s/v Always & All Ways

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The Great Conch Hunt.

28 June 2013 | Albuquerque Cays, Columbia
Mark
Deb was determined that Thursday would be the day we got lots of conch. After discussion about the best way to go about it (she wanted to take the hookah across the sand flats which are only 6' deep and I did not want to pull it), all four of us got into dink and motored to the far end of the sand bank. The other three jumped in to start searching (Dave & Lisa were also doing underwater pictures of her light bulb logo for a project for work.) and I took dink a way down wind and anchored it so we could drift down to it. Then we repeated the move. We only found 1 conch - which Deb found. But then Deb was "attacked" by our friendly stub tailed stingray. We are not sure how he lost his tail, but he looks just like a normal Southern Ray but without the long tail. He had come under our boat and cleaned up all the conch guts the last time we cleaned conch. I'm sure he was just approaching Deb looking for another hand out, but she was very unimpressed and swam quickly away. Then she had a remora trying to attach to her suit. Those things (though harmless) can be very persistent and obnoxious, so that ended the conch hunt. After lunch we took the hookah to another mini-atoll. While Dave & Lisa were doing more photos for her project, Deb was hunting conch and found two more nice big ones. We also found a coral head with three lobsters under it - two of which were nice big ones. I spent quite a while with my arm full length under the coral trying to grab one, but they kept 'finding' me with their antenna (they have very poor eye sight) just before I was in position to grab. Oh well, we went on with the dive. This is my favorite spot. The main coral mount has many long deep arms that reach out across the sandy bottom. Really beautiful. We saw the usual denizens and had a great time. Lisa took over 45 minutes of video with her camera. About 3/4 of the way around Lisa got cold so we headed back to dink. I tried again for the lobster while the others were getting in to dink. I was not successful. Back at the boat, Deb prevailed on us to use the hookah to go along the edge looking for more conch. Here we were much more successful, ending up with 6 more large conch. We had conch salad for apps but at this rate we are filling the freezer with enough conch for a long time after we get home.
Comments
Vessel Name: Always & All Ways
Vessel Make/Model: Fountaine-Pajot Belize 43
Hailing Port: Hancock, NH, USA
Crew: Mark & Deb Parker
About: Mark, an ER doc, retired 10/08 to become a sea gypsy. Deb, an educator, has been retired since 5/07 and was equally anxious to leave the cold of New England far behind
Extra: We now have a hurricane season home in Bocas del Toro, Panama. We still plan on spending many months cruising every year.
Always & All Ways's Photos - Main
In the Spring of 2016, we sailed from Bocas del Toro, Panama, to Cuba and back with stops at the Albuquerque Cays, Providencia, and the Cayman Islands. We cruised the South coast of Cuba some and then left the boat for some inland excursions.
20 Photos
Created 8 March 2018
Cruise of Albuquerque Cays and Providencia, Columbia
19 Photos
Created 12 June 2013
Pictures from our 2012 cruise from Bocas del Toro, Panama, to the Bay Islands of Honduras and back. Posted each time we have internet
2 Photos | 7 Sub-Albums
Created 28 March 2012
Pictures of our home at Discovery Bay, Isla Solarte, Bocas del Toro, Panama. More (older) can be found in Discovery Bay album.
49 Photos | 1 Sub-Album
Created 5 August 2010
Pictures of our recent trip to the San Blas Islands of Panama with friends Ron & Cynde
58 Photos | 3 Sub-Albums
Created 29 April 2010
Pics from the month we spent at some of the out of the way places in the Bahamas, May 2009.
39 Photos
Created 22 June 2009
Birds, animals, etc. that we have seen along the way
14 Photos
Created 11 April 2009
Pictures of some of the improvements we have made over the past few months
37 Photos
Created 11 April 2009
Pictures from Rio Dulce
20 Photos
Created 11 April 2009
Pictures from our travels
29 Photos
Created 11 April 2009