Saturday, June 18, 2016

May 28, 2016 snorkel wreck and Little Egg Island

Today, we took both dinghies to the wreck south of Little Egg Island.   We anchored our dinghies and jumped in to check it out.  It was nice to go to the far side of the wreck because last year I dove the site with Cheryl using our hookah system, which only had 100 feet of hose.  We saw a barracuda pass by, but we ignored each other.  Dave and I took off to explore together.  At the far end, there were huge schools of fish, hundreds together in different areas.  We looked back and noticed that Phil and Teresa were back at their dinghy, so we headed back. 

Teresa was spooked by the barracuda and wanted to get out of the water.  So we headed back to do some spearfishing around Little Egg Island.  Phil also had a spear.  Teresa just stays in the boat and follows him.  So today, I did that, too. 

We returned to Little Egg Island for spearfishing.  Dave speared his first parrot fish today. We were told they were good to eat.  We have seen them whenever we have gone diving in the past, and they are such pretty colors, so we felt kind of guilty eating them.  But we wanted to at least try them.   We also saw some lion fish today.   Dave punched a hole in one and let it swim to the bottom and die.  The second one he saw, he tried to spear, but his tip was too dull.  It just pissed him off and he flared out all of his fins, which are impressive.  But each spine is poisonous to touch.  Phil and Teresa headed back to their boat earlier than we did. Dave wanted to spear at least two fish to massage his manhood.  He really wanted another grouper.  They taste awesome, but they are more of a challenge to spear.  They will stop and look right at you.  Then they hide under a ledge or rock.  He is getting more particular about spearing certain fish vs spearing anything he could when he first started.  Good thing we had thawed our other catch from the Exumas. 
birds on the end of Little Egg Island
Phil with a parrot fish
bringing the fish to the dingy
poor picture of a lionfish from a guide book, but you get the idea about the poisonous spines

We asked Phil and Teresa to join us for dinner.  They had several fish from today and would cook them on their boat and bring them over.  As Dave was cleaning our one parrot fish off the boat, I snorkeled and found two more of the king conch.  So I made conch salad with them.  Teresa brought dirty rice and we had a grand dinner.  It was fun tasting the different fish and the different ways they were prepared.  And we liked the parrot fish.  They are so plentiful, that Dave plans to wait until the end of our snorkeling to get one if we need more fish.  He also thinks he will use the pole spear that has the elastic tubing connected to the end of the spear.  The one we usually use had to be retrieved after you shoot it, like a bow and arrow.  He thinks that the parrot fish are big enough that they could swim away from you with the spear still in it. 
cleaning conch on the stern of the boat
Pirates Teresa and Phil
We were thinking about leaving the next day, so we made it an early night (and no drinks for us).  We have really enjoyed Phil and Teresa’s company.

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