Seacritters

One of the great things about being on the beach is the variety of new sea-life for the kids to explore. They are surprisingly un-squeamish about these, unlike Gesa who hates to even get her toes in the sea-weed.

Here, Issie has found a sea cucumber (or 'big turd' as we call them) which are very squishy and a little wriggly.

Max has found a sea-star, very like starfish but actually different, sea-stars are a bit of a curse around here as they eat coral killing the reefs, but the kids love them. Some beaches have so many that you can pick them up every few feet. The kids often build a home for a couple from rocks and sand, and 'look after' the poor creatures. They usually make a break for freedom, it's amazing how fast they move on their little suckers, but the kids tend to 'rescue' them pretty quick and put them back into their home.

The other day, Max was up pretty early as usual, so he and I went on an explore. Being a flat calm morning, we took the dinghy over a reef that was only a couple of feet deep, so he coul see the coral and other creatures beneath. Since he doesn't yet swim well enough to see these normally, he loved the chance to look down from the dinghy through the crystal clear water.

We found a little sea urchin and picked it up using an oar, it waved all it's little spines at us until we let it go again. They can be nasty, some have very long spines and they hurt a lot if they get stuck in you, so it's not usual to see one this close.

We really enjoy our little adventures, and the Daddy+Max trips are becoming a bit of a regular routine.