Today (Tuesday) the three of us went over to Boca Catalina, and swam south, towards Oranjestad, and the area we call the Wall, rather than north towards the Lighthouse, and Malmok Beach like we usually do. It’s a rather long swim to the Wall, but it was a different swim. We saw a turtle within five minutes of hitting the water, so it seemed a good sign.

There was lots to see, of course, the most unusual being the flying gurnard. It looks like a sand diver, but it has “wings” which it spreads when it wants to take off in a hurry. There were quite a lot of them in this one particular area. It was fun diving down trying to get them to spread their wings so we could get a shot.

We saw an eel, a type we hadn’t seen before. He was rather small, only about a foot, but he had perfectly shaped yellow polka dots on him. We were not able to identify it with our fish bible! I’ve talked of the Wall before, so I won’t bore you with talking of the bait ball, and it’s amazing contortions. There seemed to be a lot more birds today. I guess word is getting out that lunch is plentiful!

There were a number of porcupine fish. We never get tired of checking this guy out. He’s like a balloon under the water, with a big smile. I watched him by these rocks, and he kept his eye on me. The waves kind of push you around a little, and because he’s so buoyant  he gets sloshed about too. As he was watching me, a wave washed in, and it made him crack his head on the rock! First time I’ve ever seen a fish get bonked!

Another interesting fish we got a shot of was the black margate. He’s a pretty shy fish, and we rarely get a decent shot of him, but today he seemed to be more interested in checking us out. Not a bad shot of him…