In the frame
A large conch shell with a glossy pink lip lies on rippled sand next to two orange sea stars and three round sand dollars. A net of sunlight shimmers over the bottom.
This dive turns the picture into a 3 × 3 slide puzzle: 8 tiles and one empty space. The shuffle is fixed, so everyone starts from the same board, and it is always solvable.
Dive plan
- Start with the easy part: the conch shell and the two orange sea stars.
- Almost every part of this frame has detail. The least distinct part is the sunlit sand at the top, and even that has texture to go on.
- Finish the top row first, then the left column; the puzzle shrinks to a smaller board each time.
- Switch on the numbers if two tiles look alike — they show where each tile belongs.
- The picture is busy enough that neighbouring tiles can usually be told apart without numbers.
- A 3 × 3 board is small enough to solve by feel; try to finish in as few moves as you can.
Colours of the picture
Main colours, measured from the picture's pixels: grey (40%), teal (16%), brown (12%) and cream (11%).
- grey40%
- teal16%
- brown12%
- cream11%
- sand11%
- lagoon green9%
How deep it goes
Depth 1 of 5 — a calm paddle.
Snorkel dives are the shallow end of the logbook: small boards with pieces big enough to read at a glance.