As we got closer to the anchorage, we saw about 10 tenders beached on the sand bar, and it was still 3 hours until low tide! Clearly this is a very popular destination.
We got into the tender and wanted to take it around to see our surroundings, but I said we should go to the sand bar first. We can explore at any tide.
Ben found us our own sand bar so we didn't have to hang with 10+ other tenders. The kids immediately started looking for treasures to keep because this is not part of the Land and Sea Park.
Moose started digging waterways. Bear, Roo, and I grabbed the conchs that were underwater and now exposed. We wanted to have another conchregation and see what happened. We walked around to collect some conchs. Roo and I found a PURPLE conch that was pretty young, so we left it where it was. I didn't have my phone with me. I was bummed I couldn't take a picture of it. I had never seen a purple one before. Roo and I thought it was beautiful!
We had about 10 conchs, of all different sizes and ages, in a circle facing each other. Their eyes came out and one of the oldest ones pushed its way through the circle and down into the water. It did not want any part of our shenanigans.
A couple from France came to chat with us as they were walking back to their tender and while we were talking, most of the conchs went on their way. The people from France had collected several conchs and were looking for a few more, but weren't sure any from our conchregation were large enough.
They offered to give us some of the conchs to eat, but we said we don't have things to prepare them with on board. We did ask how they harvested them and they so kindly showed us right there on the beach. They said they like to pull them out on the sand to help with cleaning the slime off the meat. Once out of the shell, they had to cut off the intestines, eyes, and mouth before peeling off the harder parts by the foot. It seemed like a lot of work for a little bit of meat. I was having a hard time trying to figure out the top from the bottom- it all looked like a blob to me.
The man handed Ben the chisel and knife to have him learn how to get one out. This couple bought their boat 3 months ago in Martinique and haven't caught any fish! They were going to cook 2 of the conchs for dinner tonight and then freeze the rest for their journey to Cuba.
We didn't make it out to explore on the tender and have some more time before we have to move onto another island group, so we will stay another night and explore a bit tomorrow before the sand bars pop up.
The current right off our bow is crazy!! Watching it puts me in a trance. It is just so cool! The water is exceptionally clear in this spot. We can see our anchor, even with that current right here!
After a peaceful sleep, the girls didn't want to go explore, so Moose took Ben and me on a trip around the cays in this area. Lots of private resorts and beaches. Nothing too exciting to see, so we didn't get out of the tender. We could see it was trash burning day over at Staniel Cay. The current through to the Exuma Sound was entertaining, and even had a natural coral rock breakwater in one area. We cruised around and headed back to the boat.
Checked out the sand bars with the girls. Didn't want to go to the exact same place as yesterday, so we went a different way and landed in a new spot. We weren't there very long when the girls and I wanted to move. We didn’t see any conchs for a conchregation and there were no shells or sand dollars in the area we were sifting. This was the area that 10+ boats were beached yesterday, so it probably gets picked through often.
We went to another area, closer to the mangroves. Moose got out his casting net and started throwing it. When the girls jumped out, they both squealed about the feeling of the sand in their toes. When I jumped out, I realized why. It felt very squishy and thick- almost like cement. It was very odd. We walked through it, saw a stingray, and made it to the sand bar.
The coolest thing about the sand bars is looking out and seeing how flat it is, with all these pools of water draining, and every now and then spotting an isolated pointy conch. We knew we were going to hold another conchregation, so we set off to collect them. The first one I saw, I sent Roo to get. It turned out to not only not be a conch, but it was a gorgeous shell AND no one was home! It is the most beautiful find- a male King Triton Conch.
We collected a few other conchs (one was an empty one that was a meal for another animal at some point), shells, and sand dollars and moved to the water to set them up in a circle. This circle was in water a little deeper than the last 2, so it was harder to see them clearly. We started with 14 of them. One turned around and left right away. Another one went to the middle of the circle and around, greeting everyone. After a little while, more conchs had left. When there were only 6 left, we decided to try to swim across to the other sand bar. The current was moving quickly in the channel, but we made it!
Roo and I went for a walk around this sand bar. She really wanted to find some big sand dollars on her own. Bear and I had both found a few each.
We found the purple conch from yesterday and took some pictures of it today. Then we brought it and a young pretty pink one to the water by the private beach by our boat so no one would kill them. This seems to be a popular place, not only for sand bars, but for harvesting conchs- both days people here were doing so.
I thanked Ben for letting us take the baby conchs somewhere that wasn't the sand bar or the channel here. I didn't want them to climb the hill to the sand bar and be seen again. Then, of course, I worried about dropping them into the deeper water rather than placing them on the sand and figured they preferred to be in deep water rather than dead from someone harvesting them right away, even though they were not big enough. I did some research and found out when they're really young, they live in 12+ foot deep water anyway. If Queen Conchs are interesting to you as well, I recently came across a partnership between FAU and Eleuthera that studies and breeds conchs, since they are a threatened and overfished species. We have learned so much about them. Check it out!
Moose ended the night doing his favorite thing... fishing.
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