February 2008
Shroud Cay is within the Exumas Land and Sea Park but further north from Warderick Wells. The Park have placed mooring buoys off the west coast and this allows for easy exploration of the island itself. The attraction here is the extensive mangrove swamp within the centre of the island with several crystal clear creeks that can be explored across the top of a tide. These form nurseries for lots of the common aquatic creatures of the region.
We have acquired a hand-held echo sounder to use in the dinghy and it makes these sorts of excursions much easier. It looks like a torch (flashlight) and with the end underwater you just push the button and read the scale. The water is so clear that it is otherwise very difficult to judge the changing depths and you can get caught out.

John and Marla exploring the mangrove swamp at Shroud Cay
The far end of the creek as it comes out into Exuma Sound
Angie and Marla in party mood on Hawksbill Cay
Lady and Misty on moorings off Hawksbill Cay

Last year we could not explore over the high water period but this year we went right through the middle of the island and out of a narrow entrance to the eastern shore by Exuma Sound. There are a series of reefs and sandbanks here which protect the beaches and these had attracted tourist boats from the resort island to the north as well as the dinghies from the cruising yachts.
We left the mangroves via a more northern channel to the east side of the cay and then worked south to the moorings. Our remaining 2 HP on offer from the outboard managed to achieve the journey with care but it won’t cope with strong winds and big seas like this.
Our next intended trip was south again to Hawksbill Cay which is also part of the Park. This was settled by Loyalists in the late 1800s and occupied well into the 20th century. There are some ruins from stone dwellings but the moorings close by had too little water.

The moorings to the south were somewhat exposed and lumpy but had plenty of water if you avoided the rocks coming in. The wind was brisk by now and we all went ashore in Misty’s dinghy to spare our outboard any problems. The beaches were enormous and blinding white. They were also deserted.
We walked as far as we could and then settled down to our usual beach pastime - petanque. The two crews play as teams over a variety of terrains, taking care to avoid the rocks and any chance of the heavy metal balls descending into the sea. The competition is fierce and no quarter is given. Honours are pretty well even at the end of a trip.
As we suspected the moorings gave us a bumpy night as the wind veered to the south ahead of the next front. Like many of the cold fronts coming down from the US this one was running out of steam in the Exumas evetually offering 5 knot westerlies as it passed over.

Layers of fairly soft sandstone about 3 inches thick by the beach at Hawksbill Cay
Shallow draft boats in the northern Hawksbill anchorage
A gentle spinnaker reach through the Exuma Land and Sea Park

If the fronts are strong enough to move further southeast then they moderate the southeast trade winds and allow cruisers to make progress towards the eastern Caribbean islands.
We went back to Warderick Wells to allow a better slant on the wind for a passage up to Eleuthera as sadly we begin our journey back to Florida. Its early yet but we cannot miss our UK flights for our son’s wedding in early April. We also want to explore Eleuthera on the way north.

Return

Return to Index