Magens Bay 2022
Beach time at Magens Bay by car with a quick stop up at the top at Drakes Seat that over looks the bay. Man it is pretty up there!
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We headed down a hill to make it to Magen's Bay and got in line at the entrance.
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There is a charge to get into Magens Bay. It is $5 per person for those 13 and over and free 12 and younger. It was $2 to park.
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The parking lot was right beside the beach and I really liked that. We found a spot, backed in, popped the trunk and took our things out and put them at a picnic bench that had some shade. Perfect!
The beach was gorgeous!
We watched these weird looking birds scoop into the water and grab a fish and take off. They looked like ducks. Were they seagulls? I wasn't quite sure but if it looks like a duck and fly's like a duck it must be a Brown Booby! Yep, that's what it was a booby!
I headed out to the water because it was a warm day and I needed cooled off.
The girls seen me out there and immediately decided they were coming too...and bringing along the water frisbee for some fun and games.
Flying the water frisbee provided to be quite the task. It just wasn't working out the way throwing a water ball does. It was going everywhere but to each of us.
As we played, we had an audience that stayed with us the entire time.
Ok, enough of this...it was time to head out and .....snorkel??? This is a sandy beach. A sandy beach=no snorkeling...or so everyone always tells everyone. I'm one of those that go against the grain, the norm, the followers. I do my own thing and let's be honest...it's the ocean and within the ocean there is sea life. I don't care if it's a sandy bottom with very little to see or if it's a rocky bottom with a lot to see. I'm going to snorkel each and every place I go. I've said it many times before...you never know what you may see and I sure don't want to miss the opportunity.
The girls and I grabbed our snorkeling gear and off we went. We headed to the right side of the bay and there were rocks along that side. There had to be something interesting over there right? Found a huge feather duster.
And a few more feather dusters (worms). They were everywhere. I tired one of these in my tank once. It didn't last very long...maybe a few months and then it disintegrated. I'm not sure if the fish I had in the tank picked on it or it didn't like the parameters of my tank. I was sad because they are so cool.
Sakari came running over and said "Look what I found, it's one of those one "things" (Chitons). We see these everywhere we go on the rocks. They are hard and suctioned to a rock. They are molluscs and are ancient creatures that date back 500 million years ago.
These were the rocks along the side.
It was pretty calm in this area so I decided I would give it a shot of my over/under skills. 500 shots later and I did manage to get a few.
Now mind you it is very shallow along the edges. It makes for a great place for beginners to learn to snorkel or those that are just relaxing and exploring. You could sit down at any time and just chill. We did that a few times and just took in the beautiful scenery.
There were definitely plenty of small schools of fish in the area.
Then we spotted a weird looking fish. It was brightly colored. I had never seen anything like this before in all my days of snorkeling. It had a striped body with a red and green head. It was beautiful. See, I would have missed this new find had I not snorkeled here!
We actually ended up seeing two of these fish in this area although I wasn't able to get a picture of the other. After a lot of google searches for every combined wording I could think of I found that it was called a red breasted wrasse. It was so pretty and unique.
We looked over at the grassy area...and whaddayaknow....guess what we found.
Then we went back to snorkeling a little more where I would find plenty of snappers, grunts , damsels and slippery dick wrasse.
My attempt of some more over/under pictures. I'm really going to have to break down and get me a dome for my camera. I think I would really enjoy using it...but would I have it at the right time that it is needed would be the question.
We had gotten pretty far along the side of the bay and we were out where some of the excursions and boats come in. We decided to sit down and rest and just...well, boat and people watch.
Sakari said she was cold and was headed back. Kiera and I continued around the area for a little while and spotted another turtle, which Sakari happen to catch on her way back as well. Kiera was so excited to see sea turtles.
After the turtle came up for air, it dove back down and went under a log. It managed to get stuck. We watched and watched as it struggled to try to break free from under the log.
Right when we thought we'd have to do a "free the turtle" rescue, it finally broke itself free from the log. We've watched a lot of video's of people freeing turtles from fishing nets on the shore and it becomes viral. Now was my chance to issue my own video and become a internet sensation...and the turtle blew it for me. My one chance of fame slipped between my fingertips. Then the moment was over and the turtle carried on its business hoping that no one saw that moment of vulnerability.
Ok, it was time to head back. As we went along the edges, something darted and caught my eye in the sand. It was a cute little Sally Light-Foot crab.
Christmas Tree Worms were in abundance in this area. They are my favorite of the worms and come in all types of colors.
The magnificent Feather Duster
We hadn't even made it back yet and Sakari had come back to show us her find on the way back to the beach. She had to show Kiera what a real Conch was...not just the shell you see in the store and hold up to your ear to hear the ocean.
Those eyeballs.... "Are you looking at me?"
Now I'm just going to be honest. Of all the years of picking up conch shells to see if anything is in them, I have never noticed them having eyes. Like real eyes. I always see the little foot, but never eyes. It was weird. I didn't realize they had eyes. Their eyes are located on the top of a stalk and have two lensed eyeballs with a pupil. It is thought that they can produce an image. How cool is that? I will never look at another conch the same again and I will always look for their eyes too!
We walked our way back to our spot on the beach and by this time the sun had taken over our picnic table that was once in the shade. We decided it was time for some lunch and I made turkey sandwiches. The girls decided to put their chairs in the shade to eat. Sakari only ate half of a sandwich and I would later find out that her stomach was hurting and she wasn't feeling well.
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After lunch, I ask if the girls were ready to move on to the next beach and they both said yes. So, we packed up our things and I took a video of the beautiful beach before we left. I can now officially say we've been here. I asked the girls where they would like to go between Secret Harbor and Brewers Bay. I explained the difference and when I reminded Sakari that Secret Harbor was the place where they had a floating dock off the beach that she jumped off over and over and loved it. So, they picked Secret Harbor and felt like it was a "jump" type of day.
Magens Bay was beautiful and really big. I can understand why the cruise ship people and vacationers flock to this beach. There's plenty of room to spread out for sure and the sand is soft and water is calm.
For all of those people that claim there's no snorkeling to be done because of it being a sandy bottom, well, I snorkel everywhere I go and I was real happy that I snorkeled here as well. You never know what you will find at any beach.