Just not my day! (27th May '07)

Its all been a bit rubbish the last couple of weeks. A twitching trip to the Central Coast to bag the Swift Parrots (a dead cert apparently) turned up blank. We've lost all our football games in the new season, all our netball games and despite winning my first two matches as coach of the Lindfield Women's All Age Div 4 team (like all new coaches do) we've lost the last two. It all hit rock bottom on Sunday!

Top snorkeling action for the boys

I spent Saturday night in Coogee at Allan's place in order to get some early snorkeling in before going to the girls' football. All was going well until I tried to start the car. Parked on a very steep street meant that the petrol wasn't getting out of the tank (yes the level was low, but nowhere near empty). I was hemmed in by other cars meaning I couldn't roll down the hill to a flat bit and we couldn't push the car up the hill. So as I waited for the NRMA man to come, the lads went off to do their snorkeling. NRMA guy showed and in about one minute had towed me out of my parking spot allowing me to roll down the hill and once on the flat the car fired up no worries. By this point it was too late to go in the sea but I popped round to Gordon's Bay to see the most perfect conditions - it was like a mirror - and the boys leaping around like muppets after finding a Giant Cuttlefish. This one was just under a metre in length and was apparently very friendly and showed off its full colour/shape changing routine. Just my luck.

Giant Cuttlefish

Anyway, it was time for football so off I went. The girls played pretty well and the game could have gone either way until the referee came up with one of the craziest decisions I've ever seen. Since when did a goal-kick not leaving the box result in a free-kick to the opposition? According to FIFA's Law 16 of the game, never. Anyway the opposition went ahead and scored from it and despite my protestations (I'd have been sent to the stands in the Premiership!) the goal stood. We was robbed!

Friendly giant cuttlefish (and red morwong)

Oh well, things couldn't get worse could they? You bet you they could. Off to netball in the evening and we came up against a pretty average outfit. A chance to actually win a game maybe or at least not get spanked. But no, not with their basketball player. He just started throwing the goals down from every point on the pitch and single-handedly gave us a good thrashing. Its just all no fun anymore! :)

Giant cuttlefish doing its spikey yellow thing

Shelley Beach (4th May '07)

A beautiful shoal of yellowtail scad

After finding the seahorses at Clifton Gardens we nipped over to Shelley Beach which is on the ocean side of things just south of Manly. Although the bottom was quite featureless and bleak and lacking plants, there were lots of big fish about. We saw several common stingrays and an eagle ray too.

Southern eagle ray

A common stingray makes a sharp exit

A few blue gropers were lurking in the rocks at the edge of the bay and Simon saw a nice shark although it left rather abruptly when he decided to go and pet it! It was probably a young dusky whaler as they are known to hang out just off Shelley Beach.

Silver trevally

Clifton Gardens (4th May '07)

Shark net at Clifton Gardens

On such a beautiful Friday it seemed a crying shame to be stuck in the lab and so we finished up early for a quick trip to the beach. It seems that I'm getting a bit obsessed with the whole snorkeling thing especially as I've found a top website which helps to identify all the fish. I've not started keeping a list yet but the general consensus is that it won't be too long before I do. I promise right here, however, that I won't!

Cuttlefish

Nothing wrong with a bit of fish twitching though and so we went to Clifton Gardens first which is in the middle harbour near the zoo. There is a shark net on the beach there and I had read on some scuba website that its the most reliable and easily accessible place in Sydney for seahorses. It didn't disappoint. Although it took a while to spot one (they're pretty small and well camouflaged) we found two in the end. There were also a few big leatherjackets, a couple of remarkable cuttlefish and various other things. Its a good job there aren't really any sharks about as we were able to swim through the shark net at one point. If I could get through with no difficulty, a similarly sized shark certainly could!

Erm....., well you get the general idea!

Gordon's Bay (30th April '07)

Red morwong

More snorkeling at the weekend. This time we went to Gordon's Bay which is between Bondi and Coogee beaches and just around the corner from Clovelly. This was our planned destination on ANZAC Day but the bad weather then made the open water here a bit dodgy. It was lovely on Sunday though and the water was clear with lots of interesting fish about.

Stingray

There were more blue gropers about which are just fantastic. Both the blue male and the brown female were swimming with us for ages. There was also a stingray, several nice sized squid and loads of the usual brightly coloured wrasse, leatherjackets and wee stripy things!

Blue groper - magic!

Female blue groper

Clovelly (26th April '07)

Hardcore!

The 26th was ANZAC Day here in Australia which meant another public holiday. Despite the bad weather we decided to go snorkeling anyway. And so in the wind and the rain and a freezing (for Sydney) 17C we went to Clovelly beach.

Yellow-finned bream

This was probably the only place in Sydney sheltered enough for safe snorkeling and even then the currents were quite strong and the sea a tad choppy. The water was still a lovely 21C though and despite the visibility being average at best we saw some good stuff. Several nice bream and whiting and also my first Blue Groper!

Blue groper and a Mado