January 31 - Feb 1, 2017 Tiloo Pond and beach bonfire

we met Old Rosie, Ben and Jan from Owen Sound, and after our walk we

organized a bonfire on the beach at  rising mid tide

Karen and Burt, Almost Heaven from Nova Scotia on the right, then Ben, Mike a US boat, 

Jane and Joe

Burt playing and singing

Mike, Jane, Ben and Lorraine

Joe was the fire starter and controller 

as the tide came in it smothered the rest of the fire and then

it was time to go back to our boats

Mike and Lorraine out for a sail in their dinghy

the next morning West Wind from Deep Cove, Mahone Bay, Nova Scotia came in to

anchor …. Ellen and Eric Haynes let us use their mooring ball a few years ago, when

we where in the Deep Cove area

one of the million dollar plus homes on Tiloo Cay, this is only 1/2 of the place

in the middle is the main house and off both ends is guest houses, one of the guest houses is not in the picture

another secluded beach to walk at Tiloo Banks, it mostly dries out at extreme low tides, a good

place for sand dollars

I rescued a few star fish today, it was left at the high water mark, to bake in the sun

this one was still alive, because when I turned it over the little legs wiggled, so I turned it to 

a safe depth of water … we wondered why we never see dead starfish on the beaches, and

after further reading we found out that they disintegrate  after death

this was the largest sea biscuit I have ever seen, too bad the sun has bleached it

so much and it is falling apart

we found a Horse Conch and it is still alive, a good time to harvest it and

keep this shell,  note conch inside the shell and there is no flare on the bottom 

part of the shell ...

Burt, Ben and Joe also enjoyed the beach walk

later we all got together on Almost Heaven for snacks and drinks

Karen and Burt

Jane and Ben

Joe found some more sea beans

our conch ready to take over to Mike and Lorraine for a demonstration on

harvesting the conch

well to our surprise when we showed our prize to Mike (avid conch and lobster hunter)

he said we had an illegal conch, we thought he meant the shell, but it was the size of the

conch, it is not mature yet … the shell has to have a large flare to make it legal

so in the water we dropped it

another day has come to an end … back in Marsh Harbour

we are having issues with our wifi contact with BTC … so another

trip to the office, our third time in 2 weeks …..  to make a long story short, we spent just about 2 hours 

trying to get connected at their office … they replaced the sim card, and the connection

only lasted two days ….  we have to wait again before we are back at Marsh Harbour to go and see them again to be reconnected

  

some underwater shots of Tiloo Pond

this was like a balloon, no idea what it is

lots of small fish in a school

a 2 ft sea cucumber .. I need to google this to see what it actually does

it is kind of weird looking  

lots of friendly fish, some about 12 inches long 

Joe and Ben

Burt and Karen …. wishing we all had brought fishing gear with us

Ben and Jane towing their kayaks to shore

what we had hoped to see was the sea turtles that frequent this spot,

on our way out to our boats about 3 appeared

so next time we will pick a different snorkelling place, closer to the entrance