The Gulf Of Mexico was crystal clear yesterday with only a slight breeze at Blind Pass so it was a perfect day to snorkel. Unfortunately, I only had time to stop and take this photo so I didn’t get to test the waters.
Aha! … But I did have time today!
I met Lance, Krista, Amy and Mike (all from Ft Myers) shelling near the Captiva side of the pass…
They were filling their pockets and shell bags with WHELKS, FIGHTING CONCHS, OLIVES and check out this beautiful ROUGH SCALLOP Krista found…
Okay, I’ve shown you lots of different shelling contraptions but this one had me cracking up… big time! Kal made this “telescope backhoe” to reach those hard to get shells. He was having a competition with his family on naming it. LOL
It takes the whole family to show off this awesome tool.. Here’s Emma, Kalman, Anna Lee, Kal, Lee and Caroline from South Carolina. Hey Kal, what’s the winning name?
Super Sheller Clark better watch out because our friend Daron has been coming up with the best shell of the day lately.
He found this really nice big ALPHABET CONE with beautiful lettering.
I was so tickled with my two cones but Daron’s was bigger than both mine put together. I snorkeled all around Blind Pass today and while gave away most of my finds, these were my keepers. Oops! Other than that gorgeous LACE MUREX.
Did you see that sweet little ALPHABET CONE in the bottom of the last photo? I filmed that while I was snorkeling today. Here’s a video of some of the shells I collected… underwater! I bought a waterproof housing for my camera but I’ve been nervous to use it. Really, we’ve had some really strong currents lately so it’s not safe most days to snorkel at Blind Pass but today was an exceptionally calm day. So, I got out the waterproof case and I tested the waters (literally). It worked! Oh, and since it goes really fast, I slowed down the part where I find a WENTLETRAP. Yes! At Blind Pass, I found a monster WENTLTRAP! Enjoy the quick vid!
PS- I’m sure you noticed the dredging barges in the background of my photos. Some of the pipes have been laid but they haven’t started pumping the sand/shells yet. I’ll let you know when I have more info.
Pam, wow! I was right there when you took the photos of the shells. Didn’t realize that it was you.
Oh Ive! I wish we would have met!!! Darn it!
Me too. I saw the white Lexus in the parking lot with the Iloveshelling bumper sticker and wondered if it was your car. I plan on being up before sunrise since we leave the island tomorrow and I want more beach/shelling time before we have to leave.
Thanks for the snorkeling video, Pam!! So much fun, you have THE BEST job keeping this blog!!!!!
Pam , what dredging barges ? To busy watching you find those beautiful shells to notice …… LOL !!! Love the ” gurgling” sound you made when you found the wentletrap ! Thanks for sharing !!! We are on our big count down now … 7 days till paradise , so save some of those sea treasures for us !!! Hope to run into to you then . Take care lady & happy shelling !!!
Carla, LOL.. whoops! Maybe I cropped those barges out of most of my photos. You can see it in the background of the pic with Lance, Krista, Amy and Mike.
You ARE the Queen of Wentletraps you know! How in the world did you manage to snorkel, take movies AND find great shells at the same time? You are multi talented my friend.
All those other comments are true! Pam you and your blog are so much fun for all the rest of us! Thanks for all your hard work!
Great video! My next visit I will be bringing goggles, and if there are strong currents, well, so be it. I hope Cuba has good shells too.
Let us know if Cuba should be added to a sheller’s bucket list!
I’m with Susan and all the others. You are the guaranteed smile of my day. The under water video is great – so glad it worked. It helps the time go faster until I can be there again (EIGHT months to go – ugh!). I know doing all of this is a lot of work, but rest assured it is appreciated! Thank you!!!!
nice
Pam, why are there dredges in Sanibel? Are they moving the sand (and shells) to a different beach? I hope they won’t take too much sand!
Emma, the channel at Blind Pass is closing up so they have to dredge the sand out so we can have good water flowing under the bridge.
And thanks to the rest of y’all for the sweet comments! I just knew you would want to come along with me snorkeling!! I felt like all of y’all were right there with me and would get a kick out of that wentletrap and alphabet cone. heehee
Leave it to you, Pam, to find a new way to make us all jealous with your snorkling adventure!!! Trust me, I’m sure for every person who thanks you here, there are likely many, many more who just read your blog and smile.
Hi Pam,
I love to snorkel,but we only visit Sanibel in January when the water is cloudy and too cold for my achy joints and muscles, so I was thrilled to live vicariously through your swim. Thanks for the great video. Sue Bunkin from PA
Sue,
Where in PA are you? I am from the eastern side – north and east of Philadelphia.
