Nevertheless, we jumped back in the ocean in the afternoon, me carrying the brand new homemade pole spear, and Kathy carrying a mesh bag to hold all the fish I would catch. We snorkeled over to the reef on the tip of Mattie Point and I immediately saw a sizable Yellowtail Snapper near a rock. I took aim with the pole spear, stretched the rubber band to its maximum, and let go! Unfortunately, the rubber band was a bit wimpy for the job and the fish had plenty of time to dodge out of the way, turn around, and stick its tongue out at me before the spear slammed into the rock, flattening my carefully sharpened point. I tried it a couple more times, with the same result each time. Now I was swimming around with a rounded stick on the end of a PVC pipe and all the fish, and Kathy, were laughing at me.

So I used the stick to torment Libby a little bit, and then Kathy and I swam back over to the sea grass beds to search for Conch. Toward the middle of the South Sound, we found an entire colony of the big mollusks, hopping over the seabed with their one little foot. We collected three of them, one big one and two medium-sized ones, and put them in the mesh bag.

It turns out, cleaning a Conch is even more difficult and requires more tools than cleaning a coconut. We used a hammer, a screwdriver, a pair of pliers, a sharp knife, and a book called The Queen Conch. Ultimately, Kathy got grossed out and went inside to make cinnamon rolls for tomorrow's breakfast. I continued coaxing the slimy critters from their shiny pink homes (just like us!), trimming the undesirable parts, and removing the elephant-like skin and claw-like operculum on the end of the foot. I sat on the steps doing this so long that, upon standing again, I briefly considered changing my name to Ben Toverman. But in the end, we had three beautiful pieces of snow-white Conch meat to go into the freezer for later in the week, successful hunters despite the failure of my little sword.

By now, my sunburn was starting to catch up with me. I was feeling drained and a little sick and it was like my belly (my least favorite body part, as demonstrated in the Memphis airport) was glowing in the dark. Kathy volunteered to make dinner; barbequed pork chops with potato salad and corn on the cob, while I vegged on the couch and moaned. The dinner was fantastic, and we quickly retired afterward, me with my shirt off sleeping on top of the sheets so nothing touched the glowing parts.