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Archive for August, 2009Aug 31, 09 Comments (0)
 Juvenile Spotted Drum Good evening all, finally talked to Aimee on Skype tonight apparently her moms monitor crashed and is waiting for a new one. Sounds like all is well and she’s having a great time!!
Here’s a tiny little Juvenile Spotted Drum I found the other day in a little cave, he was only about an inch in length! That big long fin on top will get smaller and smaller as they get older. These are some of the most fascinating fish in the sea to watch, they are so graceful and just swim in circles in front of their homes all day long. Today on my dive I watched as a big electric blue cowfish attacked another smaller one? He would constantly run into the side of the smaller one hitting him hard with his mouth, weird huh?? I do have a so so photo but will send it so you can see, it was very strange? My dive today started out with clear, calm water and no current but after 20 minutes everything changed! Once that current starts up it takes everything you got to swim into it and taking pictures becomes close to impossible, you just can’t keep still enough to focus!
After work today I met our friend Matthias who brought his two dogs, one is Kaya the dog we rescued a long time ago, remember?? We did an hour walk around the World Cup course which is pretty much back to being in terrible shape for riding! We have so much loose rock here that it needs to be constantly cleaned or it makes the riding way more dangerous.
That’s about it, sorry nothing exciting tonight! Many thanks for all the recent photo compliments you guys are great! It’s off to bed for the three of us, see you tomorrow, Barry
31-8-2009
Aug 30, 09 Comments (0)
 Pasku and Tela Good evening all. Tonight I have another super cute photo of baby Pasku (top) and his mother Tela for my dolphin fan club out there!! You can thank Junior for this shot because he has been trying to train this for months now and every time he tries he gets better results! Tela will lay in any position you want for as long as you want but trying to get a baby dolphin to calm down and rest on mommas head is really an unbelievable accomplishment!! Pasku got a bit banged up about a week ago so this is the only side I can shoot on him right now, the other side has scratches and also a bruise over his eye all caused by rough play.
My day off was like a race all day long!! I started this beautiful day by first taking the dogs for their early morning walk. I then took off on a fast 20 mile bike ride which took about an hour and a half, some on dirt and some on the road. It rained again last night so just about everything was pretty wet this morning and there were some places I could not go without getting completely muddy. Once I got home and cleaned up I put my underwater camera together, grabbed the dive gear and took off for a dive at the Sea Aquarium. I had planned on taking photos for Dirk of his Elkhorn research but strong current, big waves and bad visibility changed my goals quickly! I ended up being out there a long time but really didn’t see much or just couldn’t take photos with the surge. I did find a spot where some small pillar corals were tipped over. I found a sandy spot and laid the camera in the sand and placed them right side up again, it’s always a good feeling to lend a helping hand to the reef. After the dive I went back home ate everything in sight and then worked on doing all kinds of odd jobs around the house, like dishes and washing stuff. At 5:00 I loaded the dogs again and off we went to Caracasbaai. There I had to place another Geocache at the Castle, it was robbed! I still have so many people looking for these caches every week so I have to keep them active, Once that was placed I drove the dogs to the salt flats for an hour walk and now we are all back home tired! So that was my day, what did you do??
I haven’t heard from Aimee yet but hey, I’m only her husband?? She must be going a hundred miles a minute! I’ll be back tomorrow, Barry
30-8-2009
Aug 29, 09 Comments (0)
 Octopus Eye Hello everyone, tonight on my way to Saint Joris I finally confirmed what Aimee and I have guessed to be true all along, there are no driving laws of any kind in Curacao!! Tonight as we drove to ocean I was following a police car and like a bolt of lightning two guys on these super fast racing quads passed me and the cop like we were standing still!! I briefly thought, finally some justice will be served but nothing happened!? I’m guessing as fast as those two maniacs were going the police just knew it would be in vain anyways. For the most part I have adapted to the no driving rules thing over the years, in fact it can be down right fun! You can park or drive on any sidewalk if you so choose, pass on any street at any time, drive as slow or as fast as you like and no one minds if you throw your trash out the windows, heck I guess it’s driving paradise! We had another great evening at the beach! The wind was blowing super hard and the water was as high as I have ever seen it but that didn’t stop us all from getting wet and muddy!
