Day 151, Year 10: Normans Cay to Shroud Cay
Date: Tuesday, March 10, 2015
Weather: Another Gorgeous Day-Sunny, Temp 80’s F, Wind ESE 15-20
Latitude: 24 31.966 N
Longitude: 076 47.834 W
Location: Anchored on the Exuma Bank Side of Shroud Cay, Exumas
The Exumas are a thin chain of small islands to the east and south of Nassau running to the southeast. As we did two days ago, you have to cross a shallow bank, either the Yellow or the White, from Nassau before you reach the first cay in the chain. You can then work your way down the chain on the inside or Exuma Bank side of the cays or on the outside in the Exuma Sound. The Exuma Sound is on the east side of the cays and it is referred to as the ocean side. Here on the inside on the Exuma Bank, we are a ‘bit’ more protected, but just a bit. This morning we motored about five miles south of Normans Cay to Shroud Cay directly into the SE winds. It is slow, but the seas weren’t too bad, so it was actually just fine. Shroud Cay is a lot of little cays that surround a shallow mangrove interior with a whole network of creeks winding their way from the Bank side to the Sound side. Only the northernmost creek goes all the way from west to east and it is the only one that you can navigate with a motor. So as soon as we arrived, we headed out to explore. Sea Turtle is anchored almost two miles north of us in catamaran country. Sea Turtle is not a cat, but her draft is only four feet, so Lee and Lynda can go where Windbird dare not tread. We are further south in the lovely Exuma Cays Land and Sea Park mooring field where most of the moorings are in ten to twelve feet of water. In order to reach the northernmost creek, we had to pass right by Sea Turtle. Lee and Lynda were ready to head out in their dinghy, Hatchling, so off we went. Navigating the creek was delightful. It was nearing high tide, so even though the creek is shallow, we had plenty of water under us. On the banks of the creek in very shallow water is where the mangroves grow. They were short and stubby growing in white sand in crystal clear water. The variation in the colors of the water went from clear with a white sand bottom to various shades of aquamarine. But then as we approached the Exuma Sound, we had a color burst going from white, white sand beaches with gray rocks topped with green palm trees to deeper and deeper shades of aquamarine reaching out in to the Sound. And the darker blue sky rose up from the water. The surf was rolling in, so the crashing waves separated the water from the sky. It was beautiful. We were in search of Camp Driftwood and it was not clear if it was on the beach to the left or to the right of us. We guessed left and I hopped ashore to check it out. I couldn’t find the path that was supposed to take us up the hill, so I went back and Lee and Mark went out scouting. They found the path and Mark came back to tell Lynda and I to follow him. Camp Driftwood was once the haven of a reclusive sailor who built all manner of creations from driftwood atop his hill. During the drug lord years, the “feds” used Camp Driftwood as their base for spying on the activity on Normans Cay. From the top of the little hill where Camp Driftwood sits, you can see in all directions making it possible to use high powered cameras to document the activity on Normans Cay. Today it is managed by the Exuma Cays Land Sea and Park and there is a sign at the top announcing that you have reached Camp Driftwood but asking you to please not leave things to ‘decorate’ the camp. Older cruising guides say that you must bring scavenged items from the beach to please the ‘guardians’ of the camp. The Park now says otherwise, so we had to throw our shells and driftwood over the hill. We enjoyed the views and then descended back down to the beautiful little beach. A large boat had arrived with a boatload of young people who were frolicking in the surf. We should have joined them, but we sat on the rocks in the shade of the hill and ate our picnic lunches. I think we could have stayed all day just to watch the waves roll in, but after we ate, we went back to the dinghies and made our way back across the island. It was a wonderful little explore.
Tomorrow we have about 35 miles to motor straight into strong headwinds. Thursday, Friday, and Saturday are all windier than tomorrow, so we are opting to go even though it won’t be particularly comfortable. The winds are supposed to settle a bit in the afternoon when we will have only 15-17 knots on the nose. We’ll look forward to that afternoon reprieve and in the meantime travel very slowly on our way to Black Point on Great Guana Cay. That is as far south as we plan to go, so once the winds settle down over the weekend, we will start the trek back to the north to Staniel Cay. The adventure continues. And next week it is going to get even better. Our friends Kevin and Claire are going to fly into Staniel Cay to spend a few days with us. It was a last minute decision and they were able to get great flights right to Staniel. Kevin and Claire are our friends even though they are the age of our kids. We lived aboard our respective boats in Boston from 2003 to 2005. Claire was completing her doctorate work at Harvard Medical and found buying a boat and living aboard a cheaper way to live in Boston. We sailed to Maine together one summer and on our trek around the world, they flew to Thailand to sail with us for two weeks. They have visited us often on the Cape and in Little River, and we are delighted that they will be now be joining us in the Bahamas.
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| 150310 Day 151 Bahamas–Exploring Shroud Cay |
