September snorkelling - part 4

There was still some fresh wind from the NW, so we didn't anchor in bay Stari Trogir as we originally planned, but in front of the beach on the West side across the bay. It was not so pretty as the SE part, but it was much more calm, despite the houses and people on the shore. Captain started a new attempt to fix the electrical cables. This time he was working in engine room and said he didn't need my help, so I went snorkelling around the small rocky island at the entrance of the bay.

The small island is very popular with tourists on SUPs and kayaks and swimmers, so I wasn't sure if it was worth the long swim to get there. But I was really pleasantly surprised.

First I met this Comber (kanjec or Serranus cabrilla), and this is the pose I usually see - him facing me with mean look, as if saying: looking at me?!?!

The island obviously gets a lot of fresh water from the West from open sea, so there was surprisingly lots of life around it. Here are some Red spotted horseshoes (apnenčasti cevkarji or Protula tubularia) in company of young Damselfish or Mediterranean chromis (črnik or Chromis chromis). When Damselfish are young, they really resemble their tropical relatives very much with their very bright neon blue pattern.

The adult ones are relatively dull in comparison, only the shape is the same as with tropical damselfish.

There were really lots of fish, like this pretty Sharpsnout seabream (pic or Diplodus puntazzo)...

...and on the outer West side of the island I found the Mediterranean parrotfish (sredozemska papagajka or Sparisoma cretense). There were two of them, but unfortunately quite far, so all the photos are quite bad. This might be only the second time that I saw them.

And under the rocks I found perhaps the prettiest of hydroids, the Feather hydroids (morska peresca or Aglaophenia).

Also from close up they look so very delicate. I was happy to have found so many different kinds in these couple of days.

The Zvonimir's goby (jelenoroga babica or Parablennius zvonimiri) sat on dark Kidney sponge (ledvičasta spužva or Chondrosia reniformis) and was almost invisible with its own dark colouring.

This Stinker sponge (snopasta hrapavka or Ircinia fasciculata) looks like a monkey face.

This is a Mediterranean rainbow wrasse or Knez (Coris julis).

On my swim back over the sandy part of the bay I saw this Wide-eyed flounders (širokogledi romb or Bothus podas)...

... and in the deeper water there was also the Starry weever (črnoglavi morski zmaj or Drachinus radiatus). I was happy to have found it, I see it very rarely. It is the most poisonous fish in Adriatic. 

Near our boat I saw Bogues (bukve or Boops boops) while they were hunting the Mediterranean sand smelts (veliki gavuni or Atherina hepsetus).

I didn't think I would see so much while snorkelling, the long swim to the small island was definitely worth it.

When I came back to the boat Captain had a huge smile on his face - he has found the root cause of the electrical problems, on the thick cable between the engine and inverter, yay! And he was able to fix it with what he had on the boat, double yay! We were both really really happy. Then we just needed to stow away all the tools and stuff that he was using while repairing. 

After a good dinner we had a calm and good night. In the morning the SE wind has already started, small waves were rolling into the bay, so after the coffee we sailed off. Outside the bay wind was stronger and we had a nice sailing on genoa alone almost all the way to bay Mirina. We decided to stay there over night, since the really bad weather was forecast to start only late next morning, and we could sail to marina very early next morning before it gets really windy and rainy.

So we had a whole afternoon and evening of pretty good weather for swimming and of course for snorkelling.

I snorkelled near the shore a bit further NW than on the week before and the scenery was again a bit different. The Two-banded sea breams (fratrca or Diplodus vulgaris) were not very new and different, but pretty.

Red Tubeworm (pisani pokrovčar or Serpula vermicularis) was strategically placed so that its colour was in stark contrast to the colours of sponges around it.

This is a blue-eyed Striped hermit crab (obročkasti samotarec or Pagurus anachoretus).

And this is a Sulphur boring sponge (rumena vrtalka or Cliona celata). Through the smaller holes, that have a mesh across them, it takes the water in, filters it for food and through the bigger open holes the water is expelled. 

This is the female Red triplefin (Tripterygion tripterinotus or rdeči sprehajalček), very different in colours to the shiny red and black males, but very delicate and almost transparent. And also much more difficult to spot as the colourful males.

I very rarely see the Red Tubeworm (Pisani pokrovčar or Serpula vermicularis) in such muted colours.

The European flat oyster (ostriga or Ostrea edulis) was alive and there is a muscle inside it.

This year I didn't see very many Warty crabs (kosmeji or Eriphia verrucosa) around.

Above the Snakelocks anemone (voščena morska vetrnica or Anemona vidris) there are tiny Mysid shrimps (mizidni rakci or Leptomysis spp.).

And this was the big surprise of the day - an unknown fish with small shiny dots. I found it funny how it swam with the Painted comber (pirka or pisanica or Serranus scriba) as if they were best mates.

I took many photos, as I had no idea what this might be. Searching my books at home I came to a conclusion that it must have been a young Common dentex (zobatec or Dentex dentex). And it was a first sighting for me, even after all this snorkelling!

This is again something well known, a Slime tube worm (peščeni cevkar or Myxicola infundibulum), but it looks even more delicate than usually, so I couldn't resist a photo.

We had a calm night but we were up already at 6 in the morning. We sailed off right away and had a coffee on the way. We were able to motor-sail to the entrance to Šibenik canal, then we were motoring.

On the green marker further in the canal there was obligatory seagull, but we didn't see any turtles nor dolphins.

At 9.30 we were already moored in marina, and just in right time, it started to rain half an hour later. Around the noon we also got very strong wind, that made a lot of noise when it was blowing around the masts and the stays of boats in marina. It was just the right day for boat cleaning.

Next day I drove home and Captain stayed on the boat.