Well, I just had myself a little dinner, the dogs are cleaned and it’s about time for bed. I haven’t heard from Aimee much, I guess she hasn’t learned to use e-mail yet but loves that Facebook stuff! I am 100% sure she is having a super great time surrounded by family and friends and one of these nights we will talk to her.
I found this octopus the other day while out cruising around the Elkhorn corals. He was in a little cave and only had his head sticking out with only one eye open and was just waiting for darkness to fall.
Off to bed, talk to you all tomorrow, Barry
29-8-2009
Aug 28, 09 Comments (0)
 Two Lantern Bass Today was so hot that I remembered our friend Dave once saying when he was here, “I can’t stop sweating”, boy was that ever true today! I tell you coming in from outside and being in air-co has to be just one of the greatest things ever!! I worked all day and raced home twice to check on the dogs, Aimee has only been gone a day and it’s killing me!!
I had one of the funniest things ever happen to me this evening at Saint Joris. After work I raced home fed the dogs drank my cup of coffee and off we went for an evening of fun at the ocean. My plan is on my work days (while Aimee is gone) to take the dogs somewhere super fun in the evenings and on my off days do my diving and biking. So this evening we drove to the far side of Saint Joris bay parked the car and off we went on a nice long hike along the waters edge looking for driftwood. Well the first beach I got to I found a life-like toy baby doll without a head laying in the sand. This is one of those baby dolls that the arms and legs move has the same skin color, same size as a real baby it just had no head. Well believe it or not I wanted to keep it as I have a friend who collects these, he is a photographer who is doing something really “creative” with them. The doll was filled with sand which came in thru a big hole where the head used to be attached and before hauling it home I wanted to see if I could get it out!! So I grabbed the baby and walked out a ways into deeper water and of course the dogs followed. I then proceeded to hold the baby underwater for a few seconds to let water inside and then I would hold it up high by the neck and shake it as hard as I could repeating the process over and over. The dogs were really curious about this and every time I put it in the water they tried to grab it and run off with it. I had my back to the shore and was again holding the baby high in the air by the neck shaking the water and sand out when out of nowhere we heard an ear piercing scream!! The scream was so loud it scared me to death causing me to drop the baby in the water! Turning around I saw a lady with her hand over her mouth almost in tears and her husband/boyfriend came charging at me into the water!! I kind of put my hands up ready to be attacked but he went right past me and went directly to the floating toy baby!!! Folks if you could have seen this guys face when he grabbed that toy doll, it was completely priceless! It was complete chaos, the dogs were running and barking at these two that surprised us, the guy had jumped into the water with his nice shorts and shoes and he killed his cell phone, Indi grabbed the doll from the guys hands and took off with it and I was trying to explain to the Dutch lady what I was doing with the doll!! They really thought I was drowning or killing a baby!! It is possible that I was making some strange noises while shaking the baby to get the dogs going a bit, you gotta have sound effects for such an occasion! After everyone calmed down she said they walked down and immediately saw me with the baby in the air shaking it and hearing some strange noises so what else were they supposed to think?? Too funny! We all laughed till it hurt, they took a bunch of photos of me and the doll and then we parted ways, that’s something that’s never happed to me before. I tell you when that lady let out that scream and to see a full grown adult male running at you into the water, it scared the tar out of me and the dogs just went nuts! I think that’s the first time anyone has ever snuck up on our dogs, if it wasn’t for the sound of the waves, the wind and me shaking the doll I am sure they would have heard them. So besides that little adventure we found some great driftwood tonight which I hauled home and some other fun beach treasures! We didn’t get home till really late and I now have two clean very tired dogs laying here crashed for the night.
You photo this evening is of two Lantern Bass together, something I have never seen before. These brightly colored fish can be found in shallow water areas with lots of rock rubble. I would have loved to spend more time with these two but I was out of air when I found them, isn’t that always the case!
