What an adventure! I had no idea there's "scalloping" until I was in the area and looking for things to do.
I loved the idea - go out on the boat, hunt for scallops, chill on the water = awesome dinner outcome.
The reality (lol) - well.. I'm a great swimmer but not a diver. AT ALL. As in "my head never goes under the water". For some reason I though I would wade through the water, bending and picking those suckers up. Nope. You are equipped with the swimming mask and flippers and you DIVE for scallops.
Err.. Hmm.. Not a diver here.. WTH do I do? I'm out on the boat already and I want those scallops. To hell with it, I'm in! Yea.. not so easy. The claustrophobic mask is just not doing it, nor to the flippers. Awkward as s*it if you never used them and I'm freaking scared of going too deep and breathing in water. Also, the water isn't warm. If you know me, you know cold is zero my thing. But I'm hanging in and pretending I got this. NOT.
Enter our awesome tour couple - Charlie and Teri.
Teri: "Ok girl, if you are cold, nothing is going to do it for you. Get out of the water and I'm going to dress you". On comes some kind of a diving shirt and a vest. OK. I feel like I'm wearing something heavy and over-sized that's not gonna help at all. WRONG. The minute I got back int he water my attitude totally changed. Now I'm not freezing but I'm still claustrophobic and have no idea how to use the given equipment.
Charlie: "Hold my hand and we will do this together. If I squeeze your hand, that means I see the target. Do the same."
So there I am, swimming together with Charlie, GRIPPING his hand and even pointing out scallops before he spotted one!!! Well, a few of them, at least. Those suckers are incredibly hard to spot. The average for a newbie for the entire tour is 25-30.
No worries here though, Charlie and Teri took care of us. Average for both of them is 150-200. These guys rock.
Whereas I ended up giving about half an hour of hunting (too cold and my flippers were too small, causing all sorts of cramp), they kept bringing in the catch so we ended up with about 150 scallops/pp.
Highlights:
- Again, kudos to the fantastic couple - without them I don't think I would have been able to do this, they took care of the newbie here and I felt like I totally soaked in the experience, even without being able to dive;
- Charlie had lots of stories about scalloping and the area and I do like a lesson;
- Scallops sashimi that is 1 sec "old" - OMG. It doesn't get any fresher, especially with me being the person to "clean" = kill it. And eat it, of course. YUM! They taste sweet, with a touch of sea salt from the ocean. No wasabi though - would've loved some ;)
- Gorgeous view and fantastic company. I made friends with the couple on the boat and they are also from ATL!
- Scallops for dinner = WIN.
Do try this. If I go again, I would definitely try to push for Charlie and Teri =) read more