September snorkelling - part 3

On the west side of the bay there was an old tunnel for submarines or army vessels. It is abandoned now, maybe occasionally used by local fishermen. But every day several boats came into the bay just to take a look at it and then they drove away.

I swam into it a bit, but there was nothing interesting to see or photograph, the walls were concrete and in the water the floor looked like pile of bare scattered broken rocks, as if it was made deeper with dynamite not very long ago. But a bit away from the big entrance was this funny building, built a little bit above the water and it looked as it had no concrete floor just some steel bars above water, so I concluded it must have been a toilette. Unfortunately there must have been a droplet of sea on my lens, so the lower part of the photo is blured.

While I was admiring the toilette I heard a well known chirping and a Common kingfisher (vodomec or Alcedo atthis) flew above my head to the tree in the photo. I tried to make a photo and if you look very closely, there is a small bird just above the lowest left branch near the trunk, but you'll have to take my word for it that it is a kingfisher. This is the best my camera can do at such a distance. We've seen the kingfisher already the evening before, it rested for quite a while on the rock on the shore near our boat, but while we both had a really good look at it with binoculars, it was too far to photograph.

Near our boat I saw a strange fish that I never saw before. It took me lots of reading and googling but now I'm pretty sure it is a young Goldblotch grouper (zlatopegasta kirnja or Epinephelus costae). It is supposedly quite rare in Adriatic, so this must have been my lucky day.

And this is how our keel looked, all surrounded by Annular seabreams (špari or Diplodus annularis). It is very common that there would be some fish around our keel when we are anchored, but I don't remember ever seeing so many.

After a big late breakfast and some reading - by the way, the Book of eels (Evangelij po jeguljah) written by Patrik Svensson is really very interesting - I was ready for round two.

This time I went snorkelling to the SE side of the bay again, where the afternoon light was better. I saw some Blood-red tubeworms (oranžne cevkarje or Protula intestinum) again.

This Painted comber (Pirka in Slovene) was displaying its shiny belly. I still don't know if this was ment to scare me off or it has some other meaning - maybe it is mating behaviour.

This time I found even prettier and more vibrantly coloured Orange puffball sponge (morska pomaranča or Tethya citrina). Yay!

This is a Pointed-snout wrasse (dolgoustka or Symphodus rostratus), and if you look at its face, it is evident that it has a very appropriate name.

Couldn't resist some more of Red tube worms (pisani pokrovčkar or Serpula vermicularis) in company of Boring sponge (spužva vrtalka or Cliona spp).

I've seen the Fireworms (ognjeni črv or Hermodice carunculata) on both days in Smrka, but still they are not very abundant. They look very much like their Caribbean relatives.

Usually they are half hidden under some rock, I rarely get to see them whole.

And here are some more Red seasquirts (rdeči kozolnjaki ali morska breskev or Halocynthia papillosa), this time in red and gold colours, and I understand now where the Slovene name sea peach comes from.

And this one earned it's appearance in this post because of its pretty little moustache around its openings.

The Cardinal fish (morski kraljiček or Apogon imberbis) looks very much like its Caribbean relatives. It looks as if these two are kissing, how cute!

I found another Black scorpionfish (škarpoč or Scorpaena porcus), this one was tucked under a rock so a bit of his snout is missing from the photo.

In the evening we cooked the quids we bought from the fisherman in Veli Drvenik for dinner - I made a black risotto form the tentacles and the inner parts and the ink and Tomaz grilled the rest of them. It was soooo delicious! Fresh grilled Adriatic squids have lovely sweet flavour and the risotto was surely one of the best we've ever had.

In the evening more boats came into the bay, luckily they were not too noisy. But we knew the peaceful time is over, the charter boats were on the loose again. 

Early the next morning, even before the coffee, we sailed off. The weather was already turning, it was not so sunny any more. We sailed to island Čiovo and anchored between S shore of Čiovo and small island of Sveta Fumija in early afternoon. We were lucky, there were no party boats around and it was quite calm and quiet. 

Captain decided we've bee lazying and having fun for too long and it is time for projects. This time he tackled the electrical cables, that were causing us a headache for some time now. The cables are of course tucked away in least accessible places so Captain had to crawl in and out of all the lockers and I helped with pulling or pushing the cables. We checked quite a lot of them but couldn't find any faults. So this project will have to continue.

In the afternoon the NW wind got stronger and chillier and in the evening we got a stunning sunset. 

It also got a bit rolly, as you can see in photo, but as long as Heron was turned into the wind, it was not uncomfortable. 

The other side of the anchorage got pink and the water turquoise. 

Luckily in the night wind died and waves as well and we slept very well. In the morning it was all calm and pretty, with clear turquoise water...

...and pretty views.

But the weather was turning, there was strong SE wind and some stormy weather forecast for next couple of days and after the morning coffee we sailed back towards NW.