We have been anchored at Moraine Cay (again) for the past couple of days. It still is one of our favorite places. 

It receives bad reviews as a relatively unprotected anchorage in the guide books, so people don’t come here, which is fine with us!  Today another sailboat did come up and anchor while we were exploring in our dinghy.  We stopped by to say hello.  They were planning to spend the afternoon swimming and snorkeling before heading over to the crowded “recommended” anchorage an island or two over… We told them about the sharks… they left.

One of our buddies at Moraine Cay.  This guy was determined to eat the camera. (Don’t worry, I am NOT holding the camera!  It’s on a pole over the side of the boat.)

It wasn’t our plan, to make them leave… Honest!

I have given up on trying to get fish for dinner here after hooking a nice sized yellow snapper, and losing (most of) him to a big barracuda.  I am definitely not proving to be the top of the food chain here!

Fortunately, Karen stepped up and managed, after a dramatic chase on the shallow turtle grass flats, to bring down some conch and whelk.  I know that conch is the “glory boy” of the marine snail world here in the Caribbean, but honestly, I can’t tell the difference between conch and whelk on the table.  They all make GREAT fritters! You might have seen whelk on the menu at a fancy Italian restaurant as “scungili.”

A large knobbed whelk.  

Whelk and conch ready for the pot.

Although superficially similar in appearance, they are quite different critters.  The conch is a grazing herbivore, while the whelk is a carnivorous snail that uses the edge of its shell to pry open clams and other bivalves.