Hi Pam,
I so enjoy reading your blog! I live in Denver, so ocean trips are not very frequent for me. It’s been almost 2 years since I vacationed on Sanibel so your pictures and videos make me feel like I am still there. Thanks so much for sharing with all of us!!
Anna Lemmons & Linda from SW MIchigan –
Have not been to the other part of Cuba but I do know that we do find some good shells here at Guantanamo Bay! See for yourself – I posted pics of some of the smaller shells we have found in Gtmo on the I love shelling Facebook page.
Lee, I didn’t see the photos on the iLS Facebook page. Can you repost? I’d love to see them!
Pam – they can be seen under “Recent Posts by Others” on June 16th. I made 3 different posts with pictures on that date. Let me know if you see them there or do I need to repost?
Aha! That’s right! I saw them whenu first posted them. We found similar shells in Belize. Love those Caribbean conchs
I checked out your post on i Love Shelling facebook– a very nice colection from Guantanamo. I know this may be a stupid question but is Cuba/ Guantanamo Bay open for American tourists? I’m only aware of Gitmo as a military base/terrorist prison.
Guantanamo Bay is the Navy’s oldest overseas base (established 1903) and is not open for tourists. Gtmo has been around long before 9/11 and the detainee mission. The Navy base is in a strategic location in the Carribean, serving as a refueling station for military ships and many Coast Guard ships who are intercepting drug traffic (often headed to the U.S.). The base has received much more media attention since 9/11 and often has many reporters here during detainee hearings.
Ohhhhhhhhh Pam, OOOOOOOO Pam, you just have my heart right there with you snorkeling, ALL, Everything you post is soooo wonderful! I so need to add to my alphabet cone jar! Its about the size of the large baby food jar, ha ha, which sure isn’t many! Never stop posting!
I love this new medium, Pam. I can only imagine what you’ll be able to do with it. Maybe Capt. Brian can take you out to some shelling spots we don’t normally get to see and you can film underwater out there. I was wondering if you would see shell wrack lines out away from the beach, under the water?
I don’t think there are any “wrack lines” under the water, but there are areas in which shells collect, including a sort of “gutter” that most beaches have all along in the very shallow water where the waves all break and let go of shells that don’t make it up onto the beach itself.
Oh Pam, I am so bummed! We have been shelling there all week except yesterday when you were there! Would’ve loved to meet you! We will be shelling the Sanibel & Captiva side of Blind Pass tomorrow! It was great there and on the other side, too! It is sooo much fun being able to see the bottom! Well, if you are out shelling tomorrow, I will spread out my iloveshelling shirt on the beach by my stuff! We saw a dolphin and a manatee today! Love today’s post! I am already getting sad about going home on Saturday! Sherri from MN
Aaw… I am so jealous! How do you manage to visit the beach so frequently? My beach visits now are restricted to the weekends! :( Sigh… Anyway, cool shells and photos! :)
I visited Sanibel along with TROPICAL STORM DEBBY.. After waiting 27 years to return to this wonderful island I had to pick the week she had to raise her ugly head. We stayed for one and a half days then gave up and drove home to Ohio. You see I am still in therapy from a stroke earlier this year and with my balance still not as strong as normal I could not tackle the winds. I was so sooooooooooooo disappointed to leave. I have been reading your blogs for 5 months now and have enjoyed every one of them. I am still looking at all the wonderful pics and videos, you help me enjoy the beach without actually being there. THANKS!
The day we were driving home I asked to see the far end of Captiva, so my husband and I drove through the watery roads and stopped at one of the beaches that was at the very end of the island I think. When we sat in the car and looked towards the beach my husband said “Look, there is a i Love Shelling bumper sticker on that whtie car” One of therecent posts mentioned you had a white Lexis with the same bumper stcker. I wonder if I also missed out on meeting you..I had my iLove Shelling t-shirt packed in the car, now I wish we would have ventured out on the water ( no beach to speak of was left). Well Pam, thank you again for all you time that you put into this site for those of us not as fortunate to be there. Perhaps next summer, I have the t-shirt, the shelling backhoe as Clark calls it, nets and all the other necessary shelling tools. I will be back ..
Loree from Ohio… that was me in the VERY dirty white car (Clark calls is the pig mobile) with the i Love Shelling bumper sticker on the back! I wish I had met you and I wish you could have just gotten on the beach for a second to see it with me.
I have a couple of questions regarding winds and tides. 1) I notice most of the shells pictured tend to come from either Blind Pass or the Lighthouse. Does that mean that if I stay on West Gulf Dr. I will not find as many good shells? 2) The tide charts I see also show either the Lighthouse or Blind Pass. How can I find the tide charts for West Gulf Dr. area?
