Third time lucky seems to work. The cause of my four months of woes has been revealed, by mechanic number three. I sadly still have to wait another week for the parts to arrive and everything being put back together. They have had the car since last Thursday, resulting in me working from home for most of this week. And until today I have managed to avoid the temptation of sneaking down to the beach. That changed today, being my ‘Friday’ as I am taking a day off to go climbing tomorrow, and I popped down after closing the laptop:
A quick look provides multiple origins of the term ‘third time lucky’, the one I liked was the story of John ‘Babbacombe’ Lee. A sailor from the West Country in England, where Lisa was born and grew up. Back in 1885 he was sentence to death and survived three hangings resulting in his sentence being commuted and being set free. However, the term predates this event and other theories cite magical beliefs, religion, and common folk lore. Back to today, since the weekend’s amazing conditions the swell and wind have been up a bit:
The surface was still a bit choppy this afternoon. No matter, as I decided to go in regardless of the conditions because it was another stinky hot summers day. Beautifully clear water greeted me, as I started my exploring. It all seemed a little quiet but I managed to sneak up on the above juvenile Moonlighter (Tilodon sexfasciatus). Juvenile’s tend to be solitary, whereas adults are known to school. Their appearance and size also change considerably when they mature, but they head out to deeper waters so I have not come across any adults:
Under a shelf I spotted a small Southern Bailer (Melo miltonis) with a damaged shell. These carnivorous molluscs tend to feed at night and on overcast days, so I was a little surprised to see it on such a cloudless bright day when the water was so clear. It always amazes me how big the foot of these creatures are relatively, almost making the protective shell a little superfluous. Maybe that is why they would normally bury themselves in the sand during the day. The below Pale Mosaic Seastar (Echinaster arcystatus) caught my eye because of its lovely purple hue:
It looked a little comical with round limbs that looked like arms and legs sprawled out, as if it was a coach potato watching TV. This made me wonder if this maybe the species that was the inspiration for Patrick Star. Who you may ask, but I’ll get to that. It is not such a silly notion, as Stephen Hillenburg studied marine biology and was working for the Ocean Institute when he created a comic book called ‘The Intertidal Zone’. This was the inspiration for SpongeBob SquarePants, and of course Patrick Star is, well, one of the ‘stars’ of that show:
Back to facts, and I couldn’t resist including the above Female Western Smooth Boxfish (Anoplocapros amygdaloides). The body was a brilliant white and the intricate texture was very visible and amazing to see. I also liked its little friend, and follower, who is difficult to identify. I’ve seen this small fish before and back then thought it may be a juvenile Skipjack Trevally (Pseudocaranx dentex), but that really is a guess. I’ll leave you with one last image of a second and much bigger Southern Bailer, and I challenge you to find its eye. Something I have not noticed their eyes before, as I usually out on murky days:
Sandbagged 