Egg Island

Posted on April 23, 2016

Before leaving Harbor Island, we spent some time at a beautiful little beach. Emma found many shells and Jude found more of the twine that she seems to be collecting. In fact, she found so much that Mycah had to get a  paddle board to taxi it back to Tanda Malaika on.

   

One man’s junk is another man’s treasures!

The wind had been blowing quite hard for a few days, causing some impressive swells and waves to crash through the three outlets from Harbor Island to open ocean. We decided to avoid the Devils Backbone and after waiting for 24 hours for winds to die down, set out on our next adventure to Egg Island.

We knew it was going to be a fun ride when we approached the gap and white caps stretch across the horizon. Jude positioned herself in the farthest seat forward and Aidan and Emma braced themselves at the mast for a wet and wild trip. Mycah decided to stay dry down below and Danny and I were at the helm.

    

    

Tanda Malaika raised up high over waves then dipped down into the troughs that followed, splashing water all over her bow. A huge spray also erupted through the holes of the trampoline, sending a beautiful mist over everyone and the entire deck. Jude and the twins laughed in excitement as they were drenched, bracing themselves for the next dip.

   

Once we got through the worst of it I tried to convince Danny to turn around so we could do it again, but he just smiled at me and we carried on and we enjoyed the rest of the sail to the beautiful calmer waters at Egg Island.

Within minutes of us anchoring we were all in the water exploring our surroundings. Danny and I harvested several Emperor Helmet Conch so that I could make conch fritters with the recipe Big Mama told me. The creatures swam to shore and Emma collected all sorts of shells and sea glass.

  

After we had enjoyed ourselves until we were completely saturated and our hands and toes looked like prunes, we returned to Tanda Malaika so we could clean out the conch and cook dinner.

Danny found that getting into the shells of the Helmet Conch is far more difficult than Queen Conch, but once he was on a roll there was no stopping him. Six conch later, we put the meat from three in the freezer and I cut up the other three for fritters. The key to working with conch meat is to slice it while it’s as fresh as possible, because if you don’t it’s like cutting into a frozen sperm whale.

 

I sliced and diced and before long had conch fritter frying in the pot. I never fry anything because fried foods aren’t good for you, but for these guys we made an exception. If you’re interested in the recipe I’ll have it in the recipe section of the blog under “Big Mama’s Conch.” Dip them into a fry sauce mixture and you’re in for a delicious explosion of flavor in your mouth. Danny and the creatures ate till they were ready to bust at the seams.

  

  

Egg Island got it’s name because there are many chickens on the island, and locals from a nearby island collect the eggs on a regular basis. We didn’t see one chicken though which can only mean that they are the inland variety and not the beach going type.