Snorkel day

Jordan's son and our new daughter-in-law (Aaron and Dee) arrived today! We were very surprised to see how much luggage they had come with as usually they are both very light travellers, but they were not sure what to expect in Indonesia so brought a bit of everything for attire. Reminded us of when my daughter and her fiancé (now husband) visited us in New Zealand and brought heaps of luggage - tough to find a place to put so much stuff on a small boat!

Once all settled, we untied from the mooring ball at Labuanbajo (Indonesia) and set sail to a small island called Bidadari (S08°28.998' E119°50.406') so we could all snorkel to cool off from the hot sun. We found a lovely spot with lots of good coral - both soft and hard varieties, many varieties of colourful fish including angel fish and clown fish, blue starfish, blue lipped clams that closed up when we got too close, and even a few small lobsters.

All underwater photos are courtesy of Aaron and Dee as once again we are without an underwater camera. (Our GoPro finally bit the dust after its unfortunate excursion into saltwater with an open casing.)

Feather stars swaying

Soft coral waving (in front)

Bright fish swimming

We also saw a blue spotted stingray which was a first for all of us. It moved very quickly along the bottom of the seabed.

Jellyfish are capable of movement but largely are at the mercy of currents and tides. We saw several small pink jellyfish which felt quite weird to hold. But then this very unusual lacy jellyfish appeared. Its appearance was quite stunning.

This unusual creature reminded Jordan and I of the exquisite sea dragons we saw at the Monterey Aquarium (USA) when we were there a few years ago (see November 2009 blog posting entitled At Monterey Bay for a photo of the sea dragon).

After only 2 hours of snorkelling, but feeling very happy with what we had seen, we headed back to Labuanbajo to tie up for the night.