We found seashells for miles on our iLoveShelling adventure yesterday to Cayo Costa with Captiva Cruises.
Among WHELKS, CONCHS, COCKLES, OLIVES and TULIPS, Morgan found a MACULATED BABY’S EAR and her brother (both from MO) found a huge WORM SHELL.
An outstanding BROWN BABYS EAR- Congratshellations Morgan!
Bill and Linda from PA found some gorgeous treasures too.
Check out the color pattern on Bill’s LIGHTNING WHELK. The cream stripes on his shell are fantastic and are not so common- its pretty spectacsheller.
Bonnie and Michele (Chicago) with friend Cindy (Cape Coral) found bag full of shells.
I was with Cindy when she found these sweet shells in less than one minute in one of the piles.
Jan from Iowa worked the high and dry tide wrack line because she knows thats where the best beach bling hides.
She was pretty happy with all her amazing beach finds. I could have looked in her bling bucket for an hour it was so cool. I love that stuff!
Abbey from Utah was very happy with her shell finds but was happiest with her perfect SAND DOLLAR.
It was wonderful to shell with Abbey’s whole family and see them find ANGEL WINGS, dried SEA URCHINS, CONCHS, WHELKS and all sorts of sweet shells.
Lori, Emma and Lisa from Ohio filled seashells and beach bling to the brim of their shell bags too. Lori brought a hanging mesh bag with compartments that worked perfectly to keep her SAND DOLLARS, SEA URCHINS and other breakables safe from getting smooches. Clever!
It’s always fun to see my buddy Rachel (NY) show up on the cruise when she is in town for the shell show. She’s always looking for unusual shells for her exhibits- remember her pearl exhibit last year? To see it CLICK HERE
It was lovely to meet Tom, Kathleen and Joann visiting from Ohio. They found some great keepers but I never got to see all of their finds since I was so interested in the booties they had on. Clark loves to wear dive boots on the beach since they are good in and out of the water under any conditions so I might get hime these booties Joann had on. I just looked them up- Thanks Kathleen! If you are interested too- you can find them by clicking on …. Mares trilastic dive boots
Along with lots of other goodies, Shelling Sister Diane found a beautiful WINGED OYSTER with a stunning pearlescent interior and her sister (and Shelling Sister) Marilyn from Chicago found a monster of a LACE MUREX. Gorgeous!
I couldn’t believe it when I met Melissa and Clement (CA) and saw they had a collapsible shelling scoop made exactly like the one John (the engineer) made on one of February’s cruises (CLICK HERE). Melissa told her mom Glenda that she would love to have her scoop mad that way so she could pack it in their luggage… so Glenda made one for her! OMG Thats Awesome!
I knew it would be a good trip when Ginny from MA found a KINGS CROWN beside the dock at McCarthy’s Marina
Not only did we finds lots of seashells, we saw a family of MANATEES and we had DOLPHINS playing by our boat. It was a fabulous day.
Mother Nature must have gotten the message we wanted sunshine, seashells and sealife sightings . Thanks Captain Elliot for calling her on the Shellphone!!
Don’t forget to enter to win a canvas Shellograph – CLICK HERE
My sister and I (and maybe significant others) will be joining you in April. Can’t wait!
She and I and her daughter and granddaughters were at Casperson Beach yeaterday and saw Dolphins, of course, and jumping sting rays. A first for me, seeing the Rays jump, tho I’ve lived here for 15 years!
I’m Shell-ous! We won’t be back until July and hopefully then there will be a Caya Costa shelling cruise with you on board!
Looks like a fabulous time was had by all. I really like the travel scoop. I think one of those will be created in my shop unless they start making them.
Love the compartment bag. We made our shell scoop telescoping also so we could bring it back and forth each year. Its awesome..
Boy there were a lot more shells there then when we went in Feb. We still had a great time. Love the winged oyster, babys ear and lace murex. It would be a great idea for the company that makes the shell scoops could also make some telescoping ones. I’m sure they could probably sell a lot of them to the snow birds. Hope the great shelling continues. Pat
Love Bill’s “spectacsheller” lightening welk and also the mostly white conch he is holding. Also love Ginny’s large king’s crown conch! Thank you for sharing – the shells are looking great and plentiful! Congrats to all the shellers.
Love the spotted baby’s ear! And that bucket of fancy beach bling!
Pam and Susan H,
Are brown baby’s ear, spotted baby’s ear, and maculated baby’s ear all names for the same shell? The one that Morgan found is beautiful. That’s still on my “to find” list!
Yes those names are all for the same very cool species. It lives in deeper water than the regular bay’s ear.
Hmmmm Ive called them “brown” and/or “maculated” but I’ve never heard it called “spotted”. Maybe she was just describing it?
wow good bounty I hope I can go there next year what fun -r.g.stein
That Lightning Whelk is AWESOME Bill! Great pattern, amazing find!
That collapsible scoop is amazing. I bought a scoop online prior to our last trip to FL and when we received it we found it wouldn’t fit in our bag. I thought we maybe could separate the scoop part from the handle by unscrewing it but you can’t!
So my question is: How are people making their scoop handles collapsible?
We had a fabulous time on this trip. Meeting Pam in person was a joy! The shells were so abundant and the island was beautiful! Thank you, Pam!
Sounds like a blast! that ‘bling bucket’ made me squeal heehee! :P 17 days til Florida weather, and 19 days til Sanibel! Cant wait!