Monsters of the Deep

We've spent a lot of time in the water over the past few days. Graham did two absolutely superb scuba dives on Thursday on the famous 'Great White Wall' and the Rainbow Reef (whilst Di enjoyed an equally superb massage at the Dolphin Bay Resort) and we have been out on two excellent snorkelling expeditions with Jack Fisher. 

However, not all the fish below us are pretty and we have discovered a monster lurking under Maunie, attached to the front of her keel. The water in the bay is a bit murky but Graham got close enough to snatch a photo before retreating to a safe distance:

A monster has attached itself to our boat!

 Further identification was made possible by throwing some bait over the side and the monster revealed its true identity:

He's about a metre long

It's a Remora fish, the type which usually attach themselves to the bellies of sharks and rays - you can just see the flat 'sucker' on the top of his head. 'Our' Remora (we'e called him Reginald) seems to like to stick to Maunie and dash out in hope whenever we throw food scraps overboard. We've read that Remoras can attach themselves to divers - if this happens to you, dear reader, the removal technique is to slide them forwards. We like to be able to share relevant and useful tips on this blog.

Whilst most of the fish that we've seen on the dives and snorkels are absolutely beautiful, there are definitely some less attractive ones around. We didn't get close enough to the White Tip Shark and the menacing-looking Moray Eel to get photos but there her are a couple of well-camouflaged characters spotted today:

Here are some of the prettier ones:

So life goes on in Viani Bay - the underwater world is so amazing here that we'll stay here a couple more days at least before moving on. Meanwhile, we continue with a few boat jobs, bake fresh bread and watch the school bus pass us twice a day:

Returning from school

PS You may have spotted a new home-page photo for the blog. We thought we'd ring the changes every now and then so thanks to Irene on Kiapa who took this one as they passed us on passage to Tonga last May.