Porter and I had just put our snorkeling masks on. We were anchored in Start Bay off of Mayaguana in the Bahamas. The water was clear, which is a real understatement. I could see the patterns in the sand seven meters below us as if I were looking through the air, not the water. I could see the boat easily. Daddy asked if we could go see if the anchor was set. It was well set, so Porter and I went looking for conches.
We found one. I tried to dive down to get it but I couldn't
reach it. Porter got the flippers from Sila for me. Once I put them on, I tried
again. This time I reached the conch. On a conch, there are spines that come
out of the shell. The spines made it easy for me to hold the conch because they
gave me something to grip. A bunch of algae and slime was growing on the
surface of the shell. The conch was a
lot heavier than I thought it would be and I had to hold it to my chest and
kick as hard as I could to reach the surface. On the way up, I nearly dropped
it several times because it was slippery and heavy. Porter swam part way down
to help me haul the thing the last few feet. I gasped then Porter and I took
the conch to Sila.
After swimming some more, and fresh water rinsing, we read
Porter's fishing book about how to deal with conch. We started by using a
hammer to create a hole between the first and second rows of spines. Once we
had the hole, Daddy used a knife to cut the conch free of the shell. Then I
tried to pull it out but was unsuccessful. Daddy had to use pliers to grab the
foot and pull it out. Then he followed Porter's instructions for gutting and
cleaning it. Then Mama cooked it with lemon, butter and garlic. It was
delicious. Fresh, homemade conch! - Jack
Rabbit
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