August sailing - part 2

The night in bay Pržine on Molat unfortunately wasn't as calm as the evening, but it wasn't too bad. But in the morning the bay looked really pretty. Around the noon I went snorkelling. I found this pretty Red-black tripplefin (rdeči sprehajalček or Tripterygion tripteronotus) there...

...and the wrinkled Beadlet anemone (rdeča morska vetrnica or konjska vetrnica or Actinia equina).

I noticed the Mediterranean shag (vranjek or Gulosus aristotelis) watching me, but it flew away when I tried to come close.

A little after noon we sailed on in direction South. In late afternoon we anchored in bay on the North side of Tisno on Murter. There was a regatta of traditional Latin-rigged sailboats there during the day, but we were probably too late as not much was happening there when we arrived. Bu we still had a nice evening and a quiet night. 

Next day I went snorkelling, I snorkelled there already several times in past years and it was surprisingly good and I was curious to see how it was now. 

And it wasn't great, there was a really low tide so I had to suck my tummy in all the time to get close to the rocks, and the water was very murky and full of plankton, as you can see in the photo below. Still I found some interesting things, there were lots of Mediterranean mussels (klapavica or Mytilus galloprovincialis) there...

...and also European flat oysters (ostriga or Ostrea edilus).

I was happy to have found another Tentacled blenny (rogata babica or Parablennius tentacularis). Although it looks a bit sad with its bent tentacles.

And this was my first this year, it is an Adriatic blenny (Dalmatinska babica or Lipophrys adriaticus).

There were surprisingly many European seabasses (brancin or Dicentrarchus labrax) around and they weren't shy at all.

And here is one more Red spotted horseshoe (apnenčasti cevkar or Protula tubularia).

I'm sure that in better visibility snorkelling here would have been really good.

In early afternoon we sailed on. In front of town Betina we saw these small sailboats, they reminded me of small ducklings swimming behind their mom.

The small islands around Murter are so very pretty and the water clear and blue.

On the way to the bay Mirina we stopped at a little island of Dupinič Mali (in translation small little dolphin, small relates to the size of the island, little dolphin is the name; next to it there is also a big little dolphin). The island is really small and offers very little protection from waves, but it was ok for a short stop and a swim. And of course snorkelling for me.

First exciting thing I found was this tunicate, it could be the Fruit sea squirt (jabolčni kozolnjak or Polycarpa pomaria). I don't think I have seen it before.

This colourful fish is the Axilliary wrasse (mediteranka or Symphodus mediterraneus), also something I don't see very often.

I just had to take a photo of this pretty Tompot blenny (velika babica or Parablennius gattorugine).

Next are two sponges - the pretty blue thing is probably a Bluish Encrusting Sponge (modra skorjevka or Phorbas tenacior). 

For this one I'm still not sure and am still searching...

This is a Red encrusting bryozoan (mahovnjak rdeči skorjevec or Schizobrachiella sanguinea).

And this was one of the most exciting finds on this trip - although I wasn't able to photograph the head of this fish, I'm pretty sure it is a Forkbeard (mrka tabinja or Phycis phycis). No other fish has fins like this and is coloured this way. And I was very happy to have discovered something new after sooooo much snorkelling. 

I was surprised how few of Hope's Elysias (pisanček or Thurdilla hopei) I found this year. But this one made a very good appearance.

What a pretty sight - a Black-headed blenny (črnoglava babica or Lipophrys nigriceps) is sitting on Yellow Clathrina (mrežasta spužva or Clathrina clathrus).

And just because it is so pretty, here is a close-up.... I love the structure of the yellow sponge, it looks like tangled strands of yarn.

Snorkelling here was amazing, probably due to open water all around and no people or anchored boats very near. Next time I will try to explore the outer side of island as well.

After the stop we sailed on to bay Mirina. Some bad weather with storms and SE wind was forecast for the night and next day, so we picked this well protected anchorage for the night. Most of the night was still very calm, but first rain already came at day break. We just needed to close some hatches, it would be too hot to have them closed all night, but everything else was already stowed away and prepared for bad weather, as it usually is. 

After a long breakfast the rain almost stopped, so it was time for snorkelling. The light wasn't ideal for photographing, but my camera can manage low light pretty well.

This is probably a Slime tube worm (peščeni cevkar or Myxicola infundibulum), juts a very pale one.

I assume this is a cyanobacteria, in Slovene it is called Nihajka (Oscillatoria spp.) I see it many times, usually it looks like a shaggy carpet on the rocks or algae, but this one built a whole structure, even with branches. It took my quite a while to figure this one out (hopefully), this thing is obviously not very frequently photographed.

And here is another pretty Red tube worm (pisani pokrovčkar or Serpula vermicularis).

This is probably Five-spotted wrasse (kosirica or Symphodus roissali).

I was not able to determine which this clam is, but it looks like a mouth with teeth. It could easily perform in Muppet show.

This is almost certainly the Stinker sponge (snopasta hrapavka or Ircinia fasciculata).

After a mostly cloudy and rainy day we sailed to the island Prvič in the evening, we wanted to be closer to the marina.

Next morning, after a swim, we sailed into Skradin marina. Last hours were spent on packing and cleaning, there is always so much to do before we can leave the boat. And it was really hot again, which didn't make work any easier, even the Mediterranean shag (vranjek or Gulosus aristotelis) in the shallowest part of the marina was panting.

And in the middle of the day we all drove home.