On Saturday we arrived at Cliff Island, and anchored between the shore and a reef that was only exposed at low tide [It was about 200 yards long sticking out from the shore]. Mark, Roan, and I went fishing off the island around a point. On the way back [having caught nothing] we sped along at high speeds towards the boat, but we had forgotten about the reef and we couldn’t see it because the tide had risen. When we where about to run into the reef I spotted it and swerved away in a 90 degree turn slowing down as we turned. That was a close call!

The next day Marta and I went to the beach to collect mussels for our fish trap. When we got to the beach we combed the beach, and found 3 mussels although there were thousands of mussel shells littering the beach. We also collected a bunch of periwinkles. When we got back I helped Mark crush one of the mussels and some periwinkles that we put in the bait bag of the fish trap, and then we dropped it into the water [through out the day we caught 2 crabs 2 lobsters one of them was a baby, the other was about 1 foot including the tail, and the head, and we also caught a bottom feeder fish]. To Marta’s chagrin we had to free the lobsters and crabs as we do not have a Maine lobster license.

Later in the day we went to Jewell Island to look around. After that we went to the reef at low tide to gather mussels after about 30 minutes we went back to the boat with a bucket of mussels [after taking out those that were to small, and the dead ones we had 74 mussels] having covered only a little bit of the reef. We cooked the mussels with some store bought salmon that we had defrosted before the mussel-gathering trip in case we had not gotten mussels we also had a salad, most of which I consumed as well as some pasta.

Alec