Kids, oysters, scallops and sharks

We found another kid boat! "Sea Fever", a Deerfoot 60 with Janice, Antony, Andrea (8) and Iain (5) on board. They're planning on a 2-1/2 year circumnavigation, and have made it from South Carolina to here in 3.5 months. This is the first time they've been able to slow down and stay in one place for awhile. The kids call Kel and I "Mrs Schmidt and Mr Schmidt"... I think that's the first time I've been called that! We had a campfire, hotdog roast and s'mores on the beach last night with Wyndeavor (2 kids), O'Hanna (2 kids) and Sea Fever (2 kids), plus us... thankfully no one got poked by a hot stick, as there were plenty of them waving about. Big hermit crabs (about the size of a small apple) migrate down to the waters's edge after dark, and were quite entertaining.

I dove on a coral head out in the lagoon and got 3 scallops and a pearl oyster the size of a dinner plates. The four of them filled a 5 gallon bucket to the rim! I cooked one of the scallops in the fire to test it out - delicious! The others are "waiting" in the shallows for lunch today. I'm not sure I can bring myself to cook the pearl oyster, but the kids are pretty keen to find out if it's got a pearl in it. While diving, a white tipped reef shark came by to see what I was up to. He was quite a bit bigger than the cute little black tip sharks we've been seeing, and made me a bit nervous when he came back around the 3rd and 4th times. He eventually went on his way. Wish I'd had a camera! Carter wants me to write, "I saw a blacktip shark while I was snorkeling over to the reef." They frequent the shallow water along the shore and are great because the kids can see them when snorkeling off the beach and they're quite harmless. Not too many kids their ages can say they've swam with sharks! We're still talking about how cool the giant mantas were... we may have to go back over to town for another swim with them!

-Pete