Ahoy landlubbers!!! Aaargh!!! Shiver me timbers.
At last we got underway and onto the water yesterday with a young family we have known for years and who had finally come to have a holiday and find out just how beautiful it is on Cephalonia. We had promised to take them on the Ionian sea for a day on the ocean wave. Well more like gentle ripple actually
Here is a picture of our vessel
We chartered this lovely old caique (pronounced Keye ee kee) to pootle around the blue sparkling waters of the Ionian seas around kefalonia for the day.
The wind was gentle and warm, the sea was just cool enough to keep you refreshed without chilling, and it was crystal clear for snorkelling to our hearts content.
Jamie, the Captain is a marine biologist and he helped the littlest pirates go hunting in the ocean deep for the secrets that are there contained.
They found beautiful deep red starfish, a killer starfish, a sea cucumber, some urchins and a lovely cuddly octopus.
After lunch he gave an informative talk on the life and habits of these creatures. They were placed safely in an onboard aquarium so that the children (and the adults) could get a close look at them.
Then we went snorkelling around some ship wrecks.
The life cycle and the dangers faced by sea cucumbers (which start out with the disadvantage of looking like a lump of poo in the first place) was told in its tragic entirety. Sensitive souls should skip through this part to the next picture which will be pleasant and calming.
Apparantly sea cucumbers have a deadly enemy - the pearl fish, which uses the sea cucumber like a sleeping bag and enters via the sea cucumbers bottom opening The pearl fish is not a little creature, but is about 2/3 the size of the cucumber
Once it has forced its way into the poor cucumber - it stays there as long as it can. Which means it eats the cucumber's reproductive organs to keep itself fed !!!! If I understood correctly the fish can then leave the cucumber and the cucumber can regenerate, only for the same thing to happen again, and again.
So it seems to me that the cruellest curse of the seas - must be to be reincarnated into a sea cucumber.
Here we can see a large red starfish a killer starfish and a large mussel shell.
If you are interested in having this sort of experience yourself you can find out more on Jamie's website at http://www.ioniandiscoveries.com/
