All conched out

 Today started off slowly with things like laundry and other chores but eventually it grew into going out on the Sea of Abaco for conch. The instigator, Jon, decided it was time to get out again and suggested we do a conch hunt given low tide coicided with light winds.
 With the challenge laid down in optimal conditions there was nothing else to do but accept. With snorkel gear and fins off we went for Johnny's Cay. See the GPS data for our tracks on the day. Jonny's Cay is in between Elbow Cay and Man-O-War Cay on the eastern reef protecting the Sea of Abaco from the Atlantic.
 We had about 15k of wind from the east so initially we were concerned that this would be too much for a dink out towards the ocean but our concerns turned out to be unwarranted. We had calm seas that lended themselves to easy snorkeling for conch. Once out there inside the cay and the reefs, we used my Home Depot look bucket to spot conch fields. Home Depot? Yes. I took an orange Home Depot Bucket, cut the bottom out of it and glued a piece of Lexan into the bottom. You can see the bottom really well through something like this. Deb did a great job once we were over the grassy areas and in short order we had several conch suitable for keeping and dinner. Diving down 8 feet or so was easy enough leaving me plenty of bottom time to examine a couple of conch before returning to the surface. One has to make sure one is retrieving mature conch. Fortunately there were no other signs of life in the area like sharks or barracuda but then the bottom had no structure that supported fish they would be interested in.
 Once we had our catch we headed back to Sea Spray and proceeded to pull the conch out of their shells and skin them. At this point I will say, with support from others, the first person to hunt conch for food had to be very hungry. It's a royal PITA to skin and prep them for cooking. But nothing beats a good conch fritter. All we need is a frydaddy or something like that. Deb refused to bring one down here in the interest of keeping my blood at a decent level. Some people are too concerned about the ratio of hemoglobin to oil.

 But we got all of that done and the day settled down into other chores like getting a Tohatsu 18HP outboard to idle well. Ours is a 4 stroke and it has chuffed and coughed at idle since day one. Speaking with a mechanic at a boat show the secret was revealed. Tohatsu has this green goal of running their engines very lean. As a result they set the idle mixture at the factory and install a plug over the idle mixture screw. It's all well and good when it works but if you are always stalling and restarting the engine the wasted fuel has to be as bad as running it a bit richer. It certainly beats a two stroke. If you think I am wrong start both equivelent horsepower outboards in a garbage can full of water and observe the results. So based on the recomendation I drilled out the plug and reset the idle mixture.

 Moving on here we see what the full moom looks like to the East of Sea Spray. I wish this was a shot of Freedom basking in the moon light but Sanctuary will have to do.

 Mars is up there to the South West of the Moon and don't let anyone tell you it could be a jet. Some people might have a tough time telling the difference between a jet and Mars at night but it isn't me. I don't care what you pump into me, I will never, ever, make the mistake of confusing a jetliner and Mars at night.