Shroud Cay

Shroud Cay is part of the Exuma Cays Land and Sea Park and taking anything out (dead or alive) is prohibited and some areas are off limits for any motorized vessels. Morgan had read about a hurricane hole (usually a creek or otherwise well-sheltered body of water) at the south end of Shroud Cay, so we decided to try our luck anchoring there. The mouth of the creek was just wide enough for our boat, with shallows on each side. We entered at low tide, Morgan took the main anchor out in the dinghy and stepped out to manually set it in the "sand". Well, when his first step sunk him up to his knees, we realized it wasn't so much sand as sand colored mud! With the tide changes, we did end up aground, with the starboard hull nearly completely out of the water. Since it was soft, there were no problems; we just waited for the tide to come in. