Not the good kind of jelly!

Even though I had been warned by the calendar, I was still surprised to see thin, see-through legs floating in the water this morning.

Upon closer examination, I also saw the head of the box jelly.  To my knowledge, it was the first one I’d seen in the wild.  And NOT an animal I was hoping for….

I talked to God about it.  “Is this my sign to get out?  Or can I see at least one octopus?!”

Not feeling a strong reply either way, I swam slowly onward.  After I saw my first octopus, I got out.  I wanted a second opinion.

My friend, Sally, was getting ready to go in.  I asked her what she thought about continuing.  She asked: You saw only 1?  Yup.  She offered to stroll along the beach to see if there were any others that had come in on the tide.

Larry said he wasn’t too worried, and got into the water.  After he disappeared, Sally said Oh Larry gets them all the time! Not what I wanted to hear.

So I got back in, but carefully, always looking around for more jellyfish.  Not my favorite way to swim.  I realized that since I normally look for octopuses, I am not usually looking up into the water column, so today I had to change how i swim: looking down, then up.  Down then up.  Kind of exhausting! But I was rewarded with a total of 3 octopus.  Granted, that’s a low number for me, but truly, I was happy to be enabled to see any at all, with the threat of jelly fish looming large in my mind.

One of the 3 was what I will start calling a regular.  I have seen it before a few times.  Not far off shore, and on top of a large rock.  It has a hole on top of the rock, where it can hide.  Sadly, it doesn’t yet trust me, so I didn’t get good video, for as soon as I drew near, it withdrew into its den.  Perhaps it will grow accustomed to my face eventually.

Beautiful water in parts.  Lovely and clear, all the way to the bottom.  Even though it was low tide, I was surprised at how far to the right I was able to get.  By the time I worked my way over, it was, I think, at least an hour past the low tide time, so perhaps that was why.  Thankful, though.  I again saw what is probably an octopus den, without its octopus inside.  Or at least, I couldn’t tell that it was inside! It had a pile of sand, studded with shells and bits of rock, though, so I rather thought there was normally an octopus who lived there.  Perhaps a night octopus, that hunts at other times.

Saw a small snowflake moray eel.  Just peeking out at me.  And thankfully, none of the peppered morays that like to torture me.

Nice swim, and I’m thankful I got out without being stung!