We Wish all our Avid Readers , Family & Friends,
A Very Merry Christmas,
A Joyful New Year,
Peace, Prosperity and Good Health
with Lots of Love from
Sailor Sue
&
Captain Malcolm
XXX
And how's this for an Natural Christmas Tree...
Calcareous Tube Worms.
Two spiraled crowns of radioles, with double-horned operculum between. Tubes usually hidden: a single sharp spike protrudes from the edge of the opening. The colour and patterns of the radioles are variable though most frequently shades of brown, orange, maroon, and white. They are abundant in the Caribbean inhabiting all areas of a reef- the tubes are usually encased in living coral! They are typically shy of divers and retract down their tubes and close the openings with operculum when threatened or approached but if you are prepared to wait the crown may slowly extend and reopen.
The only visit of note this week is that we took ‘Crescendo’ over to Klein Bonaire Island . This is another flat and deserted island 1/2 a mile from our mooring. It was privately owned until 1999 when the government bought it for $5m (financed bt the Netherlands govt. and rich ‘Friends’). There are plans to add it to the National Park as the surrounding waters are already under the Parks protection. Here we completed our first real dive on our own. We were down for 20 minutes and neither of us had any problems with buoyancy or water filling our masks. No images taken (sorry) but the water was clear and we saw plenty of coral and fish. The swim back to ’Crescendo’ was the worst part but no pain no gain as they say ...I won’t bore you with all the diving stuff, suffice to say that my depth gauge has died and I now have a dive computer (it was as cheap as a new gauge!) so I could set the depth alaarm for 9.5 m so that I could take the camera down without wrecking it. I have pasted the image of a Christmas tree worm on the Christmas greeting for you all nearer Christmas day! I have had the first of Christmas letters from those who are more prepared than I. I live in hope that some of you will email with your yearly news.
