Over morning coffee my husband said.. “I have a challenge for you… go see if that buried kayak on the beach is salvageable”. Uh…. for those that know me.. challenges are not taken lightly! After morning coffee we dinghied over and at first sight it looked like it was probably only half a kayak. Either that it was buried with so much rubbish that it would probably be broken once uncovered.  I wish I had taken a photo of the “before” but the camera was in the dingy that floated a way while we were trying to dislodge this thing! Not too far away, but not worth going and retrieving just to take a photo. We were up to our ears in brown recluse spiders, webs, mud, crabs, logs, timber, fallen trees, drift wood, rotten leaves and mounds of termites to get this thing out! We had to lever with two by fours, wedge, dig, and this nonsense went on for a while. Luckily we were in a secluded anchorage with no one to witness this madness!! Low and behold it was a perfectly good glass bottom kayak.. with a seat! We unscrewed all of the screws holding the glass so we could take apart and clean. It was full of mud and spiders.. yuck. Put it back together and enjoyed a little tow behind the dinghy with some great views. This is going to be so much fun to have!

From there we went exploring in the water. Lots of baby lobster that were friendly as ever! They are not in season but fun to watch them be so curious! Conch are in season however.. I found 3 keepers!.. just gorgeous shells but decided to leave them as I found them. After getting back in the dinghy, Jim again sort of challenged me and said.. “Man.. conch ceviche sure would be tasty for lunch”… growl.. I flip over backwards and turned my personal built in navigations system on for re-finding the conch! I actually found them! I’ll try and post a video of cleaning for the meat and preserving the shell if internet allows. Its quick if done right. Before harvesting I prepared my work area with the tools needed. A butter knife, filleting knife, a cracker, old towel and cutting board off the aft swim transom.  I then prepared lemon, lime and red onion in  a big bowl to “cook” the conch. Followed by adding pre -made 7 bean salad in vinegar liquid that was perfect. I had forgot vinegar this trip so this was ideal! What a delicious post snorkel lunch served with crackers and goat cheese!

After chilling a bit in the afternoon we headed out again for some exploring. I saw a little red box on the beach. Looked like a red crate from a distance so I for sure wanted to check that out. They make great one use storage bins for shells that we find, plus “cleaning the beach” as we can. Turns out it was a tackle type box filled with about 20 flares scattered on and round the rocks near the box! They were just out of date and a little ragged to keep for any particular reason but we put them in the dink anyway.  Walking back I also found a huge sunbrella cover!! So.. rolled it up and took it as well. On our exploring we found a little hut on a patch of beach under a tree that survived the storms. So we secured the tarp over the already make shift wood that had been placed and left the flares there. Kind of fun adding to the already cool hut. I’m sure if the local kids made it they will surely be surprised to find the goodies! We may leave the kayak in there as well… :))

We followed up the fun day with an evening snorkel and found litereally 100’s of milk conch bigger than the palm of your hand and feisty!!  I love taking photos of the conch that I find and leave. These were pretty amazing. Like anything.. balance and only keep what you eat. Believe me there are plenty shells out there that have already been harvested in the water.. which by the way is illegal.

Dinner was left over gnocchi… :)) followed by jewelry making and reading. Lovely Day!

Savannah has been hard to reach but I do know the locals gave the group fireworks to celebrate the 4th of July. Which is neat because the were celebrating on July 4th which was the 3rd of July for us! I’m still trying to wrap my head around the 12 hr time difference and a day! She said the evening was so much fun with a bonfire, food, dancing and setting off fireworks to celebrate!

Also they are rolling up their sleeves and visited a birth center while we slept.. I just chatted briefly with her now and she said they had an amazing day and everyone was so nice. She will try and write in the blog soon and but did not have much of a chance to take photos during the their day.