Paine de Sucre

WARNING! This post is again long and contains many many underwater photos. I can't help myself, every time I go snorkeling, which is at least once every day, I shoot 150 - 200 photos. My longest snorkeling trip was 2,5 hours and I shot 330 photos. It is really a hard work to select "only" 30 of them for the post.

Last Thursday George and myself went snorkeling across the Grande anse bay on Terre-de-bas island. Almost the first thing we saw was this Hawksbill Turtle. I'm happy every time I see one, they are much more rare than Green Turtles and are listed as critically endangered.

We saw many pretty things, among them this White Encrusting Zoanthid.

There ware Sea Fans and Sea Plumes everywhere, obviously the water there is really clean.

These two Flamingo Tongs were eating away on a Gorgonian coral.

Fish weren't so plenty, but I saw two big Tarpons.

Next day I was snorkeling around our anchorage at Paine de Sucre. There were several pretty red Boring Urchins.

The Sharknose Goby was sitting at the edge of Giant Barrel Sponge.

This is a Giant Basket Star. It is "folded" into a ball during the day and extends its arms at night and then looks like a giant flower.

The Brown Chromises were feeding on plankton.

This is a Star Encrusting Sponge.

Every time I go snorkeling I see something new, that I haven't seen before. This day it was a Rose Lace Coral. They hide in shady places and under the ledges on the reef, are only up to 12 cm big, and are difficult to spot. Pretty.

I'm still trying to figure out what this is - first I thought it is a Tunicate, but there's nothing really similar in my book. So it might be a sponge. Although there is no sponge that looks like this in my book either.

I saw several Banded Coral Shrimps.

Again one of the "firsts" - this is my first King Helmet. It is a big shell, can grow up to 15 cm.

In the evening we were invited to Wild Cat for drinks and snacks. It was again a very nice evening, we even didn't let the rain spoil it.

On Saturday morning Wild Cat sail by and Jan and George waved us goodbye. They are sailing South to spend the hurricane season in Grenada. Hope to see them again sometime!

We worked at the boat during the day and in the afternoon I was in the water again. I know my snorkeling days in Caribbean are numbered, so I'm making the most of it.

The Yellow Tube Sponges looked gorgeous in afternoon light.

This little guy is a Saddled Blenny, little 4 to 6 cm big fish. The Blennies always look at you with those big eyes when you are approaching. Sweet.

This one is Barred Hamlet, this time in its usual colors.

Doesn't Green Grape algae really looks like grapes?

This is a Yellowhead Wrasse, in company of the Redband Parrotfish.

This one is a Rough Fileclam. It looks like a jewelry box to me.

The duo of sea urchins - above is a West Indian Sea Egg and below a Long-spined Urchin.

And here are the details - the beautiful neon blue pattern between the spines of a Long-spined Urchin ...

... and a lot of small things that look like eyes of West Indian Sea Egg.

This is a Winged Comb Jelly, a relative of a Spot-winged Jelly, that I saw a couple of days before. This one was also difficult to make a photo of.

Don't know why these guys are called Spotted drums. Ok, spotted ... perhaps... They are hiding in shady places so one has to dive and look under the ledges and into small caves to find them. On this day they obviously wanted to have a photo shoot. First there was this adult one ...

... then this "teenager" ...

... then I saw these two "small children" ...

... and then even a baby. Just look how tiny this one is in comparison to urchin spines. One might say they are prettier the younger they are. Well, maybe they get wise with age ...

I have to add one of my favorite quotes: "They say wisdom comes with age. It's not true. Sometimes age comes alone."

Le Saintes underwater treasures

 At Le Saintes there are some of my favorite snorkeling places, including Paine de Sucre, where we're anchored. It is so nice to have the chance to go snorkeling straight from the boat and relax and enjoy in the breaks between boat projects.

I met this Spotted Scorpionfish on my way towards the shore. 

There are many pretty Sea Plumes here, they belong to Gorgonian corals. They are swaying and moving with the waves and actually look too soft for corals.

Christmas Tree worms come in many pretty colors.

These are the Longspine Squirelfish, during the day they mostly hide in shaded areas near bottom and come out at night to feed - that's why their eyes are so big.

This is Bearded Fireworm.

Look at all the bristels and "lace" that decorate this guy.

I like this Goldentail Moray, because of her blue eye makeup and nose. One rarely gets to see the tail, so I don't know if it's really golden.

I thought this turquoise thing was a sponge, but it turned out to be a Tunicate. Not as pretty as the translucent ones I found in Barbuda, but still of nice color.

I liked Warty Corallimorphs since I found the first one at Marie Galante. Now that I know what to look for, I'm finding them more often. These here are of very pretty colors ...

... and this one is my favorite.

A Star Horseshoe Worm.

Don't know why this Chain Moray was hanging down from the coral, hope she wasn't ill or anything. The wound on her back (the whitish spot) seemed already healed though.

This is the Reef Urchin.

I call this a "sponge sandwich". I'm not sure which type of sponges they are, but they look cute together.

This is an Atlantic Oyster.

The Clinging Crab was hiding under the Giant Anemone. To the right there are some Squat Anemone Shrimps ...

... that deserve their own photo.

This is a Slate-pencil Urchin.

And this is a Split-crown Feather Duster.

Hydroids are one of my favorite little animals.

I found the Pederson Cleaner Shrimp near the Corkscrew anemone, where there was also ...

... this Spotted Cleaner Shrimp.

I have had quite some problems to get some decent photos of this fragile translucent beauty - it is a Spot-winged Comb Jelly.

It is 3 to 6 cm big and bioluminescent - its body can produce light.

This is a very dark specimen of Barred Hamlet.

A Yellow Fanworm, a relative of Christmas Tree Worm.

This is a Whitespotted Filefish. It has a spine on its back and sometimes raises it when it's feeling threaten.

And this is its smaller relative - a Slender Filefish. They are small and hide well among algae and corals, so this is only the second time I found one.

Sometimes when I snorkel I hear the whales. I have to dive a bit, 2-3m deep, to hear them well, on the surface there are too many noises from wind, other boats, outside world. Their songs are so beautiful and they actually have a wide repertoire of melodies. I heard some whales singing in Marie Galante and then at Paine de Sucre last Wednesday.

Last Wednesday Jan and George of Wild Cat sailed to Le Saintes. We haven't seen each other since last spring since Classic Regatta in Antigua and were really happy to meet them again. We visited them on Wild Cat that evening, had some great time together and were even watching the whales spraying the water on their way between Le Saintes and Guadeloupe. They could have been the ones I heard singing earlier that day.