Beached boat
When there’s a really low tide, it’s not so unusual to see a beached boat….. but it’s always an interesting site. The good news is that the family that beached this boat is home safely. The guy that’s in the boat works at the boat rental company and is waiting for the tide to come in so he can get the boat back to his dock. I’d hate to see the bill that family gets.
Vanessa, Brian and Jennica (Illinois)
I didn’t meet that “boating” family but I did meet a shelling family. It was lots of fun hearing the stories that Vanessa told me from her years vacationing at Song of the Sea on Sanibel learning about shelling from her mother. She is now enjoying shelling with her daughter Jennica (and her husband Brian) to show them the trick to look for BUBBLE SHELLS because they are a good sign that you will find WENTLETRAPS. Vanessa had those wentles along with some OLIVES and APPLE MUREXES tucked away in her shell bag but here’s some other minis Brian was finding.
Brian's miniature seashells
These are pictures from shelling at low tide on Friday night. Our keepers were similar to Brian’s plus a few wentles too but I didn’t get a chance to post them because we took at little weekend trip down to Key West for Lobsterfest! Weehoo! We had a really good time and saw a gorgeous sunset from Mallory Square that I will post tomorrow. For now, much needed rest. zzzzzz.
I wold love to find a Wentletrap. What is the “trick to look for BUBBLE SHELLS because they are a good sign that you will find WENTLETRAPS”
Hi Andrea, you are right, that was vague….oops! If you see an area that has lots of bubble shells….start adjusting your eyes to look for wentletraps. I’m not sure why but they seem to always “travel” together. Like Vanessa, I can always spot bubble shells easier that wentletraps so if I look for bubbles then lots of (not all ) times I’ll find a wentle. I hope that helps. If you find one this way please let us know! Good luck!
Hi Pam, Is there a tide & moon combination that you prefer or that seems especially good for shelling … other than hitting the low tide and of course following a storm :) which you can’t plan a vacation around unfortunately. My next trip to Sanibel I want to pick the dates with that in mind. We hit a very flat tide in May this year. We were thinking next March perhaps. Is the water warm enough then to swim ?
Yes, most of the time it is warm enough to swim in March and It’s normally a wonderful time of season to come. A full moon or new moon is the lowest of tides so that’s a good time to shell. Check out this link for March 2010 http://iloveshelling.com/blog/2010/03/
We went boating Saturday night to dinner with friends of clients from Germany and they told us about the boat that was on shore…they couldn’t believe that nobody was keeping an eye on it…but like we told them it was probably a rental and didn’t realize that it would happen. (Probably only boat on lakes where that isn’t a problem!) They wouldn’t do well in the New England area where the tides are big!! Thanks for the picture so now I see what they were talking about! Oh by the way… I gave the Fun German family your Web Site and told them to check it out!!!