September snorkelling - part 1

I was thinking of naming this post September sailing, but honestly, it is much more about snorkelling than sailing. I drove to Skradin on September the 1st and already in the afternoon we sailed to bay Mirina some 3 hours away from marina. It was just the two of us on board.

First night was calm and we woke to a sunny morning. Weather forecast was not good, the South wind jugo has already started to blow and as always it was bringing some rain with it. Mirina is well protected for such a weather, so we decided to stay one more night and I made good use of nice weather while it lasted and went snorkelling.

Snorkelling was surprisingly good. This beauty could be a Five-spotted wrasse  (kosirica or Symphodus roissali).

I had to take a photo of this Mediterranean fanworm (spalancanijev cevkar or Sabella spallanzani), as I am reading The book of Eels (Evangelij po jeguljah) that mentions the biologist Spallanzani several times.

I'm still not sure which clam this is, maybe I need some more books about underwater creatures.

Here the red Bryozoan (rdeči skorjevec or Schizobrachiella sanguinea) has encrusted some algae.

On another such bryozoan encrusted algae I noticed some branches at the top, like a funny hair, that at the closer look...

...turned out to be Hydroid (trdoživnjaki) with tiny polyps on branches. I don't think I've seen this kind before.

The highlight of this day was a Common cuttlefish (navadna sipa or Sepia officinalis), that changed its colours from almost white through several grey patterns...

...to almost black. How can such a master of disgiuse be called common?

 I saw plenty of Hope's elysias (pisančkov or Thuridilla hopei) in the area.

 This is Bucchich's goby (pikasti glavač or Gobius bucchichii).

 And this might be a Grey wrasse (gnezdivka or Symphodus cinereus).

I'm not sure which algae this is, but it looked funny floating around with waves and current.

In the afternoon it got cloudy and we even got some rain, but it all looked rather harmless. Until 1 in the night. Then the strong wind from West started and the boat started to dance around the anchor. Of course we were up instantly and saw that other boats also had lights on and people on decks. Two boats were dragging anchors and I got very nervous when they motored by our boat way too close for 50 knots of wind. I don't understand why people don't stay away from other boats, especially when there is so much space as in Mirina. After an hour heavy rain started and wind started to slow down, and after seeing that both problematic boats have moved deep into the bay, a good distance away from us, we went back to bed.

Next morning wind already turned to NW and we sailed off to South. There was enough wind for good sailing and in the afternoon we anchored in bay Solinska on island Veli Drvenik. After the day-trip boats left it was just us and one other sailboat in the bay, which made me very happy. Unfortunately the night was not very calm, after the NW wind died, the rest of the waves of SE wind from the day before somehow found the way into the bay and it was quite rolly. Oh, well...

Next morning was sunny and as we were drinking coffee the local fisherman in his boat motored by and offered some squids and small fish and we bought a bit of both.

As soon as the sun was high enough I went snorkelling. And it was again better than expected. Under a rock I found these two gorgeous Red tube worms (pisana pokrovčarja or Serpula vermicularis).

And not far away was also this Red-black triplefin (rdeči sprehajalček or Tripterygion tripteronotus or pjevčić oštronosić (HR) or peperonccino (I)), with all his poetic names. This is a male in his bright mating colours.

I liked this white and red composition - the Red-spotted horseshoe (apnenčasti cevkar or Protula tubularia) and Red starfish (ognjenordeča zvezda or Echinaster sepositus).

Already on my second snorkelling I found a second type of Hydroids (zadružni trdoživnjaki or Sertularella sp.)

Here is more detailed photo where the tiny polyps are visible. They branch straight from stems, but in very geometric manner, while the ones from day before were attached to small branches attached to the stems, but also very geometrically.

I saw the Purplestriped jelly (mesečinka or Pelagis noctiluca) on my way back to the boat and I wasn't very happy. It is most annoying jellyfish in Mediterranean and it stings quite badly, as I already experienced a few years ago in Ibiza. And as you can see it has quite long tentacles, luckily I noticed it early enough to stay well away. But as it later turned out, this was luckily the only one we saw. 

