Cay (pronounced "key") Hopping

On Monday, April 28th, we left Norman's Cay and moved to Shroud Cay, just a few miles south. Even though Exuma Park has mooring balls there (for a fee), we elected to anchor just south of the mooring field in a beautiful area surrounded by rock. We soon got the dinghy down and went to explore some of the inland tidal creeks which meander around much of the island's interior. The first creek we followed dead-ended into a big sand flat near the eastern shore of the island, also known as the Exuma Sound side. We beached the dinghy and hiked over the hill to a beautiful beach with a spectacular view of the Sound.

Up the creek we go!


This is the sand flat where the creek ends.


Views from the Sound.



We then took another artery to the north and came out at an opening to the Sound side with a sand bar across the entrance and beautiful beaches on both sides of the sand bar. After exploring the beaches for a while, Todd did a little snorkeling and then we took yet another route back to the boat.




This boat (a large tender) is heading back up the creek.



While we were at the second stop on our creek tour, we met Roy & Doon aboard "Bold Endeavour," a sailboat that was anchored behind "Life's2Short." Roy & Doon are from New Zealand and are heading back north, having spent the past few months exploring the Exumas. Before they left to go back to their boat, we suggested getting together later for happy hour on a little beach near the anchorage.




After a dousing rain Tuesday morning, we decided to move to the southern tip of Shroud Cay in the hopes of getting away from the strong tidal surge we had experienced the previous night. That afternoon we went to explore the creeks at the southern end of the cay and were surprised at how many different routes there were! It was a very calm day with virtually no breeze, something we haven't had in weeks. The downside is that it was quite warm without the breeze.

Roy & Doon joined us aboard "Life's2Short" for happy hour that evening and the next morning we left for Hawksbill Cay in the hopes of finding an anchorage that would give us some protection from the strong north/northeast wind that was forecast for the next several days. Hawksbill also has mooring balls provided by Exuma Park but we elected to anchor on the southwest side of the cay, just inside the mooring balls, in front of a rock bluff. Although the bluff afforded some protection from the wind, the boat still rocked and rolled all day, mostly from the tidal surge.

After we got anchored, we dinghied over to one of the many beaches and walked north along the west shoreline for a good distance before returning to the boat. Although Hawksbill has many beautiful beaches, it also has more rock along the shoreline than any of the other islands we've seen so far. The rocky parts kind of reminded us of the shores of Table Rock, our former home lake near Springfield, MO.

Thursday, May 1st, was our 9th wedding anniversary and we spent most of it hiking and exploring. We dinghied to the southern tip of the island trying to find a way to the Sound side but once you try to go inland from the shoreline, you are confronted with dense foliage and/or rock bluffs. The first place we tried was impassable so we continued east along the southern edge until we reached the rock bluffs bordering the Sound. After securing the dinghy, we climbed to the top of the bluff and tried to find a way to get to the beach, which was quite a bit further north. After walking along the bluffs for a while we decided it was too treacherous. However, the Captain took lots of nice photos while we were up there.









We returned to the west side of the island and climbed the rock bluff in front of our anchorage to find the cairn (rock pile) that was marked on the charts. From there we had a great view of "Life's2Short" and the nearby beaches.





Later that afternoon, just before high tide, we entered an inland tidal creek and followed it as far as we could across the island. When we ran out of water, we tied the dinghy to a mangrove bush and continued on foot toward the hill that would take us to the beach on the Sound side. The foliage was thick but there was a path of sorts that we struggled to follow as we made our way through the jungle. We finally reached the beach and found lots of flotsam and jetsam (a.k.a. beach trash) that had washed ashore but, once again, no shells.

We're assuming that the offshore rocks and reefs either prevent the shells from washing ashore or they pulverize the shells before they have a chance to reach the shore. Either way, the beaches so far have essentially been barren. Even the flotsam and jetsam has been very limited on the Sound side beaches. We're not sure if the park staff schedules periodic clean-ups of the beaches in its territory or if some beaches are just more prone to collect debris than others, but most of the beaches are very clean.

