Keeping the kids entertained over the hols when the wind and bar are playing up has been a bit of a challenge.
Two nights ago we decided to do a night drift snorkel from Narooma's main wharf up to the bridge, then with the tide change drift back. With big fast tides due to the moon phase, we travelled at quite some speed. Which made taking any pics along the way near impossible.
My dive light has a UV setting which I must admit I never really bother with, but after using it on this snorkel I'm now addicted to it (even though my daughter soon claimed it off me). The oyster wall looked like Avatar on steroids, some species completely changed colour while others glowed in flouro luminescence. After 3 and 1/4 hours we finally got out before we seized from the cold.
These are my daughters shots as I didn't take a camera.
Green moray
A couple with normal light.
.
The next night (last night) we hit the beach, but unfortunately the swell had us pushed up against the cliff, making fishing pretty tough. We did manage a few, and seeing how the moon light lit the heavy breaking swells was amazing.
Today we ventured out through the still very ugly bar, in search of some snapper. We hadn't gone far before we came across a pair of bryde's whales. Once again I didn't have my camera... Luckily my daughter managed a few good shots before we headed off in search of a fish.
We then came across a pod of very active humpbacks putting on quite a show. Once again my daughter managed a few nice shots. The big excitement about this group was that one of the whales was white with just a small bit of black on its hump. I can't post these until I find out if the newspaper might want to use them.
On to the fishing. With three drops we managed 3 nice snapper and 2 good flathead before my son started to spew. Time to head home where we managed to get through the worst bar crossing we have yet to encounter. Sitting on the back of a wave we were confronted with a wave from both north and south all meeting the wave we were following. All this, combined with a very big tide at the bottom of the run out, certainly meant keeping your wits about you.
JonP
BLACK PIG
Piglet
