Snorkeling in Watson’s Bay

We headed over to the beach a little before 13:00 (1:00 pm). Everyone was gathered around a small picnic table under a tree on the beach. There were about 16 people there, all Australian retirees. We listened to the horse race on the radio, then hung out and chatted with everyone for a couple more hours. Everyone was really nice. Politics was at the forefront of everyone’s mind since there is an election coming up in a couple of weeks. In Australia, voting is mandatory, and it seems like more Aussies pay attention to what is going on in local and federal government than Americans do. Everyone was eager to talk American politics with us. We were surprised at how knowledgeable they are at what is going on in the U.S. We would say they are just as aware, or maybe even more so, of the happenings in American government as most Americans.

We asked about going diving at the infamous Cod Hole. It turns out that another couple, Jan and Eric, was already going there with the SCUBA instructor to do the last two dives for their certification. Several other people wanted to go to Cod Hole, too. The Australian government does not allow anchoring near certain reefs. There are moorings at these reefs, but if the moorings are full, you are out of luck. There are only four moorings at Cod Hole, so we decided the best plan would be to all go together. Kosmos was the logical choice, since we have the dive compressor.

One of the cruisers mentioned that since it was slack tide (meaning the current had slowed down) now would be the ideal time to go snorkeling in the reef located smack dab in the middle of the anchorage. We took her advice and suited up and went out for a snorkel. It was a really neat site. The water clarity wasn’t fabulous, but it was good enough to see everything below us well. It just hampered the pictures from being really clear.

There is a wide range of coral packed into a small area. There are at least 10 types of hard and soft corals in the first picture. As you can see, the coral wasn’t especially colorful. The light colored ones are called mushroom leather coral. If you look closely, you can see there are some darker colored varieties of the same thing. What makes them darker is they have a tiny flower like plant growing all over them, kind of reminiscent of the fuzzy facial hair boys get as they hit puberty. To the left of the leathery mushroom coral in the foreground is fire coral, probably named because those are the shapes you make when you try to draw a picture of a fire, not it’s color. There are tons more, but since they are all the same color it is hard to tell them apart in the picture. The fish in the foreground are butterfly fish and the dark spots that look like dog droppings are actually regular clams. Here there are very few neon lipped clams like we saw in French Polynesia.

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What makes this such a memorable spot is that it is loaded with giant clams. We have seen big clams before, but these win the biggest we have seen yet prize. The giant clams were everywhere, along with clams of all other sizes, too.

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There were a good amount of fish, too, but most were tiny. We saw two kinds of rabbitfish, which are bright yellow and resemble angelfish, little black and silver striped scissor tail sergeant fish that we see everywhere, puffer fish, parrotfish, and damsels. Here is a picture of a parrotfish, though you can’t see the colors all that well.

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After snorkeling, we went back to Kosmos, watched a movie, and crashed early. We were both exhausted from the passage.

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