I am so nervous that I made a mistake by booking my hotel mid-island rather than the other areas now. This trip has been 23 years in the making and I really want it to be special. I have planned the trip for Nov. 2012 full moon. And I really want to find a large horse conch, a nice sized crown conch, and the rest will be cherries on the sundae. Any tips for me?
Thanks for your time, I visit your page daily!! <3
Tam, the first thing to remember is that shelling is a treasure hunt and mother nature is the one hiding the jewels. She always changes the rules to keep it interesting so you never know what November is going to bring until that day arrives and you hit the beach. West Gulf Drive is excellent for shelling lots of the time so don’t worry. It changes with the wind. I don’t write about west gulf drive that often because there aren’t public parking lots so it’s difficult for people to get there. As for the tides charts… The stations that measure the tide aren’t everywhere so there isn’t a station on west gulf. Just take the tide at LH and at BP and half it…. just guestamate. It’ll all be fine!
I constantly give tips on my posts so just kept reading. And thank you for visiting!
Thank you Pam. I feel much better now:-). I asked another question on a different page—Are mud flats the same as sand bars? Any particularly good mud flats on West Gulf to find Crown Conch. Thanks again!! You are the most informative person on the entire Internet!!
Mud flats aren’t on the gulf side of the island. They are on the bay side (sound side). They are basically the same thing as a sand bar… exposed bars or shallow areas on the bay side that are more “muddy”.
Thank you very much for all of your helpful information:-)
Tam,
I stay on West Gulf most of the time when I come to Sanibel and the shelling is usually excellent. But, remember that you can drive to other areas too. Pay attention to the wind direction on the day and night before. Look at a map of Sanibel and see what part the wind is blowing to, and go to that location. But. like Pam says, Mother Nature plays tricks sometimes – you just have to hunt.
I don’t know that much about mud flats, but I don’t think there are any along West Gulf beach areas. Maybe someone else know more about that than I do. Happy hunting!! .
Thank you, Katherine:-)
Hi Pam,
Just found your blog and facebook page and love them! I wanted to know if you can recommend a place to stay close to one of your good shelling beaches. I have promised to bring my mother to Sanibel for years and now I am retiring and planning the trip for this October. My mother loves to walk the beach looking for shells and I think she will just fall in Love with Sanibel
Kim,
What I have found is that everybody has different needs with their hotel so that would be a whole other blog on places to stay. There are tons of great hotels on our beaches. I know you’ll find the perfect place!
Hi Pam, The car topper is on and we are on the final countdown, so excited! We were wondering what the dredging will mean for shelling? Such as..will they close down the area? Does it stir up lots of shells that wash up elsewhere? Love, love, love your site, soooo helps pass the time between trips!
you know your the reason so many people come to sanibel you bring people there with your wonderful videos, we are coming in aug i sure hope we see you on the beaches but be nice to say hi thank you for your videos, are things ok sense the storms?
Pam, I am REALLY sorry now that I didn’t try to walk over towards the beach area. I would have truly enjoyed meeting you. I hope next summer our paths will cross. Also, I want you to know that I agree with the many others that YOU promote Sanibel better than any travel agency could. I love listening to the sounds of the beach on your videos and looking at the beautiful pic..
Wow Pam,
Your day looked heavenly. Thank you so much for sharing your adventure. I am planning on coming back for a quick overnight on the new moon and hope to do some snorkeling too. Definately will jump in the car the moment you give the dredging word. Are you by chance getting late afternoon storms?
You should certainly be on the Chamber of Commerce pay roll with all the folks you surely bring to Santiva. :)
I look forward to running into you soon. P.S. Keeping Clark in mind front & center, for any real estate prospects I get.
Best for a glorious day.
One of my absolute favorite things to do is SNORKEL! I hadn’t really seen any “clear enough” water to do so (I’m Hawaii spoiled) – but it looks like Blind Pass might be the answer later on….we’ll probably be back down in September or October to our little bungalow in the Park….but by then maybe the water will be cloudy again???? Love the Wentletraps and cones and (is that sea glass?) – I’m SOOOO ready to get this log home in TN sold and be down on the island PERMANENTLY!!!! I don’t always comment, but I ALWAYS read!!!! Love your site. Johnnie Lorren
Pam, You Rock period. Just saw the video of you snorkeling blind pass.Only you could find a wentletrap and cone in 58 seconds. UNCLE I give :) Uncle Thanks for a great video and thanks for getting out there.
When the lights go down in the city, and the sun shines on the bay, well I want to be there, in the city by the bay…..I love to watch the snorkeling video! Brings back happy memories! :)