Oh, wow! Sea Snake City

We forgot to mention yesterday that the rugged limestone shoreline (ancient raised coral reef) around all of the islands at Gadji had chitons everywhere. OH WOW, CHITON CITY! We have seen maybe a couple total during the last two years and here were hundreds or thousands. One of the interesting things of exploring is the uneven distribution of all types of creatures. That way, there is always something interesting to see and admire. We ended the day by taking photos of the "Green Flash" as the sun disappeared below the horizon.

Our trip from Gadji to Ilot Ndo challenged us with narrow passages through surrounding reefs, coral reefs needing avoidance and current pushing us one way then the other. We were rewarded with an island of our own, no signs of humans and multiple shades of turquoise water. There were lots of ospreys, brown noddies, black noddies, silver gulls and the usual tweety birds. After taking this all in from Sunrise, we were shocked to hear a helicopter approaching and were stunned when it landed and 3 people emerged. Barry says I should not use the Kiwi term "whop whops" to describe our location because then see what happens - Whop! Whop! Whop! Here comes a helicopter! He also is guessing that the term might have come from the fact that you need a helicopter whop, whop, whopping to get to such a remote location.

We walked completely around the island, observing, photographing and oohing and aahing. In the process, we saw innumerable tracks in the sand where snakes had crawled from the sea to the land or back. And then we saw a sea snake on the land. And another. And another. It was "OH WOW, Snake City! Eventually, we counted 14 sea snakes crawling on the land and beach. We don't know why there are so many on land and we haven't seen a one in the water - well, one. Perhaps they are there to lay their eggs. Maybe you could google and let us know. We also found 2 broken Chambered Nautilus shells and some turtles while on Sunrise.

This afternoon we snorkeled one of the best reefs ever. There was a 30' drop off, healthy hard and soft coral and beau coup de fish and other critters. The water temperature is a bit cold even when wearing our spring wet suits. I,Lynne, have the same O'Neill wetsuit I've had for the last 25 years and, despite lots of use, it is still in great shape. Also, my preferred mask is still the 25 year old Sherwood. We saw a shark, a number of giant clams (including a monster, 14 inches wide with a bright purple mantle one, a first), a huge Crown-of-Thorns seastar, and some really big Napoleans and groupers. There were some large violet sea urchins with very long, thin spines and bright turquoise markings on the shell. There were red sea urchins with long fat spines the diameter of your little finger and nobby red shells. There was also a most unusual sea urchin with very long, thin white spines interspersed with shorter brown spines the diameter of a needle. Nearing the end of our snorkel, I commented to Lynne that there were absolutely no mollusks other than the giant clams. Swimming back to the dinghy across the shallow sandy top of the reef, there were the mollusks, both alive and empty shells. There were at least 10 different types. One was a beautiful miter about 2 ½ inches long with a clean, colorful exterior. Since it was alive, we put it back.

The last few days, we have been in the middle of a high pressure zone, so there is very clear air and no or just a few clouds. That means that we have been able to see the "Green Flash" every night. By setting the camera to take pictures two stops under-exposed, the "Green Flash" photographs nicely. But when we have used the same camera to take a video, the exposure setting is normal and the green color washes out and hardly shows.

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S&S

Ilot Ndo. Paradise!

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All Things Bright and Beautiful Under Water

We had glorious snorkeling on the outside drop-off of the reef. From Barry: We tied up the dinghy on the lee side of a small island and swam around the island and over the reef to the outside. The coral kept getting better and better the farther we got to the outside of the reef. However, the incoming current and swells made the swimming more challenging. There were a few beautiful clams, including a giant and an all-black one. The water was very clear, providing outstanding visibility. On the outside, the reef just disappeared from sight, going straight down. There were a great many different species of hard corals and a little bit of soft coral. There were a great many fish on the edge of the reef. A considerable number were over 2 feet long. One of the drawbacks of New Caledonia is that there is a lot of ciguatera toxin in the reef fishes. Therefore we have not been fishing here, and the fishing would be awesome. The neat thing about the ciguatera here is that nobody else is fishing for reef fishes, so there are huge numbers of fish to see. The quantity of fish is as good as "The Aquarium" reef just inside the eastern pass of Rangiroa atoll, where we were last year. Toward the end of our snorkeling, it was easy returning to our dinghy. We just swam in, letting the surge from the swells push us along relatively effortlessly over the reef. Between the snorkeling and dinghy rides, this area has been the highlight of New Caledonia. Beautiful. Full of life. Sheltered water. Mild wind.

We found a mixed flock of about 30 Pacific Golden Plovers and Ruddy Turnstones resting on a rock/islet near Sunrise. Our dinner time dinghy ride was beautiful scenery of coral caves, bridges, coves and mushroom-shaped rocks. For sure, Baie de Gadji is Osprey City! We have great Osprey photos and, also, videos of the sharksuckers feasting on pieces of croissants being thrown into the water.

A food speciality on the Ile des Pins is land snail. It has a pretty shell about 4 or 5 inches long. I bought them "already prepared" in the shell because that sounded like a new taste treat that we could handle. After cooking we discovered that the whole entire snail was still in there with antenna, lungs, guts, everything. We hope the fish enjoyed the escargot . Ditto the national dish, bougna. When it was served to us it was prepared with black pepper which both of us detest. The only other food news is that, because it was my birthday yesterday, I put sparkling purple sprinkles on my potato salad.

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Oh, wow! Osprey City. Plus all creatures bright, beautiful, great and small

9/28/13 Now we have 3 Sharksuckers that look like remoras with an oval suction disc on top of their heads. The people on The Rose had 7 and they told us to feed them. So this morning we threw bread in the water, out from under the boat they came, and we watched, photographed and took video of them. Also, 6 Common Stingarees (rays). Yesterday we spent the late afternoon in the company of 6 or so Ospreys - young, old, fighting, fishing, flying, carrying a Black Damsel (we think) fish, screeching at each other and posing majestically. Took Rubber Ducky out for a spin over reefs and around islets, seeing birds, sea creatures and 3 other boats in a huge turquoise lagoon complex with beau coup de bays, islands, reefs and sand bars. All this is in very shallow clear water so we could "snorkel" from the dinghy. Yesterday we added the Red-throated Parrotfinch and Shining Bronze Cuckoo to our life list. We saw a green dove but could not identify it. We have seen 62 species of birds since leaving NZ in May of which 44 are life birds. Day before yesterday, Ilot Moro yielded 2 copper and black banded sea snakes of unknown species on shore. I either stepped on the sea snake or right next to it; it was hard to make an accurate assessment because I was busy leaping and screaming. I'm not afraid of snakes but it is surprising what instinct does. We recorded 2 Buff-banded Rails, 2 ospreys fishing and flying with fish in talons and 4 Lesser Frigatebirds plus the usual fantails, honeyeaters, gerygones, Swiftlets, Cuckooshrikes and Sacred Kingfishers. We are so so grateful to be here living this life!!

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S&S Gadji

Anchored at Ile Tianloro in Gadji Bay NW corner of Ile des Pins. Here 2 days or so.

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s&s

Safe and sound Baie de Uamaeo which is spelled 6 different ways in our guides. Barry took me out to lunch at a nice restaurant for my birthday. Then bird watching. There is no restaurant anywhere where we will be on the 28th.

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cup

Please let us know who wins the America's Cup. Go, Kiwis, go! (from mom) Go, Team Oracle! (dad)

Sea is glassy. Sky is cloudless. Beautiful! Leaving about 1100 for Uamaeo/Oamaeo Bay W side of Ile des Pins.

OK. Off to Ilot Moro to birdwatch

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