The golden bosuns remain elusive, but they will not defeat me, and mark my words, there will be a photo of that unique bird in a journal entry before we leave. Probably.
We weren’t diving until noon today, and Audrey wanted the morning to lounge, so I got up early to photograph birds, and luckily a few of them were showing off. I later made a trip to Flying Fish Cove and the visitor center, but after an hour of waiting to see who might fly by I returned with only two photos: one of a grasshopper who had been giving me the stink eye while I was there, and the other of a butterfly who I think was taking pity on me and wanted to make sure I got at least one nice picture.
For our afternoon scuba diving the seas were a bit choppy, so Hama put us in the water only a short boat ride from the jetty, but we still had good dives. Today’s fishes included more lionfish, at least three different species of eels, shrimp, giant clams, but most memorably we had a return visit from the giant trevally. During our surface interval between dives another boat was moored nearby filleting their catch, which is what the trevally were there for. Not wanting to miss the show I jumped in with a snorkel and found myself in the midst of a trevally feeding frenzy every time another bit of meat hit the water. The frigate birds also got in on the fun and were trying to snatch fish out of the air before the trevally could get to it, so it was quite a hectic event. Hama decided to join in since he apparently keeps a jar of sardines on his boat, but his aim was a little too good and I had to dodge a sardine in the water as a four foot long fish lunged behind me to grab it. It was yet another unique adventure on a trip that has been filled with them.
There’s a bar with snacks a short walk from our house that is open only on Saturday evenings, so we ended the day with drinks and calamari under tropical skies with stars overhead. We’ve got a couple of days left on this island, and while I had initially feared that seven days on Christmas Island might be a bit too long, I don’t think we would have had any issue if our stay been even longer.
