It has been a week of unusual things in the water.

First on Thursday, coming back from Victoria we saw a pod of killer whales off Mayne Island. There were five or six and one breached a couple of times. An unusual sight to be sure.

Then last night, the red tide in Deep Bay.

And today, during our first picnic of the season at Bowen Bay beach, we saw a deer swim across the mouth of the bay, his four points sticking out of the clear glassy water with the sky turning pink behind him. His mate jumped in too, but she came right back out. Too cold for her, I guess.

But not too cold for me. I went for a nice leisurely snorkel around the rock face at the south end of the beach and between the beach and the dock I saw the following:

• Bay pipe fish in the weeds (related to the seahorse)
• Black rockfish
• Sculpins
• Shiner surfperch
• Moon jellyfish
• Cod
• Needlefish

You can get a good view of the beach in this satellite photo.