Island hopping for sea shells. Capsized my kayak, but kept all my treasures!

hello beach friends today we're going to be exploring kais island because kais island is awesome for exploring and searching for seashells but before we dive in let's backtrack just a little and talk about what transpired earlier in the day because it's going to be important to what we learn at the end of the video i had started my day in a mad rush to paddle over to dickman's island to be a little rainstorm that was coming i didn't want to be on the water during the storm and shelling through a rainstorm wasn't all that bad however after the storm it got really windy and most unfortunately i wasn't thinking about how this was going to affect my ability to get from island to island the wind was at my back on my way over to kais and it did occur to me that i was going to have a tough paddle to get back to the marina but i had seashells on the brain so i made my way over to kai's island now if you're ready to find out what kind of beachy goodness is waiting for us over on kai's island let's go to the beach [Music] [Applause] [Music] so here we are on kai's island had a very busy morning over at dickman's but right now is a balmy 72 degrees it's still really windy just got here had a busy morning but we're going to start a whole new adventure here on kais island now notice how low the tide is right now that was part of the reason i really wanted to be out here especially because the 10 000 islands are just a really great place to go exploring and looking for shells and since the tide was going to be so low for so long i wanted to be out on these islands and that is a lovely lightning whelk a little bit of beach stuff on it but that's an okay start to our day then i was noticing all these oysters that had made their little home at the bottom of these mangroves and it can be very treacherous so if you do plan on doing you know island shelling bring shoes don't don't plan on doing it barefoot you'll thank me later or your feet will all right here's a banded tulip we typically find a whole bunch of those down here which is strange i don't find them up north as much and it pays off to really check all the nooks and crannies because here is a real nice size lightning walk awesome and i can't resist a good florida fighting conquer and look how purple on the inside oh yep really happy with that shell and a turkey wing now this is an ark it's also known as a zig zag ark but the more common name is turkey wing complete with a little beach stuff and that's okay right i'm really kind of hunting and looking in between everything because i really wanted this hinged spiny jewel box now i know it doesn't look great but i'm pretty sure if i uh soak that in bleach for a little bit it'll look real pretty always happy to find a spiny jewel box that is attached that is still hinged oh complete with a drill hole awesome awesome find now kais island isn't really a shelling in the water kind of place which is my favorite but i always find such great treasures here so i just keep coming back but for the most part you really are going to be walking through shell piles dodging branches oh hello lacemirex and that's what i mean those are much harder to find up north santa bell fort myers beach captiva for whatever reason down here in the 10 000 islands they're much more plentiful and this i thought was interesting so there's these little creatures hope i'm pronouncing it right a pitic and they will bore into wood and make they'll just hang out in there that'll be their little home so little shells little bivalves created all those holes in that tree kind of neat oh and here we have now this is a thick buttercup i know it's not terribly interesting it's not even really that great a shape but i never find them so i'm happy to make my acquaintance again with a thick buttercup so here's another little peek at kais really not much opportunity again to shell near the water at this point so we're just gonna go through this shell pile let's see what's here kind of get familiar with our regular friends that are normally here like this prickly cockle the broad ribbed cardina another cockle that is another one of those thick butter cups that's a piece of shell that has been hit by a boring sponge or other creatures kind of pulled the calcium out of that shell that is an arc that is a ponderous arc this is also one that is a yellow prickly cockle and so there's tons of shells here the cockles the arks slipper shells all sorts of things but i tend to like things that are just a little bit more exciting like this top snail that is kind of cool and a scallop oh a real pretty one so that's a calico scallop and i do love when they have that like sunbeam pattern very nice well here we have a little lace muric's very nice it's juvenile it's little those at least look the same when they're big and when they're small just like these guys so that's a sunray venus it's hinged it's little itty-bitty but you can tell the juveniles all the way to the adults have that same appearance not all the shelves are like that top snails those are that's another one much better condition than that first one we found and that also little ones look just like that they'll just be a little more little here is another juvenile lace murics complete with a little bit of pink on its top very nice yep so when i can i do try to go by the water and there's really not much there so for the most part i'll probably be walking through the woods and everything but it is nice to just come down here and check you never know i like to increase my chances zigging and zagging and check this little itty bitty guy out so that is a coffee melampus they only get to be about three quarters of an inch big i do find them at bunch and apparently they're down here at kais as well oh critter of course because i'm a little bit by the water it's in some sort of drill here we have a little hermit crab ever so slowly just stretching its legs and it the tide is coming in at this point probably would have been fine but since we said hi i'll be nice and put it back in the water now this is one of those broad rib cardinas they are very plentiful but not ones with yellow on them so i thought that was really