It’s late I am off to bed, Aimee arrived safely but that’s all I have heard! See you tomorrow, Barry
28-8-2009
Aug 27, 09 Comments (0)
 Elkhorn Coral Reef Scene Good evening readers, as I type Aimee must be landing in New Mexico after a very long day of travel. We got up at 5:00 this morning and had her to the airport and checked in by just a little after 6:00, it was sad to see her go but I know she’s going to have a great time! I went straight home and grabbed the dogs and took them for their morning walk thru the Curacao desert. Our island has actually greened up again a bit after that last hard rain a few days ago and the trails are in perfect shape for riding. After our morning hike I rushed home and got my dive gear together and met our friend Dirk at the aquarium for a dive. Many of you remember me talking about Dirk, he’s one of the leading experts on Elkhorn corals and has done so much to help save these endangered corals. We had a nice dive, the water was pretty clear, fish everywhere and just a slight current. This is one of the hundreds of Elkhorn coral shots I took today. All of the clusters of Elkhorn’s were home to countless schools of fish today, it was really quite the sight and for once I had the right lens!! I did not see the spotted eagle ray but I did find a big flying gurnard swimming around the reef, I thought boy your sure are lost! After about 30 minutes Dirk signaled me and went back in, I continued to hang out here in this shallow water watching all the activity and found a big school of squids to play with, it was just such a great dive!
I spent the rest of the day cleaning gear, going shopping and working on the computer and at 5:30 took the dogs for another walk. Sorry so short but that’s about it, have a wonderful evening and a great day tomorrow, bye now, Barry
27-8-2009
Aug 26, 09 Comments (0)
 Dolphin Rocket Ride Good evening readers of the blog. This is our gorgeous head trainer Zenzi getting high in the sky with style!! This is called the Rocket Ride and gets it’s name from diving underwater to the bottom with two dolphins and having them push you straight up to the surface at top speed sending our fearless ladies into Curacao orbit!! It’s one of those crazy things they do here that I never get tired of watching, it’s just so cool!
Work was just a bit slower today for the first time in forever. Aimee spent the day packing as she leaves for the states in the morning for three weeks, man that’s a long time!! I really don’t have much for you all this evening kind of just in a daze after a long day in the sun!
I’ll be back tomorrow, Barry
26-8-2009
Aug 25, 09 Comments (0)
 Redspotted Hawkfish Hi friends! How’s everyone doing this evening?? I had the day off and kept busy all day! I started off with a two hour hike with the dogs and raked the trails as I went along, a clean trail is a happy trail! You could tell right away this morning that is was going to be a real hot day in Curacao, the locust were going crazy!! They were so loud at times I could hardly hear myself think, this is the first time I have noticed them this year. On our morning walks we always stop at the beach for the dogs to swim on the way back, they just love it!! Once home I gathered my dive gear and camera and took off to the Sea Aquarium for a shallow dive on our reef. I had just jumped in and was underwater turning on my camera and adjusting my strobes in 12 feet of water when out of nowhere a big beautiful spotted eagle ray came right at me and went right over my head!! What a rush!! I have never seen one of those on our reef before and almost thought I was dreaming! I know what your thinking, did you get a picture?? The answer is NO! I had my macro lens. I always seem to have the wrong lens, it’s Murphy’s Law! Anyways I just slowly followed him as he flapped his large wings in the current and as quickly as he appeared he was gone, it was really unbelievable!! Other than the terrible current it was a really fun dive, the good thing about current is that the water is crystal clear!! I found this little beauty resting in the middle of a cluster of pillar colors. This is a bottom dweller, he’s called a Redspotted Hawkfish. When you shoot these guys you usually only get one shot, because after the flash fires they are gone! If you look real close at the top of his spines on his back you will see each one has a tiny tassel on top, how cool is that?? I swam around looking at all the Elkhorn and Staghorn colonies and all in all they are looking pretty good. Besides my ray encounter I ran into a big school of squids, a giant barracuda and schools and schools of fish, if ever I took the wrong lens on a dive it was today!
I just home from a short bike ride with some friends. During the ride I busted one of my spokes and ended up having to wrap it around other spokes just to get home. On the way back I met Aimee and the dogs, she was wiped out from a long day at work. Aimee leaves in two days, my how time flies!
