Today, we sailed to Normans Cay about 10 miles south and anchored at another beautiful beach with water as clear as a swimming pool. There was a restaurant on this island, so we decided to go there for lunch, the Claussen’s treat. We took the dinghy to the beach and walked through the Normans Cay Beach Club to get to McDuff’s. The beach club consisted of 3 buildings that looked like condos. On the far side of McDuff’s was an airstrip. We later read that people land here and take a boat to the next island south that is a privately owned island and resort.
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| found the path to the restaurant |
As you walk up to the restaurant, it is a dark wood and thatched type roof with tables on a deck. It looked great. We were the only patrons there. It was more elegant than most beach hut restaurants. There were cloth napkins and nice candle arrangements with sand and sea shells. On the deck where we sat, there were also couches with pillows. It looked like a great place to just hang out and have a few drinks.
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| Joe and Erin on walk way to McDuff's restaurant |
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| on McDuff's deck |
THEN we saw the menu. It was limited, Joe and Dave had cheeseburgers that were $25 each, Erin had a fish sandwiches for $22, my 3 fish tacos were $23. Joe had a Gin and Tonic for $12, Dave and Erin had tea and lemonade for $4 each and I had water. So with tax and tip it came to about $150. They were fine with that, since we have been feeding them on the boat, but we sure felt guilty. And, after all, this is an airport restaurant.
Then we went back to the boat and played in the water. Erin and Joe didn’t have snorkel gear. We have our son Pete’s gear, so Joe was able to use that. We all took turns blowing up the 2 air mattresses we bought in Marsh Harbor. Boy, I don’t know how we used to blow those up as a kid. I don’t remember the “safety valve” to help keep the air in when we were kids. I remember having to put our tongue over the valve while you took another breath. As Dave finished one mattress, I jumped in the water with snorkel gear to check our anchor. Right by the anchor I found our first live, full grown conch. I brought it back to the boat and everyone cheered. I looked around for more, but didn’t see one near the boat. Erin and I used the air mattresses off the back end of the boat. Dave and Joe took the snorkel gear and the dingy and just floated around with it looking for conch hanging off the side of the dinghy. When they got a ways away, they would hop in and use the motor to get back. It was also safer floating with the dinghy, since power boats tend to rip through anchorages.
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our boat is the one directly behind me and Dave
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the guys looking for conch
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When they returned to the boat, Dave attacked the conch. It took several attempts at breaking into the shell to cut it loose from the shell. Finally, he pulled the “animal” out of the shell. We chopped it up and plan to do SOMETHING with it. Actually, we are hoping to get more to make a meal out of conch. The final piece of “meat” was about the size of a large chicken breast.
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| beautiful live conch |
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| breaking into the end of the shell | | | | | | | | |
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| cutting the meat away from the shell (took several attempts) |
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| pulling the conch out of the shell |
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| all the meat out of the shell |
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| skinning the meat |
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| the meat that you can eat |
We had supper on the boat and enjoyed another great evening in the breeze in the cockpit.
P. S. We ended up using the conch in an omelet for breakfast. the taste was between calamari and crab meat.
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