interesting yeah don't find him with yellow i thought that was really cool so common shell but uncommon color i'm gonna hold on to that here are more critters really hard to find these shells these are cloudy periwinkles and they typically live in the splash zone so when that tide comes in i mean it's really going to come in the water will be very close to where they are so you can imagine how dramatically the tide goes in and out and they are gorgeous tough to find those shells though here is a fighting conch now these guys are they do look very different the juveniles look a lot different than the adults at least to me they do that one seems to have some sort of like weirdness going on a little bit of deformity so i like that i'm gonna keep it oh and i saw a little bit of pink i had to check that out that is a very lovely calico scallop there are a couple different scallops down here but typically those calicos have really the more different colors a great variety of colors well high apple murex right that's a little more fat in the middle than the lace murix it's got nice color got some little bit of bumps on it awesome okay so you guys ask me all the time what equipment i have i don't really bring a lot that's my shell bag it is old it is beat up it's literally my original shell bag it wasn't long enough so i cut it and tied a piece of fabric to really lengthen the strap i don't care it looks terrible but it works and then i always keep a little container with me so that'll be for my sand dollars urchins tinies things that are more delicate or small that i don't want to get lost so that's it nothing fancy i need to have both hands free so i can sling it over my shoulder and that's the equipment i use to carry things like that and that these are both calico scallops very lovely purple calico scallops oh yay now this is unusual that well not terribly unusual i mean you can find them yellow usually they're orange but that is a juvenile horse conch it's a little beat up it's missing its bottom but i really just wanted to kind of show you the color kind of neat to see a little bit of yellow here and here we have now this is a florida five oh look at that purple awesome now someone recently asked me how can you tell if it's empty well if you look right there you see the critters eyeballs so if there's anything in the shell not sand or other shells but if there's anything squishy anything that has eyeballs if there's a crab in there that is not something that you are allowed to keep but that completely empty lovely lightning walk that just kind of washed up at my feet i think it was a sign that beach stuff won't be a problem i'm gonna keep that lovely lightning bulk okay spiny jewel box how spiny yeah that's pretty spiny that's a pretty decent looking little jewel box it's not hinged but it is lovely and another lightning whelk i'm gonna say those are almost as common as the fighting conks i mean they are really really everywhere love those lightning walks oh and here we have another whelk that is a pear whelk another lovely typically they'll have more brown really more colors on it that one's a little washed out but in great shape and what do we got here a little moon snail so that is a colorful moon snail a gaudy nautica but it has a varied color it's not normally that color normally it hopefully will find one i'll show you so that is a moon snail with some weird color and that's a calico scallop really nice to see that pattern again that sunbeam pattern on that purple background very nice and another little lace mirex let's see how lacy oh it's very lacy oh it's a little broken that's okay most of it's fine i'm gonna hold on to that and then i hit kind of like this jackpot and i'm always drawn to the water if i can i like being where the fresh shells are yeah i know we've got a couple but hey what's one more right another lightning welcome so start seeing some fighting conchs and hoping there'll be some other interesting things here oh that's really pretty i like the pattern on that so that is a florida fighting conch i see a lightning well check out that banded tulip there is a lettered olive lots of cool stuff here there's a keeper so that's another banded tulip complete with a nice aperture normally that opening is a little chipped up very nice here's another fighting conch and the problem with those is they're heavy so i really really try not to pick them up until the end of my shelling trip otherwise i'm carrying around 30 pounds of shells that's much lighter that was a banded tulip and that's one of those cross barred venus very very common but still kind of a cool shell all right i see oh i see it do you see it a albino lace mirror x it's uh it's kind of a bummer because it's kind of beat up it's too bad it's not more lacy but it's still i do like finding things those albino shells so that's still something i'm going to hold on to oh and another horse conch all right as those conks get older they tend to lose their color not always but so that's a decent wow one from yellow to purple so that was a horse conch and then this is a lovely calico scallop i'll love seeing that purple with the blue very nice okay this is a florida cone i do love me some cones so pretty much no matter what if it's a cone i hold on to it unless it's really beat up that my friends is a true tulip much harder to find than the banded tulips that is a true tulip looks like it's destined to meet up with some acid just to see if we get some color back and oh i was really hoping that that angel wing would be whole but alas it is not or this lightning well but look at that color it's just it's like black and orange i rarely find them that color so i know it's broken but i'm gonna go ahead and hold on to it so there is a nice little shell pile and i was going to lay down and do like a shell angel like you got y'all would do in the snow but i was wearing shorts and i didn't feel like getting all cut up so maybe one of these times i'll do it at the time it didn't seem like the best idea look i did find myself a whole angel wing love those beautiful white shells all right you see it what about now look a baby's ear i'm so excited so this is also part of the moon snail family believe it or not and that is