Heron: June sailing

Before we left Olib on Sunday, 21st of June, there was still plenty of time for snorkelling. The stable summer weather has started, with high temperatures and the obligatory afternoon Mistral, the W-NW wind. So it made sense to wait till the wind started to blow before sailing South.

Snorkelling in Olib is a great joy for me, I don't think I could ever get tired with it. And the sea has warmed up quite nicely, so I was able stay in water for almost two hours without getting cold.

In the sandy part of the bay, around our boat, I've seen several Golden anemones (zlata vetrnica or Condylactius aurantiaca).

This year I've seen unusually many Gilthead sea breams (orada or Sparus aurata), occasionally they were even following me while I was snorkelling.

At almost all my snorkelling expeditions here I was seeing the sepia ink in the water, but the sepias themselves managed to remain hidden. But this time I finally found one - a Sepia (sipa or Sepia officinalis).

And this is the same one, from different side and after it changed its "outfit", which took only few seconds.

I finally also found another Tentacled blenny (rogata babica or Parablennius tentacularis), this time it wasn't shy at all...

...so I made several nice photos from all sides. Yes!

I like how delicate and pretty the Snakelocks anemones (voščene morske vetrnice or Anemonia viridis) are, swaying in the water with pink lipstick at the ends of its tentacles.

I had to make another photo of Black goby (črni glavač or Gobius niger), this one made such an effort in presenting all its fins.

Here is another Sea snail, the marine gastropod mollusk (priraščeni polž or Vermetus spp.), this time in darker colours.

I noticed several bouquets of Neptune grass (pozejdonka or Posidonia oceanica), some were laying on the sandy bottom as carried there by wind and waves and some were already rooted into the sand. I don't think I was seeing them in previous years. Maybe new area of Neptune grass is emerging?

But I was seeing the Little Neptune grass (kolenčasta cimodeja or Cymodocea nodos) already here before, here it grows in lines. It is supposed to be the pioneering see gras that prepares the bottom for other grasses, also for the endangered Neptune grass.

In the early afternoon it was time to lift the anchor. Wind just started and there was enough of it for nice sailing. On our way we passed this interestingly shaped rocky outcrop (čer), called Hrid Funestrala. I'm sure there must be some good snorkelling around it.

There were more boats on the water than the week before. We decided to sail to bay Brgulje on Molat again, at least there would be plenty of space for anchoring there.

After a calm night with not many neighbours I went snorkelling. We had to wait till afternoon for the wind to sail on anyway. And with the heath wave we were having, the best way to cool down was in the water, as deep as one could go.

I wasn't expecting much, but still saw several pretty sights. I found this Red squirt (rdeči kozolnjak or Halocynthia papillosa).

Don't be fooled by the gentle look of the Brown comber (volkec or Serranus hepatus), it is a ferocious hunter.

I also found several decent sized European flat oysters (ostriga or Ostrea edulis).

This Cylinder anemone (peščena roža or Cerianthus membranaceus) looked much prettier than the one I saw in Olib, at least it had all its arms.

I saw a lot of Date shells (morski datelj or Lithophaga lithopaga), also many empty ones.

Red-mouthed goby (rdečeusti glavač or Gobius cruentatus) was literally posing for me, with all its fins on display.

This Painted comber (pirka or Serranus scriba) tried to confuse me with placing itself head down on the rock edge.

This is how the castle of the Common octopus (hobotnica or Octopus vulgaris) looks like from surface...

...and here is the octopus from up close. Of course I was very thrilled to have found one.

I actually saw one already in Olib, but it disappeared deep in its hole faster than I was able to make a photo.

I also saw this pile of Murex shells (čokati volek or Hexaplex trunculus), maybe they were gathered to mate and make an egg cluster.

And soon I found another octopus castle...

...and here the octopus tried to hide deeper in the hole and even tried to cover itself with the empty shell.

I was over the moon, three octopuses in couple of days! They might be the reason for so many empty Date shells here.

In early afternoon we sailed on. We sailed along the island Ugljan and saw the remains of old fort Sveti Mihovil.

Near to the fish farms we saw some Common bottlenose dolphin or Atlantic bottlenose dolphin (delfine or Tursiops truncatus) again, and two were right next to our boat. But for some reason I wasn't able to make any decent photo, this is the best one, and even here there is only a lighter shadow of a dolphin visible below the two patches of foam.

We wanted to anchor near Ždrelac, where we anchored a week ago, but the NW wind was too strong and the waves too big for this exposed anchorage. So we continued sailing and ended in bay Žinčena on Pašman. It was already quite late and after a dinner and a beer we went to bed.

The night was not very calm, NW wind was blowing long into the night and towards morning the NE wind, burja, took over. Luckily is the anchorage very protected and we had no waves. The bay itself is very pretty, and it wasn't too crowded. But there is no GSM signal there, so we sailed on in the middle of next day.

We sailed to island Žižanj and anchored on the NE side. While there was still strong NW wind in the afternoon and evening, there was not much NE wind forecast for the night. In the evening we had a pretty sunset. And we were alone in the anchorage.

Night was luckily calm, the weather forecast was spot on, as the day before. But every day was hotter than the previous one and we were in the water several times already before noon. Two Grey herons (sive čaplje or Ardea cinerea) flew onto the shore and were probably catching fish...