Snorkeling at Padang Bai- Sun Sep 21

Our first snorkeling trip in the Indian Ocean. Wow!  Except for the issues about changing before and after, this was great. Even my rental snorkel mask didn't leak. The boat was a traditional fisherman's catamaran. They put a small motor on the back and the guide, the man at the motor and the two of us filled the thing. Very narrow but deep top to bottom.

Off we go. There were a lot of clouds but there was still plenty of sun to see in the water.

We saw so many types of fish. Here are just a few I could remember:
pinktail triggerfish, white spot damsel, bird wrasse, naso type tang (not sure which species), hepatus tang, lined or clown tang, saddle butterflyfish (Chaetodon ephippium), solderfish, bluestriped grunt, needlefish , Moorish idol, even a small stingray or skate.  Here's a couple of the fish we did see.

Not our photo

Not our photo

The coral was in pretty good shape as well, and it was mostly stony corals including some brightly colored purple and bright green ones. We also encountered what was probably larvae of the thimble jellies. I could feel stinging on my arms constantly and I could hear a faint crackling each time I felt the stinging. Was I hearing the nematocysts firing? I doubt it, but I definitely heard something. Brad didn't get stung. The guide just had a couple of stings. My mask, though it didn't leak was pretty badly scratched and caused everything to be slightly blurry so I couldn't see the larvae in the water. Brad said he could see something. Anyway, when I got out of the water I had little red marks on my arms. Within 30 to 60 minutes the marks had faded. I never had any itching so no big deal.

This trip was the last for our underwater camera. The guide dived down to take a picture of us from below and he either exceeded the limit of 16 feet or he hit the door latch or something.

 Shortly after this shot was taken, the camera quit working. We later opened it and there was a little water just inside the o-ring gasket so it probably got far enough inside to fry the camera. I put it in rice for 2 days but the camera still won't work. The SD card was still fine, however.

Here's a little anemonefish nestled in his or her very own anemone.