called a baby's ear there's a couple different types of babies ears but this is the only type i have found so far maybe one day i'll find a different species oh a worm snail so that's a florida worm snail i like them they're weird they just kind of do their squirmy thing i like collecting those shells and since i'm here i'll go ahead and just you know grab that banded tulip why not something orange oh that's not what i'm going for or or maybe i am yes so that's a juvenile fighting conch and then that's a colorful moon snail that has the more typical colors on it versus that other one that had kind of like that weird coloring a lettered olive it's not albino but is it shiny and lettery and pointy why yes it is it checks off all the boxes lovely letter to olive oh got caught up on that branch yeah i know i'm nuts i think that is just absolutely gorgeous love that color on that fighting oh what am i going all right there is a hinged sunray venus piece of a sand dollar there's the ponderous arcs again yep with their black periastricum a giant atlantic cockle more stuff a really oh unfortunate an apple mirex that's seen better days now look at this lightning walk right now i'm trying to determine if it's really bleached out or if yep i guess i decided that that was a keeper sometimes they'll be bleached out and you're not going to get that color back a lot of times you can use acid and remove that whiteness and i think it's time to go for a little walk so you guys enjoy no that my friends is an albino lightning walk now i can i can just tell i don't know if you can tell on the screen visually but that is not bleached out that is not you know calcified that is an albino lightning welcome awesome find and a very yellow prickly cockle i am drawn to those colors and textures the more different the better so that is a yellow prickly cockle another tulip another true tulip now i know that's as good as it's going to get from a color standpoint because the shell is wet so even if i dipped it in acid it's still not going to really revive the color i'm going to keep it anyway just like this one because it's a cone and i pretty much keep all the cones i find awesome little florida cone oh a banded tulip but that's not what i was excited about look at the color on this broken scallop yeah the color is cool i'm not going to keep it but i'll go ahead and hold on to that banded tulip with barnacles oh more barnacles although they're empty of that calico scallop lovely there we go so that is a pear whelk complete with nice rich colors so sometimes they're striped or they have a light background with just a couple bands that is a gorgeous pair well oh and here's a lace mirror that's just buried in beach stuff or maybe that's even an apple oh no that's a banded tulip real pretty color oh a really look at that lightning well cuz super bendy usually it's a little more straight that one's a little bent and weird so i like it and so again this is just for reference just to kind of show you where i am so i'm very close to the water tide is coming in and you can just look at how vibrant all the colors of the shells are because the water has been here just gorgeous and there's so many goodies another apple muric's yup real nice color nice texture it's not beach worn gorgeous gorgeous apple murics and a little lightning milk another banded tulip yup that's usually how i find him i'm gonna leave that that's the ponderous arc again that's a live one and that black stuff that's called periostracum and that is a natural covering that the shells develop that is a lace mirror it's kind of lacy yeah it's a keeper what else do i spy another banded tulip excellent and a lightning welch and a nutmeg all right i haven't seen one of those today oh dear yeah i probably won't keep it but we did say hi i'll just keep keep it moving see what other goodies we find oh a rough scallop now those raised parts of the shell that's called the ribs and you'll notice the difference between the ribs of the rough scallop just kind of interesting much different than the bay scallop and if you look at those ribs and the distance between them and even the shape those are much more square the rough scallop kind of had round ribs oh pretty that is not a scallop that is a really pretty i guess i couldn't resist a fighting conk because it's so orange love it oh yay it's a little broken but that's a horse conch very i'm always kind of happy when i find those i'm always really happy when i find the big ones even though it's only happened once but hey we'll just keep looking here's another horse conch a little worse for wear a little bit of beach stuff a little bit broken ah real nice half of a pair welk so just kind of see anything else kind of catches my eye oh the texture of this lovely lace mirrors very pretty awesome awesome lace mirex okay i really do like that that pattern on the calico scallop that sunbeam pattern i thought that was really pretty oh and that's typically how i find those horse cox little ones typically they're orange sometimes with that little white top on them yay nice nice orange things to find at the beach all right still kind of close to the water hoping that maybe some fresh stuff is getting pushed up onto the beach there's another top snail a jujube top snail there's a little lace mirrors there is another lace mirror it's i guess it's oh down here down in the thousand islands you find them like this up north you know santa bell again captiva fort myers not so much lettered olives no problem it's another ponderous ark that is a sun ray venus clam complete with a little drill hole see what else i see a spiny jewel box that's another little lightning walk all sorts of goodies yeah i'm having myself a good old time so that's a shark eye that actually happens to be a false shark eye and you can tell the difference when you flip them over and you look at the underside there's a part that looks like it's kind of scooped out i've gone gone over this a couple of times hopefully you guys get it i think i'm there i think i really can tell the difference between the shark eye and the false shark eye and i'm just marveling like i look to my left there's seashells i look at my feet there are seashells i look up the beach and more