We had a good two weeks off and got a chance to do some things we often don’t make time to do – kayaking, snorkeling and just plain relaxing. I also managed to get strep the last couple days so I slowed down enough to — drum roll — paint my toenails. I’m feeling nearly 100% better after 24 hrs of antibiotics, and am almost back to my old self, probably to Dave’s chagrin.

The little fish above is a goby (I’m pretty sure) that I spotted at Shark’s Cove. While there are many varieties of goby, they are rarely seen by snorkelers, and apparently there aren’t too many photographs of them. After quite a bit of searching to find this particular guy on the web, I ended up settling for this photo that I took because I couldn’t find any. This little fish darts in and out of holes in the coral. It’s about the size of your thumb and is SO cute! On this most recent visit to Shark’s Cove, I decided to snorkel around the shallow tide pools to see if the fish were any different (or even present). What I found was surprising – the fish were fairly abundant toward the ocean side of the pools where the water was deepest (maybe 10′-15′?) and they seemed fatter and friendlier, coming within inches without any concern. I found a wrasse feeding on a sea urchin, and as I snorkeled through a narrow channel area I was very surprised to see in my peripheral vision two VERY LARGE bluespine unicornfish! They were just checking me out, kind-of leaning on a slant to get a better look at me. They seemed to come totally out of nowhere because the water was literally about as deep as they are tall – they grow to 30″ long and about 24″ high. The water was probably 3′ deep where I was. I shot out of there pretty quickly – I got a little spooked with such big fish in a small confined area. The name of the place is, after all, Shark’s Cove! (Truthfully, it is very unlikely that a shark would be back there, but the fish were a little bigger than I was comfortable hanging out with.)

I hope to post all our August pictures over the next couple days before Sammy and I head out on “deployment” to the northeast. It will be fun to turn the tables on Dave and have him miss us, rattling around in an empty house. Poor guy. Maybe he’ll make a banner and hang balloons when we return?