was under the impression that Grey triggerfish were mostly found in South Adriatic, but after I returned home and read a bit more about them, I learnt that it wasn't so rare in North Adriatic any more, lots of fishermen saw or caught them, some even in Gulf of Triest.

This was the only Octopus (hobotnica) that I saw in whole week. I just hope they were just very well hidden and not that they were all caught and eaten. When this one saw me she tried to pile some more shells in front of her to hide.

This one is probably a Rock goby (Mrki glavač or Gobius paganellus), although it is quite pale, and it's sitting next to a Brown cowry (Progasta porcelanka or Luria lurida).

There were also plenty of Sand roses (Peščene rože).

This was one of few Parasitic anemone (Progasta stražna vetrnica ali Calliactis parasitica) that had all it's tentacles on display.

In the late afternoon we sailed off towards Cres. It was hard to leave, Olib had put a spell onto all of us. We ate dinner already on the way, sailed by camp near Punta Križa and afterwards dropped the anchor in Uvala Baldarin. It was already getting dark, so there was only time for a short swim and a nightcap.

Next day started windy and not very warm, and later in the day there was even more strong NE wind forecast. We left Uvala Baldarin after late breakfast and sailed towards island of Plavnik, we thought we might be able to hide from NE wind on West side of it. When we almost reached Plavnik, we decided for the bay on East side of Cres opposite of Plavnik instead.

Soon after we anchored wind was getting stronger and dark clouds started to appear. I still went snorkelling, jut the light was rather poor. One of the best finds was this Grey wrasse (Gnezdivka ali Symphodus cinereus), sitting on it's nest.

I love this brown algae named Forkweed (Ploščata razcepljenka ali Dictyota dichotoma), it has such a delicate pattern.

My snorkelling was rather short and when I came out of water, it was getting colder and waves were rolling into the bay. The weather forecast was strong NE wind, so we thought we just need to wait a bit longer for wind to turn to NE and the waves will stop. Unfortunately it didn't happen, wind stayed E to SE and the rest of the day and also the night was rather rolly.

But next morning was calm and sunny, very suitable for snorkelling. This time the light was much better and I explored the rocky edges of the bay.

The Red-spotted Blenny (Rdečepikast babica or Lipophrys canevae) was a first for me. Looks like this year blennies decided they need to get more coverage in my blog.

I saw several Fan mussel (leščur), and there were also very small ones like this one. When they grow, the spikes around the rim are not as long and pretty. Looks like eye-lashes, doesn't it?

I've seen plenty of Rock gobies (Mrki glavač), but this one put all his feathers on display, so he deserves a photo here.

This is a Red-black triplefin (Rdeči sprehajalček or Tripterygion tripteronotum), Croatian name is especially imaginative - it is Pjevač oštronosič or in translation Sharp-small-nose singer.

This one is a little bit tricky, because the photo was not very good, and unfortunately none of the four or five I made were. But with the details I could figure out on them it might be Zvonimir's blenny (Jelenoroga babica or Parablennius zvonimiri).