seashells so i am just having the best time now that's another shark eye with that is not the right color that is a false shark eye typically they're brown not that color because it's kind of weird i'm gonna keep it speaking of weird so this is a sun ray venus clam and it has a little bit of shine to it i can't tell if it's just wet but the point is is that you can't always identify the shells by the coloring a lot of times you're going to need to go by the shape so that was a very bleached out sunray venus clam a lettered olive and a lightning whelk and a broken banded tulip a juvenile florida fighting conch i saw a angel wing there perhaps it was not up to par here we have another little lace muric's and a banded tulip so not too shabby from bending down for about 22 seconds ah that's another albino and it's a lace and it's so pretty oh that is awesome i found that beat up one and i'm even happier with that one that is just beautiful on a crown conch not too crowny but hey it's still not too bad that's a decent crown conk and at this point i realized that been on the island for a while completely lost you know really kind of track of time and i do need to head back and i notice that the tide i mean it's it's pretty high it's really coming in but i have a feeling we're going to find a couple more goodies before we need to say goodbye like this pretty pear whelk it is a little chip but the color is great so i'm still going to size is good too so because of that i'm going to hold on to it another now this was big this is a gaudy nautica i don't know if you can really tell it's really it's much bigger than the size i normally find and i know it's covered in beach stuff but i'm going to try to save it so i'm going to hold on to that gaudy nautica and the color on this was re i like when it looks like it was like smudged like the paint was wet you just kind of wiped it so that's a sunray venus kind of got that different kind of coloring on it very nice oh and like an orange fighting conch yeah i couldn't resist that plus i'm leaving so it's okay i can load up on fighting conks now guys so the last time i left kais i also found a gorgeous flat as i was leaving so i guess kais really wanted to say thanks for coming and it gave me another gorgeous flat thank you kais i appreciate it so i noticed that the tide was coming in and i started to panic did i park my kayak high enough so i was boogieing i mean at the end here i was really booging and i can see it my kayak is blue so i know i saw it i'm like okay at least i know i'm going to be able to get back to the marina so there's my little kayak it's a wee little thing but i do manage it myself and it's fine and i take a look at and i see yeah that's going to be a really tough paddle and that's about when things really took a turn for the worse i tried my hardest but there was no way i was going to paddle back to the marina this photo i took accidentally most likely when i was drawing off my phone and calling for help after i left kais i paddled my heart out and i made it to the back side of dickman's capsized retrieved all my gear and my paddle and my shells and decided to just hunker down and call for help let's talk about the things i learned today don't try to kayak in strong winds i've kayaked before but never in wind like this and i severely underestimated how hard it was going to be to get back to the marina my bad 4-1-1 does still work i used it to call the marina to find out what my best options were for getting back to the marina and they said call 9-1-1 if you're stuck the way i was get somewhere safe and just call for help my fear was that i would be swept out into the gulf i was here on kais and i made it to about here on dickman's after an extraordinary amount of effort and i might have said a swear word or two because i really wanted to get back to the marina but it wasn't going to happen without help last tip make sure you have extra battery i did run out of battery the last time i did this trip but this time i checked my cords i checked my batteries and i was so grateful that i did help did arrive in the form of marco island police in their boat and they very graciously gave me a ride back to caxampus marina i didn't get any footage of the rescue as i was still feeling rather foolish and didn't think it would be appropriate however my rescuers did agree to be in the video so here's a quick message from these fine gentlemen thank you made it back safely now appreciate it marco marco island police the best thank you not only did these men treat me kindly they helped me get my kayak off their boat and onto my car they helped me put my gear away i was just so very grateful for the ride their attitude and their help marco island police are awesome so it was quite a day but i'm happy to report i don't think i lost any shells i was worried that shelves might have dumped out of my bags when i capsized but far as i can tell i managed to keep all the goodies i found we did find a bunch of those lightning wells couple weird bendy ones most of the straight ones some some with really good size the fighting conchs which are always really fun for me because i love them did get a bunch of the spiny jewel boxes some top snails some sunray venus clamps the turkey wing the colorful moon snails one angel wing some of those scallops those bi valves the mirrex a bunch of those apple murics couple of lace mirrors that nutmeg some horse kongs couple cones bunch of those lettered olives of course we had a bunch of the banded tulips a couple true tulips and then my favorites were the albino lightning milk the albino lace mirrors and that flat what a day hey i would like to mention at this point if you wanted to financially support me you like this kind of thing you can become a patreon i'll go ahead and i'll put a link in the description box below but for my current patreons thank you so very much for coming along with me supporting me i appreciate it so much i really do and everybody else you're awesome thank everyone for your comments i hope you learned something today i sure did i took one for the team so learned a bunch of stuff here next week we're headed to lovers key so you have yourself a great week and i will see you again next sunday