As we walked along the beach, the Captain entertained himself by picking through the various mismatched tennis shoes, glass bottles, plastic containers, rope, etc., to see what treasures he could find. He decided that he could construct all kinds of things to make a home on the beach if he was stranded here, kind of like Tom Hanks in the movie Castaway. However, without fresh water I'm afraid he wouldn't last very long, although he informed me that he could "drink coconut milk and be just fine." Somehow I doubt it!

Part of the Captain's interest in examining the items on the beach was to determine where they came from. We found one plastic 30-gallon barrel with Greek writing on it that had apparently once been packed with olives. It had since been made into a lobster or crab trap of some kind and ultimately ended up washed up on the beach. Todd was also hoping to find a "message in a bottle" but that didn't happen. Since we don't have a world atlas, we aren't sure what land mass lies east of us but our guess is that it is the Mediterranean and that most of the items on the beach either came from that part of the world or had fallen off ships somewhere in the Atlantic.  The Captain even came up with the grisly idea that perhaps some of the shoes had people attached to them when they fell overboard. Nice thought, huh?

Friday we set off for Warderick Wells, the headquarters of the Exuma Land & Sea Park. What started out as a moderate chop on the water quickly built to waves that were sending salt spray to the top of the flybridge with 20-25 mile per hour east wind. Not a fun trip! After about two hours, we arrived at Warderick Wells and picked up our assigned mooring ball. The remainder of the afternoon was spent posting our blog update from April 27 and catching up on e-mail as the wind continued to howl from the east.

Todd spent Saturday morning changing the oil in the generator and making a sign with our boat name on it to leave on Boo Boo Hill. While he was working on the sign, Tom & Jackie from the boat "In Your Dreams" came over in the dinghy to say hello. We briefly met Tom & Jackie our first day at Shroud Cay but they left the next morning for Warderick Wells so we didn't have much of a chance to visit with them.

The mooring field at Warderick Wells is U-shaped with a huge sand bar in the middle of it that dries out at low tide. Saturday afternoon we went over to the sand bar to join Tom & Jackie who had set up chairs and were enjoying their own private island! When the tide started coming back in, we packed up and headed back to the boat where I made a dip to take to the boaters' happy hour sponsored by the park every Saturday at 5:30 p.m.

This is a view of the mooring field from the Park Headquarters deck. "In Your Dreams" is in the background.


Tom & Jackie enjoy the sand bar at low tide.


The next afternoon, we joined them.


The Admiral and the Captain with "Life's2Short" in the background.


Tom & Jackie invited us to their boat for pre-happy hour at 5:00 p.m. and gave us a tour of "In Your Dreams," a 2005 48-foot Krogen. What a showpiece! I told the Captain we were slumming aboard "Life's2Short." Then again, "Life's2Short" is twenty years older, eight feet shorter and four feet narrower, all of which make a tremendous difference in a boat.

Anyway, we left "In Your Dreams" and went to the beach next to the Park Headquarters building to join the other boaters for happy hour. It was a fun time on a nice beach and, as an added bonus, it was even protected from the east wind! While we were there, Todd saw a guy that he said looked really familiar to him. Come to find out, he was in Demopolis the fall of 2006 and is well-acquainted with Fred, the owner of the Demopolis Yacht Basin who is also a good friend of ours.

The boaters' happy hour gathering at sunset.


Today is Sunday, May 4th, and we are going to take our boat sign to Boo Boo Hill and check out some of the many hiking trails on the island. According to the cruising guide, boaters have been leaving the names of their boats on Boo Boo Hill for years, carved or painted on anything from driftwood to fishing floats to old outboard motors. Todd made our sign from an old piece of wood he found among the flotsam and jetsam on Hawksbill Cay and I must say that he did an admirable job. Our plan is to post this update tomorrow and leave here on Tuesday, so stay tuned for our next update with details of our hiking and snorkeling adventures at Warderick Wells and who knows what else as we continue our journey south.