Conching is Easy
30 December 2010 | Bimini
0 miles
Our plan for today was to circumnavigate North Bimini Island in the dinghy, catch some conchs and lobsters, visit a few local points of interest, snorkel off the three sisters, and spear some fish for dinner. That was a bit ambitious. We were up with the sun, had a good breakfast, slathered on the sunscreen, packed a lunch, and had the dinghy loaded up with everything we'd need for a day of exploring. We started out by visiting the only other boat in the anchorage, a young couple who had just bought the boat and were learning by doing like me. It was nice to meet somebody else in the same boat as me (pun intended). We then headed out onto the flats and spent the morning peering into the shallow water looking for tasty or interesting creatures. We found a few conchs (and lots of empty shells), a few other interesting critters, and a crab. We let the crab go, believing it to be undersized, but found out later that it would have been legal. By lunch time we had thoroughly explored the bay, but had not made much progress on our to-do list. In fact, we took the rest of the afternoon to work our way south to Alicetown, picking up an even half dozen conchs on the way, where we beached and queried some locals as to whether our catch was legal. Five out of the six were! So off we trotted with our bag of conchs to see Sherry Pinder, proprietor of Sherry's Crab Shack, whom we were told could show us how to shell and prepare conch. Our timing was perfect, because Sherry's conch guy had just brought in a load and was cleaning them on the beach. Tom and his helper Shaba (or perhaps it was the other way around) were more than happy to show us the proper technique to crack the shell, slide out the conch, cut away the gross bits, skin it, and wash it. They also showed Jordi how to clean up his souvenir shell, and how to eat the "worm", a mostly tasteless conch part that is reputedly "Bahamian Viagra". We then spent the rest of the evening eating yummy conch dishes prepared by Sherry, and drinking rum, generously served up by her boyfriend Eric. Eventually we staggered back to the dinghy and managed to find our way back to Bacon in the dark.