More snorkelling

There are two reasons I'm writing this post so soon again. One is, that we're still in Rogoznica, waiting out the bad weather, with plenty of time on our hands. Strong SE wind that we had last couple of days stopped, we had a lots of rain yesterday evening and then again some this morning, and today wind blows from NW. During the day, when it was dry, we managed to row our dinghy to the shore and walked to old village of Rogoznica and had some ice cream and did some shopping. And now rain is starting again, wind also, and we're expecting some stormy winds and serious amounts of rain later this evening. We'll see tomorrow if the weather is suitable to move on.

Other reason is that today is the last day I'm able to use the old interface for Google Blogger, the platform I'm using for this blog. I briefly tried the new interface, but was disappointed as I wasn't able to figure it out immediately, and all the photos were displayed in reverse order. It means that I would need much more time to learn it, but since we don't have free internet any more and I'm trying to limit it's use, I don't know if and when I'l do it. So my next posts will probably take some time to appear.

But with this posts I'm catching up, as it contains the photos I took this past Thursday and Saturday.

On Thursday we sailed to bay Uvala Stari Trogir from Krknjaši in Drvenik and spent the afternoon and a night there. It is really pretty, a nice sandy bay with water of beautiful colour. I couldn't resist going snorkelling, I swam across the bay to the rocky shore on the photo.

The rocks along the shore were full of life. I found this Longstriped blenny or črnoboka babica (Parablennius rouxi) there, as usually peeking out of the hole.

While the rocks were quite overgrown with algae, there were plenty of fish of all kinds there. This is Mediterranean rainbow wrasse or knez (Coris julis).

This is what one usually sees of Comber or kanjec (Serranus cabrilla), he seems annoyed and angry with anyone coming close.

So it's actually quite difficult to take the photo of his body.

There were severals Flounders or morski jeziki (Arnoglossus spp.) there, although not very big.

I'm always so happy when I find this beautiful yellow sponge under some rock, I couldn't find the English name, in Slovene it's mrežasta spužva (Clathrina clathrus).

This is Cushion coral or jadranska kamena korala (Cladocora caespitosa).

And another pretty Red spotted horseshoe or apnenčasti cevkar (Protula tubularia).

Although it is white, this is Red algae, in Slovene named bledi grmiček (Amphiroa rigida).

One more Fan worm, in Slovene oranžni cevkar (Protula intestinum).

I really like tunicates and this is one of the prettiest ones - Red sea squirt or rdeči kozolnjak ali morska breskev (Halocynthia papillosa).

Orange ray sponge or spužva žilavka (Spirastrella cunctatrix) is also of a very bright colour.

I was surprised that this Rusty blenny or babica papagajka (Parablennius sanguinolentus) was posing for me so patiently, usually they are very shy and difficult to photograph.

And another of the Fan worm family - Red tube worm or pisani pokrovčkar (Serpula vermicularis).

I'm not sure if I've seen this one before - it is a Sea squirt, in Slovene named nagubani kozolnjak ali mali svet (Microcosmus spp.). It is named Mali svet or Microcosmus because it is overgrown with all kind of organisms, as a true "small world".

Finally my second octopus of the season, this one was a bit bigger. It really seems as there are less and less of them.

On my way back to the boat across the sandy bay I found some of the usual "sandy bottom" inhabitants - The golden anemone or zlato vetrnico (Condylactis aurantiaca),...

... a tube worm peščeni cevkar (Myxicola infundibulum),...

...and a Greater weever or navadni morski zmaj (Trachinus drago). This one has quite poisonous spine in its back fin and if one steps on it or grips it, the sting is very painful. Sometimes fishermen loose fingers from it, if they are not careful when they clean their fishing nets.

On Friday we sailed to Rogoznica in the middle of the day, the SE wind was picking up and we wanted to be safely tucked in a very deep winded bay by the time the worst comes. Rogoznica is one of the best protected bays for waiting out the bad weather, even if the wind is changing direction, as one can choose the anchorage so that there is not much fetch (open water between shore and the boat, where the wind could make waves) from any sides. First night was relatively calm and on Saturday it was still sunny, although pretty windy. I went snorkelling in the afternoon, to the rocky South shore of the most NE part of the bay. There is this very small chapel on the shore.

There were lots of Snakelocks anemone or voščene morske vetrnice (Anemonia viridis) under the chapel.

I was excited to have found a Sea hare, in Slovene named pikasti morski zajček (Aplysia punctata), which I never saw before.

And finally made a good photo of Green chiton or olivni hiton (Chiton olivaceus). I never really paid much notice to these guys. To the left there are probably two eggs of some other sea creature, but I couldn't figure out whose they could be.

This smiling little guy is a Combtooth blenny, in Slovene named Dalmatinska babica (Lipophrys dalmatinus). Again my first, or I failed to identify him before.

I love the English names for this luminous algae - Oyster thief or Sinuous ballweed, in Slovene it is zmečkana blazinica (Colpomenia sinuosa).

This was definitely a slug day - I found five (yes, 5) of these small colourful creatures. And I even found an English name - it is Hope's Elysia or pisanček (Thuridilla hopei). This was the second one,...

...this the third one, that was in the best place to photograph,...

...and this last one is in the company of two blennies (babic), which are also no more than couple of cm big, just so you get the feeling of it's size. By the way, the slug is the tiny thing in the lower middle part of photo.

While this maybe isn't the most spectacular thing in the sea, I find it interesting none the less - it's Cyanobacterium, in Slovene named mikrokoleus (Microcoleus vaginatus)

Just before returning to the boat I witnessed a small drama - a really huge Tompot blenny or velika babica (Parablennius gattorugine) was trying to hide from me in a crack in the rock, but it quickly swam out again...

...because there was already a Warty crab or kosmaj (Eriphia verrucosa) hiding there and obviously didn't want company (you can see its claw also on the photo above).