The Schiffers: Day 19 – Scallopinggggg!

Early rise at 5:15am this morning. Needed to get the troops ready for a scalloping adventure. Got all the kids up and Anna made some biscuits and hard boiled eggs for all of us. The scallop boat ride was starting at 7am this morning and was to be around 4.5 hours long. I got a call from River Safari the day prior and they had an option for us to take an airboat instead of a pontoon. No brainer – Airboat ride.

We got to River Safari around 6:40am, but I unfortunately left our snorkels and masks back at the house. I had Anna and the kids go check in while I headed back to the house to grab the masks. Luckily the place was less than five minutes from the house. Waivers signed and we were off to the great open bay.

Captain Irish Dave was our boat captain of a six seater airboat. It was perfect. We had the boat to ourselves and Dave made it more special by being a very comical young man. Once we passed the harbor we put the ear muffs on, turned up the throttle and soaked in the wind and sun. The ride out to the bay was really thrilling. The marshes, birds, and just the sheer nature of it all is truly awe inspiring.

As we got closer to the grasses, Dave slowed the boat and swung it around. A pair of dolphins were playing and he managed to get us right near the pair. They popped their heads out of the water several times and even managed to swim under the boat. That would normally not be a big thing, but we were only in 2-3 feet of water – but this was their playground so they knew what they were doing.

Anchored up around 7:45am out in the bay and we were off to snorkeling. The whole week we have been down here, we have heard nothing but negativity about the scalloping this season. Some people only came back with 5-10 scallops. Worst season in well over a decade, most said. As Schiffers’ luck would have it, we did okay. We anchored at four different spots. The first one was definitely the most fruitful. The others did not bare as much success as the first. However, we saw all kinds of sea life and just enjoyed being in the water.

Bottlenose Dolphin

Scallop hiding in the sea grass - as you can tell they are very well camoflagued

Anna gettting in some snorkel time

At 11:30am Dave took us back to shore. He really turned up the airboating on the way back. Anna was in her happy place being on the boat and just zipping around. I think it brought her back to her youthful days of going out into the Everglades with her old gang. The ride was pretty quick and before long we were back at River Safari. We gathered our things – especially the scallops – and stopped in the shop and grabbed some things for Anna and headed home.

Bags of gold or scallops as others my refer to them.

Kids got right to cleaning the scallops. They worked on them for the better part of half an hour. Once Hayli, Olivia and LT shucked the scallops, Olivia took them inside and cleaned them thoroughly. Hayli and LT drove to the store to get some oil and pasta for Anna. It was about to be Yummy Time!