Talk to you tomorrow, sunny regards, Barry
25-8-2009
Aug 24, 09 Comments (0)
 Orange Sponge Good evening from Curacao. I have been telling you all now for the past week about this weird sponge I found and as promised here it is?? It’s not very big, only around 6 inches tall but it is beautiful and I have never seen one in these waters before. I was looking thru my sponge book and on page 43 of the Reef Creatures book it does show a Red-Orange Branching sponge, maybe this is just mutated?? I really hope some of my sponge experts on the list or my local divers can help with an I.D.? Aimee and I are returning here on Thursday as I want to get a diver next to it for size, maybe just her face and mask or the o’l magnifying glass trick?
Work was again non-stop!! At 1:30 today I had to run to my eye doctor who sent me home with a clean bill of health saying the eyes looked good. I do however need reading glasses for anything that is real tiny but I can live with that!!
I received an e-mail this evening from our friend Lori who owns the famous Dark Canyon Coffee Company in Rapid City, South Dakota. She read that Aimee is leaving for the states soon and is sending us some “Highlander Groog”, the best coffee I have ever had! You can buy yours at www.darkcanyon-coffee.com tell Lori your on the list as well, always good to make new friends!! Thanks again, we can hardly wait!
That’s about it, the whale is doing great! It followed the boat out to sea today for the first time without nets and came back on it’s own, George and the team of volunteers should get a medal for this or at least a key to the city!
See ya tomorrow, Barry
24-8-2009
Aug 23, 09 Comments (0)
 Juvenile Trunkfish Good evening one and all. Well, it was a full day of rain here in Curacao today, and we needed it!!! I was in the ocean at 8:00 and did a two hour and ten minute dive in fifteen feet of water! I went back to where Aimee and I had seen this little baby, just born Trunkfish the other day in front of Pen Resort. When I first got there I did not see him and had kind of given up searching and later I found him about ten feet away from where we had last spotted him. For my new readers these baby trunkfish are about the size of a pea!! How do you take a photo of a constantly moving pea you ask, well it’s not easy! Out of the hundred photos I took I have around ten that are sharp and I was shooting at F25, he just won’t stop moving long enough for me to get a good shot and he was in a tough to get to area and the waves were moving me around and, and, and!! It’s just difficult but fun! I love just laying there on the ocean floor and watching this little thing try to swim around. Any little surge from a passing wave tosses him out of his little cave but he always found his way back in, how do they survive out there?? My whole dive was pretty great, found a reef scorpionfish, a big octopus, a tiny eel, two lantern bass together, and got some shots of that weird sponge I found, all these photos are headed your way so stay tuned.
When I got out from my dive it was raining as hard as it can rain!! The good side to this situation is that I was getting rinsed with fresh water the whole way back to the car and I didn’t have to rinse the camera, it was raining that hard! I only had time to open the back throw my tank in with the BC still connected and drove off still soaking wet in my wetsuit!
I ended up staying home the rest of the day working on the computer and cleaning up some old underwater housings from Dolphin Academy that I am going to put on E-Bay. For any of you interested we have a nice Ikelite housing for a Nikon D-70s (no strobe) but with an 18-70 port and a Sea and Sea Housing for a Canon EOS D-60, this also has the camera, 16mm/2.8 wide angle lens, wide angle dome port and flash! Call me for a price quote. I am selling them for the Dolphin Academy.
We just got home from an evening walk to a new area! A friend took me to these new trails behind Canoa on the mountain bikes and tonight we found the trail-head with the car, it was muddy but fun!
Dinner is calling, see you, Barry
23-8-2009
Aug 22, 09 Comments (0)
 Reef Scene Good evening all, we just had a nice hard rain pass over after a scorching hot day!! I am again coming home after another hard day and as tired as a person can be, it was so busy again!
Your photo this evening has lots of cool things all in one. I was taking pictures of the glob of orange lumpy encrusting sponge in the middle of this large mound of massive starlet coral when these two curious fish swam over to watch what I was doing. They just sat there looking at me the whole time I was shooting this scene completely unafraid. If you look close on the top of the mound of coral you can see a bunch of multi colored Christmas tree worms and above the fish and over to the right you can see some orange cup coral polyps that are closed, at night they will open. These are some of the corals that will be spawning next month with little eggs and sperm, it’s quite the sight!
Sorry kind of boring tonight, I am just so tired! I smell spaghetti a cooking up stairs, that’s my cue to sign off. I will talk to you tomorrow, have a great weekend, Barry
22-8-2009
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