Octopus...ATTACK!
I'm slowly making connections here in Setubal. Recently we met Jeff and Kay
from Atlanta, and Jeff introduced me to the Pool Group (pool tables, not
watery). At the Pool Group last night I met Mark, who has a boat.
Jeff invited me to join him and Mark on the boat today. So off I went!

Mark's motorboat was stored in a marina way to the east where Joy and I 
traveled when we rented a car last month. There's an abandoned ferry we
inspected and the Marina is right next door. We climbed aboard and
zoomed over to the Troia peninsula across the estuary from Setubal.

Once there we anchored and waded ashore, only to discover the boat was
beached by the receding tide within an hour. So we spent four hours on
the beach waiting for the tide to come back in enough to float the boat.

While we waited we were wading around. I was texting with my sister back
in Minneapolis when the other two guys yelled "Bob! Octopus!" I waded out 
and by gum wasn't there an enormous octopus wrapped around Jeff's leg!
It was very curious, extending tentacles above the water, groping around.

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DeELodGhWLW/

Then somehow it got on Mark's leg, and he was fine with that until it 
started chomping his leg with its octopus beak. Show over! He kind of 
shook it off his leg and it disappeared. Moments later we turned around
and there was a giant jellyfish just floating past!

I had asked in our group chat what to wear but nobody ansered, so I ended
up wearing long pants. In my defense, I didn't know what kind of boat 
Mark had (I thought it was a sailboat) and I had no idea gathering 
oysters was on the agenda. I thought we'd be out for an hour or two sailing,
instead we were wading all afternoon. So at one point I just broke down and
cut my (not terribly old) jeans off. I can get more!

During this time Mark was showing me how to find oysters, and after a long
day on the beach we headed back. I hadn't eaten anything since breakfast.
Mark offered me a dozen oysters AND threw in an oyster knife! Very kind.
A dozen sounded like a lot, so I just took half a dozen lumpy moss-covered
rock things. 

Went home to Joy preparing dinner, watched a YouTube about how to shuck
oysters, and set to work. Well, it turns out that oysters cluster together!
So those half-dozen lumps turned out to have a total of 14 oysters on them.
One was rotten, but the rest of the baker's dozen we grilled up and, aside
from a bit of sand crunching between our teeth, they were terrific!

A long weird day, but one I enjoyed quite a bit. The octopus alone was 
worth the whole trip.