Shroud Cay

Greetings from Shroud Cay

The wind is still blowing 20 with gusts to 30, but it is mostly sunny and the water is clear. After school we headed to the Cay to try and find Camp Driftwood, a hill where a hermit once lived and, in more recent times, where drug enforcement agents observed the planes and boats at Normans Cay. We bounced along and found the entrance to a mangrove creek that lead to the interior of the island. It was clear, but shallow, so we had to tilt the motor up and wind around to the outside of curves to stay in deep water. We thought we noticed rocks in the creek, but they moved when we approached. They were stingrays! The creeksides were lined with mangroves and low lying coral rock. Following the creek for twenty minutes, we found the ocean and the beach mentioned in the guide book. We were all alone on the beautiful strip of beach. Walking around the corner, we viewed the waves rolling in from Exuma Sound. The eastern side of the island is all beautiful white sand beach. Finding the path up the hill to Camp Driftwood, we found a magnificent view of Exuma Sound. It was supposed to be a place where people left flotsam and jetsam, but it has been cleaned up and a sign was posted asking people not to leave things. From the top we saw four more dinghies plying the waters of the creek headed our way. Descending to the beach we met folks from Michigan and Canada who mentioned that a catamaran in the anchorage had two boys aboard. We took a different creek back and saw a few more rays. The other dinks passed us planning at high speed on the way back, but we were a little more conservative, sticking to our sightseeing speed. We timed this trip to go into the creek about 2 hours before high tide and that worked out well.

Back in the anchorage we stopped at Sea U Manana, a 50 ft catamaran, and met Joshua and Matteous who are 7 & 9. Made plans to meet at the beach and they and Noah had a great time building a sand castle, swimming, and playing on a Kayak. Noah showed them where the "secret" well is on the island and then we headed back to the boat just in time for a brief rain shower. We washed most of the sand off Noah, had dinner and called it an early night, because Noah has tests tomorrow. He'll be half way through his 3rd grade work when they are done.  Looks like we will stay here another day and move down to Warderick Wells, the park headquarters, on Sunday.