Continuing on the subject of Bartola and no one having ever seen her eat gecko,  no one has seen her eat a mouse either, however she directs an exercise program that would keep any living creature slim.  Watching her play with that mouse was just like watching some other cat play with a chew toy, only this one participated. After I arrived home and took this picture, she turned her back on the mouse to nonchalantly bite a flea, and let the grateful, dazed mouse escape. She followed me up to my place to eat a dab of sour cream and a bit of smoked turkey. I guess she's just an hors d'oeuvre kind of cat.

I mentioned that I get my SCUBA tank filled at a compressed air plant on 30th. The plant owner has an estate on the oceanfront located on my way to the Southern beach clubs. Across the road from his place he has the islands only boatyard with a 'Travelift'. This is where last years 'shipwreck' was repaired (click -Here- to view). He parks the travel lift in a hurricane proof concrete 'hanger' with his powered catamaran. Here is the first time I've ever seen the Cat afloat. It was just pulling in from a cruise as I rode by.

There is an Einstein T'shirt I've admired since last year but never seen for sale. One of the AA's had this one on, a couple nights ago, and I at least got a picture of it. Now to try to find the shop he described.

I got in the water yesterday and the day was excellent; sunny and almost no wind. I like the sunshine for the colors underwater and the wind controls the wave size which effects water clarity. According to the Harbormaster the tides are unpredictable along the coast and they have quite an effect on the current. Yesterday afternoon, early, the current was running pretty good so I had to really struggle to circle around and take pictures of some of the things I was 'flying' over. Here are a few:

This is more common than you'd expect; it's a Sponge Brittle Starfish in a Pink Vase Sponge. I thought I was taking a flash picture of just a pretty sponge and discovered the starfish after I downloaded the camera and got to see a larger view of the picture

Next are 3 fish in a group. Starting from the left we see a Cottonwick. It's silver with a black stripe down its side like a 55 Buick. The large fish in the center is a Stoplight Parrotfish  (terminal phase, older male). The staff Naturalist at 'Blue Angel', Kari, says that all Stoplight Parrotfish start life as females and live in 'Harems'. Should the male dissapper [go out for a pack of cigarettes and never come back  =)  ] then the largest female will take command and transition into a male. I think the same story is true for this Yellow Headed Wrasse (initial phase, adult female) on the right.

I wish I could somehow show you the true iridescence of the blue on this Queen Triggerfish, it appears electric.

I really like the light patterns in shallow water, it just dances.

>>-->  Scroll right to view, nothing special, just another seascape, ~15 feet deep.   =)             >>-->

A pal of mine and his wife in Minneapolis are divers and he jokingly asks me to bring back a Sea Fan Coral 'next trip'. The corals are fragile and smell bad so that's not likely to happen, however, I think of my pals everytime I find a nice one on a dive. . . . . .like below.
That's a grunt in the forground and note the anemones [an-enemy] on the right. The Fan appears brown because of all the algae it has collected.

And this big DOUBLE Sea Fan in it's natural color.

This is a 'soft coral, named 'finger coral'.

Below is a cloud of grunts and some Cottonwick in front of a patch of Lettuce Coral.

More grunts and a Sergent Major

Returning home I was taking down my washing from the clothesline and remembered that I had wanted to shown you what Mexican clothespins look like. They don't use clothespins much here. They push a corner of the wash through the lay of the clothes line, like this:

 

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