Adventures of Luck of a Fool: May 26-27, 2022

5-26 Thursday After reviewing the weather in the morning, we decided we didn’t want to be in an unknown anchorage with the squalls that were predicted for the weekend. We spent the day tinkering on the boat. I sorted through all our remaining stored provisions and moved them all to one area, instead of 3. I made chili from 12 differed canned items, plus onion, garlic and seasonings. Time to use up our “rainy day food”.

5-27 Friday We decided to have a “play day” on the water before we would be stuck on the boat during the coming storm. We headed to a beach on the west end of Royal Island. This is a beautiful spot between Royal Island and Egg Island. We tied up our dinghy in a little bay that was deeper, but more rocky. There were all kinds of sea life on the rocks, snails, whelks and lined chitin that the locals call curbs. We thought they were fossils, but found out they were live and you can eat the meat that is under the shell. Dave has tasted it, I passed.

had to secure the anchor on shore to keep the boat off of the rocky outcrops

spotted shell is a whelk about the size of a closed fist

more whelk

chitpn

stock photo, we don't see them this colorful

We have a 6 year old great niece, Memphis Murphy, that lives in Denver, CO. We have been sharing videos with her using the app Marco Polo. She has been asking us all about mermaids and was really hoping we would find one. And today we did find one on the beach. Lucky for everyone!!

While we were finishing the video, a boat full of people passed by with some strange looks on their faces. They were amazed to see a mermaid, too.

After our mermaid adventure, we took the dinghy to the north side of the island to snorkel. We saw what looked like a sign post out if the middle of the water off in the distance. We have’t been here for 3 years, but we didn’t remember anything like that in the past. Of course, we had to check it out. As we got closer, we saw a couple boats anchored and people in the water on a sand bar. The posts were swings set up on the sandbar. I had seen photos of this area in advertisements for tours by boat. The swings were set up for photo ops. The tide was coming up while we were there. Obviously, at lower tide, you would clear the water better as you would swing. We stopped to play in the shallow water, but passed on taking a photo in the swing. Crazy tourists!

view from a distance

We snorkeled in one of our favorite spots, north of Royal Island and north of the small Golding Island. I found 2 large conch today amongst the coral. We usually see them in grassy areas, so we were pleasantly surprised.

conch shell in the center

parrot fish eating the coral

On our way back to the boat, we could see a squall in the distance. I caught a photo of a rainbow starting in the center of it. The storm passed by us to the east, but we had some great rainbow photos.

my leprechaun at the end of the rainbow

Dave removed the conch from the shells so we could make conch salad (ceviche). We have a special hammer to knock a hole in the shell. Then he puts a knife into the hole and release the meat from the shell. Then you pull the meat out of the shell. You cut off the body parts and and outer surface. Then it’s ready to be eaten raw in the ceviche.

Dave is holding onto the "foot"

As Dave threw scraps overboard, we discovered that we had several remoras hanging out under our boat. They are always fascinating to watch. But we don’t like them hanging about if we want to swim near our boat. They won’t bite you, but they want to attach to you.