Dispatches from the reef

The reef.  The big blue.  Here I am on One Tree Island, on Day 4, trying to get my pictures up on the blog just before I leave in a few more days.  Life is great out here.  I am about 100 km off the coast of Australia and the lecturers do a great job of warning us not to swim as the tide sweeps out, because if we do ever get caught, we're en route to Fiji.  

 Day 2 snorkelling at the "gutter" region of the island.  No fins allowed because the tide was strong enough to take us for a ride, and also it was too shallow to paddle.

My big "sigh" moment in paradise.  It's really been a holiday.

A lone ctenophore

Sunset with the Linkia vessel in the f/g

 

Facing Nemo

Xmas tree worms living on coral

The rear end of a sea cucumber.  They're common in the reefs here but the bigger ones are usually found in deeper water.

 Coral polyps

Cushion stars!!  They look like big blocks of star-shaped bread ready to be baked.

Fish, fish everywhere..They swim close to the coral and hide inside whenever they detect a shadow or movement.  So hard to get good closeups of them.

And my last pic, just to make you all jealous.. haha

NOT thinking about life in Brisbane at all.