Sunrise at Two Dogs

Took this photo as the sun rise appeared over the horizon. We still had the beach to ourselves and I wandered around with my camera in hand. It was a beautiful morning and you could not ask for a better place to be. After taking this photo we ate a breakfast of spam and rice and I heated up some chili (yep for breakfast). Kids immediately went off to explore and I just relaxed with some coffee that we heated up. Just a great way to start the day and I wished we could have stayed for two nights, but next time we have a chance we most certainly will.

We ain't leaving now

This is looking out from two dogs towards Koror. When we arrived, the tide was high and we had about 5 feet of water. I knew the tide was going to drop so we timed our arrival. The bottom is sand so no problem with the boat sitting. I just made sure that there were no rocks laying where the boat would come down. I must admit, I did not think the tide would be that low. The boat was completely High and Dry. But, when the tide came back it was nice for the kids to swim.

You Talking To Me?

Well, finally decided to go camping. Got the permit to go to Two Dog Beach (as alot of people call it) and Saturday morning loaded up the boat. And man, we are talking about loading the boat. With six kids total, we had a full boat. Lots of juice and food, as well as blankets etc. Of course, I had to bring my camera equipment and fishing gear. We got the boat loaded at 11:00AM and it was a full boat. Headed out of Malakal and smack into high winds and rough weather. Of course, we are in the reef, but we had a swell and a full boat. In hindsight would have cut through the rock islands on the inside, but we braved it. Within minutes not a dry person on the boat. After an hour we hit Ulong and I was seriously thinking of camping there. But as we got around Big Toi, we got a little bit in the Lee and I decided to battle on. By 1:00 we were there. Pulled up the boat and all the kids except for my oldest daughter jumped off and started to swim. That left us to off load the boat. Finally got camp set up around 3:00PM. Two Dogs is great as the beach is sandy and there is a nice area to swim. The wind was blowing and although I was tied to a mooring next to the beach, I threw out an anchor in the front and another behind to keep the boat from swinging. By 6:00 it was low tide and the boat was high and dry sitting on the sand. Got the fire going and started cooking. All the tourists were gone by now and we had the place to ourselves. Kids running and screaming, grill going and cold drinks. Couldn't get better. As night came you could tell the kids had never been camping as the sounds made them nervous. But it was great and took them walking looking for sandcrabs and just looking at the million of stars you could see. By 11:00PM they were so sleepy they went to their tent. I sat in my tent and listened to them until they went to sleep. Unfortunately, I forgot to pack a pillow or blanket for myself so slept in the tent with a towel for a pillow. It was not cold, but I'm getting too old to sleep on the hard ground. Think I slept maybe three hours. At 2:00AM it started to rain, but the tents I had never tried before were great and not a drop of water inside. Woke up in the morning to another low tide and grabbed my camera and got this interesting shot of an Egret. At 10:00AM we packed up to head back. The wind was blowing and I knew it would be a rough ride back. It was and we pounded our way back home. All in all, a great trip and the kids can't wait to go again.

I wish I could say this is a photo of a magnificent Sea Turtle sleeping on the rocks. I wish I could say a number of things................. But, this sea turtle is not sleeping. It is dead. Someone shoved a stake all the way through the poor thing. God only knows how it ended up by my house. It died for nothing. Not because someone was going to eat the meat. It just died. Look, I fish and I used to hunt, but I would never kill anything for no reason. And I would certainly never kill a sea turtle (in season or out of season). So who did this? We will probably never know. I did call the conservation and law enforcement department in the phone book and they said they will come down. I hope so. At least then it can be measured and hopefully something will be learned from this needless death. In the end, I knew I had to take a photograph, but couldn't bear showing the thing from an angle that illustrated how cruel people can be. So, I tried to take a photo that put some dignity into the poor thing. My kids found it first and asked why someone would do something like that. The only answer I could give is what I strive to teach them. We never kill anything for no reason. If we catch a fish and we are not going to eat it, we release it. If you treat things with respect, I believe you will also be treated well. If not, well then karma will come back some day and get you. Although I wish no harm on people, I hope the person that did this realizes what they did and regret it and learn. Probably not, but who knows.

mucking around

Just a short post tonight. Mucking around again in photoshop and came up with this. Thought it was kind of cool. Now, time to watch a DVD and relax.

Napoleon Wrasse

My little underwater camera does not do these fish justice. They are beautiful fish. I keep dreaming of getting an underwater housing for my canon 50D but it just costs too much right now. But at least I can still have a camera in my hand while snorkeling. This guy was down kind of deep and it took all my lung power (which ain't much) to get even close. It was a little wary, just keeping far enough away as it swam back and forth along the bottom. Luckily, I did manage to get this shot which is far from perfect but good enough for my scrapbook.

Just plain freaky

"Cannon Ball" I yelled as I launched myself off of the boat into the clear waters of Nikko Bay. As I came up I was immediately surrounded by these fish. I'm talking hundreds of them. And they were all giving me the eye like I ate their brother or sister. Yeah, it's true I've eaten this type of fish, but never here so they couldn't know. As I swam more and more came around until I was engulfed in a sea of fish. As I moved my hands I was bumping into them and they were bumping into me. Never had that happen before. Being that we were at a place where people snorkel, fishing would not be allowed (I'm a firm believer in having areas where you don't fish). Imagine if people fished in a place like this, soon there would be no fish there to enjoy. The kids jumped in an we watched in amazement as they swarmed around us. It was truly amazing to watch. Given that it was so hot, we just swam around in the water watching all of these fish. Just another day in Paradise!

By the way, to my friend Russell, didn't weigh the sailfish but had to be 80 or 90 lbs. I actually got on the scale with the fish fillets and that was 30 lbs of fish. Figure they gave me half (less the stomach) so that is 60+ lbs of meat, plus the bones and insides. Got to come to Palau and fish.