Day 6

Didn't quite want to get out today but reckoned a bit of a jog would give me some energy. Also the stupid software I'm learning had missing files and I spent a good 1/2 hour trying to find them, so thought I should get out before I hurled my laptop out the window...

Forecast storms tomorrow, you could see the weather changing. On the way to the Baths I saw this young girl 1/2 her dad's size pulling exactly what dad was pushing and dad was yelled at her (encouraging yelling?) when she let the surfcraft drop a little. He saw me staring (disapprovingly, probably) at him and then was a bit gentler with her, but she was really determined by then, bit her lip and just kept on going. Really strong spirit, she's going to kick some ass when she gets older.

There's a big swell pushing through, created some interesting situations at the Coogee Bath. People would arrive, get into the calm water and then a few minutes later a big set would come through and transform the bath into a foam bath. Everyone gets out straightaway, leaving the bath empty and the water calms down... and then the next group of people arrives :D

Coogee Reef and Wedding Cake Island is breaking, it's beyond my skill level but Coogee inside breach break would be worth sniffing around tomorrow. I hate crowds... Crickets singing outside, lightning storm has passed over. 6-legged wings fluttering past my forehead. Humid air.

Day 2

Yet another sunny day. Was really excited to see more of bluey and snorkel some more before the weekend when everything becomes really busy and crowded. The tide was lower than I'd ever seen it, some parts were actually waist high deep!

I brought some leftover bread for the fishes today, the little fishes really went mad on that. But the groupers took one whiff and decided that it was not to their liking. Today was good, saw 3 regular groupers, 2 brown and 1 big blue, that I found out (through the internet, how else? I don't know how to check a fish's sex) is a male, they kind of hovered about doing fishey things. Sometimes you'd be swimming under the surface and look back and there would be a grouper behind you, like an invisible shadow. Or a shy stalker, who immediately swum off when you turned around.

I had a real face to face experience with big bluey when he came very very close to me and stared me down! It was pretty intimidating being stared head on by a very big fish, you can see how close he came to me in the photo below. Of course to me, he looked 30% closer because underwater, everything appears 30% bigger! He never stared at me like that again afterwards, I guess that he was just asserting his authority the first time.

Soon I noticed 2 guys doing something interesting around big bluey, he was overturning rocks and big bluey would peck on the underside, letting the guy pet him on the body as he did...

The 2nd guy picked up a rock and started crushing sea urchins, exposing the flesh inside. Immediately a cloud of small fishes that follow big bluey around started eating, followed by big bluey, who occasionally chased away other big groupers who came too close. I got to pet bluey a few times, who was both slimey and firm...like a fish! haha..

It was a great day out...Now clouds are rolling over the horizon and thunderstorms on the horizon.. Now where's my chocolate chip ice cream? mmm