octopus

^^lovely photos by Lisa **

After one good, much needed night of sleep it was game-on! A little diving and collecting the makings for a seafood dinner was priority number one. We hit the reefs and cuts with the crew of Saraid. Unfortunately it was too windy to really make it out to the outer reefs of Manjack, the waves were breaking. The inner coral heads we did dive were not the bright and vibrant ones we love but still a good dive and provided Keith with hogfish. Later we investigated some shallower spots and were every one was rewarded with conch and lobster. Keith picked up a Mutton Snapper.

Lisa looked pretty happy with her conch catch! Ben cut his conch cleaning time in half. Keith got his fishing fix in and I made an overflowing platter of very fresh seafood served family style. After dinner, we got a lesson on the stars and constellations, something Keith and I know so little about and truly enjoyed.

^^Lisa with two of her conchs :)**

^^The boys cleaning the catch**

^^Hogfish, Mutton Snapper, Mahi, lobster, and conch served with Lisa’s caraway coleslaw and mango salsa. YUM!!! I am now searching the islands for caraway seed!**

The next morning Keith and I went out for a dive by ourselves. In the conch-hunting excitement Saraid’s inflatable dinghy got a hole so they had to get a patch on it and in the meantime it was out of commission. We found that we aren’t the only ones who like conch, this octopus looked quite happy with his catch! Keith tried to tug on the shell just enough for me to get a better photo but the octopus just clung on tighter and dragged it further up into his hole. He kept us fascinated for quite a while. The camouflage is amazing!

^^The octopus is hard to see, look for his eyeballs.👀

In the afternoon, we picked up Ben and Lisa for a little shore-time excursion and took one of the walking paths to the oceanside beach. After all these years, we now know what poisonwood looks like. Thankfully we didn’t learn it the hard way! Lisa is incredibly knowledgable about the local vegetation and wildlife and we learned a lot. On the beach we made the best of the ever-present plastic garbage and an impromptu game of bowling kept us entertained. Ben won on style points! That evening Lisa made a conch salad like I’ve never tasted with a coconut milk base. I am now obsessed. She also made a curry version, Keith is now obsessed.

^^Poisonwood. Very distinctive, you wouldn’t think it would have taken us that long to figure it out!

^^**

For the following two days we went back to Green Turtle. It is a ghost town, season hasn’t quite started. Saraid was the only boat in the marina and we were the only cruising boat in the anchorage. Keith gave up on growing his hair out (it was getting in the way of his mask) and we found the island’s salon and got it cut. We spent a fun day touring the island with Ben and Lisa on their rented golf cart in search of pretty beaches and conch fritters. The fritters were harder to find than you would think! Finally at the Wrecking Tree they said they would make an order just for us. They hit the spot!