In the middle of the day we sailed on to NE side of island Šolta to bay Kasjun, we were hoping that on that side we would be protected from waves from both SE and NW that we were having past days. But surprise surprise - here the waves were coming from NE directly into the bay. They were not big and I was really hoping that they will calm down at night, so we will not have a third bad night in a row.

In the evening we ate fried small fish we bought from the fisherman that morning and they were really good. Luckily the wind and the sea calmed down in the night and we finally slept well.

Next morning I went snorkelling again. I snorkelled here before and it was rather good so I had high expectations. But this time it was not so great, maybe because the waves started to roll into the bay again and made taking photos difficult or because of all the anchored boats in the bay that I had to swim around and annoyed me too much. But I saw this pretty Pink segmented algae (janija or Jania spp.)...

 ...and lots of sponges (roženjača or Cacospongia sp.) like this one.

The highlight of this photo is the Blue sponge (modra spužva or Terpios fugax) on the right and the nice contrast it makes to red Bryozoan (rdeči skorjevec or Schizobrachiella sanguinea) in the middle.

But I was quite happy to se the Great tooth hydroids (Zadružni trdoživnjaki or Sertularella), again a different kind than the days before.

Here you can see the tiny polyps, but not so organised as with previous kinds, here the polyp tentacles are just growing from the ends of the tiny branches.

I also saw this Red-black triplefin (rdeči sprehajalček or Tripterygion tripteronotus), probably a male in non-mating colours.

A very pretty underwater scenery - at  the bottom is a Kidney sponge (ledvičasta spužva or Chondrosia reniformis) and above a mixture of algae - on the right in the middle is the shining brown algae Forked ribbons (ploščata razcepljenka or Dictyota dichotoma), above it is red algae (topovejnata lavrencija or Laurencia obtusa) and the bright green "grass" is green algae (pedobezija or Pedobesia lamourouxii).

I liked these fluffy looking small white bushes, but I couldn't find the name of the algae, it might be the Rdeča viličasta alga (Scinaia furcellata) - but the orange branches belong again to red algae (topovejnata lavrencija or Laurencia obtusa).

 

Summer sailing part 2

Night near Vela skala was really peaceful and there were just two more sailboat around, but not very near. Very stable weather like we were having for couple of days made it possible to anchor in such not very well protected anchorage. Next morning we sailed towards the Kornati islands...

...and through Proversa vela to outer side of Kornati.

On the way we saw a dolphin, but for just a few moments. There was just enough wind for nice sailing SE.

Then we sailed to Murter and anchored in the bay Vršak for the night.  The rest of the crew went to town Murter after dinner and I stayed on the boat, swam and admired the sunset.

Next morning we sailed N again and made first stop for swimming near island Murvenjak. It is a pretty place, but quite popular and there was plenty of motor boats already there. I went snorkelling, of course. It was not too exciting, but I found this empty shell of Helmet shell (grbasti čeladnik or Galeodea echinophora)...

... and a Longstriped blenny (črnoboka babica or Parablennius rouxi).

In early afternoon we sailed to bay Triluke on S side of island Pašman. We were almost alone there and had a nice afternoon swimming and lazying, and a nice BBQ in the evening. But just as we were finishing our dinner, hordes of sailboats started to sail into the bay. It was Saturday and they probably just got their boats from charter companies and they sailed to first suitable bay. After the second one anchored less than 30m from us, I had enough and suggested that we move. Crew was not too happy, but went along and we moved just a mile away to S side of small island of Žižanj. Luckily no one followed and we were alone there. We were lucky that the weather was still so calm that we could literally anchor anywhere where it wasn't too deep.

Next morning, as we were drinking coffee, we watched couple of dolphins performing a real show of synchronous jumping, it was magical. But it was unfortunately too far for taking photos. Alone for this it was worth it that we moved to this anchorage last evening.  

The stable weather and calm nights were slowly ending, wind was turning to SE and there were some storms forecast for next morning. We decided to sail to island Žut and anchor in bay Strunac. There are several buoys there that are owned by restaurant Bain and all were taken. There were two other boats anchored in the bay beside us. 

Afternoon was still sunny and hot, and I went snorkelling again. It was surprisingly nice and I found plenty of interesting and pretty things, like this bright red Encrusting bryozoan (rdeči skorjevec or Schizobrachiella sanguinea)...

... and the Tube anemone (peščena roža or Cerianthus membranaceus) that was almost hidden in its tube.

This was my big find, it is many years since I last saw this beauty - it is a Black-faced Blenny (rumeni sprehajalček or Tripterygion delaisi), close relative to Red-black tripplefin (rdeči sprehajalček or Tripterygion tripteronotus). Unfortunatelly it wasn't patient and quickly hid under the rock and I wasn't able to take better photo.

The deeper part of the bay was sandy and there I found the Golden anemone (zlata vetrnica or Condylactius aurantiaca).

In sand there were also the two Peacock worms  (pahljačasta cevkarja or Sabella pavonia).

Next photos were taken in shallower water where it was mainly rocky, there I found this sad-looking Zvonimir's blenny (jelenoroga babica or Parablennius zvonimiri) with big Parasitic Isopode (ribja uš or Anilocra physodes) at it's back.

I really like this photo, I don't often find the Common prawns (žagaste kozice or Palaemon serratus) posing so patiently.

When one looks down to the bottom from the surface, this often looks like a black sea urchin (morski ježek), but when one gets closer it is obvious that it is a delicate Sand fanworm (peščeni cevkar or Myxicola infundibulum). I am pretty happy when I manage a photo where the small "hair" on the tentacles are visible...

...also as with this Red spotted horseshoe (apnenčasti cevkar or Protula tubularia).

I'm in a bit of the dilemma about this one, it could be Red boring sponge (rdeča vrtalka or Cliona viridis).

This Slender goby (peščeni glavač or Gobius geniporus) greeted me with all his back fins raised.

This is not a two-headed Gilthead sea bream (orada or Sparus aurata), there is a Two-banded sea bream (fratrc or Diplodus vulgaris) just behind it.

In the evening the sky on the West got yellow instead of usual red and this was also the sign of the bad weather that was coming. 

The night was still rather calm, for what we were very grateful, but the wind has already turned and in the morning it was getting stronger and stronger, as forecast. On every boat crews were out on the deck, observing the situation, and several boats on buoys were running their engines. It is a smart move, there is little space between the buoys and if one notices, that the buoy doesn't hold, there is very little time to start the engine and try to get away from other boats and the shore. At around 10 it started to rain and then the really strong West wind came, between 40 and 50 knots. After two minutes we all saw that the buoys were ok, anchors were holding and we just waited for bad weather to move on. 

At one moment we heard a loud noise - even through the storm - of flapping sails, and saw a sailboat that was sailing with full sails, genoa and main, into the bay some 500m away, directly into the wind. I couldn't believe that they had full sails out and that the noise was stronger than storm and I was thinking: get the sails down, get the sails down. Couple of moments later the boat turned more sideways to the wind and wind pushed so that it heeled almost to the water, then it straightened up and turned into the wind again, but still nothing was happening with the sails. And some time later we saw a big tear in main first, and after a while also in genoa. Why would anyone want to sail into the storm with full sails, is beyond my logic. 

In an hour the storm moved on. We stayed for a while longer and had a big late breakfast, and in the middle of the day sailed on. There was similar weather forecast for the next night and morning, so we sailed to Murter again and anchored in bay behind Arta Vela, where we were protected from all sides where the strong wind and waves could come. It was really pretty and we enjoyed the sunny afternoon and evening.

Next morning we had some rain and a bit of wind but nothing like the day before.

We decided to sail to marina that day, there was lots of rain forecast for next night and then very strong NE wind, Burja. On the way we stopped on NE side of island Prvič for swimming and then sailed into Skradin.

Next morning the rain was already over, it was quite windy and colder, so it was a perfect weather for a stroll through the town and up to the fortress...

...with it's lovely view over marina.

After a delicious Skradin cake and a coffee we returned to the boat, packed up and I returned home with our friends and Captain stayed on the boat.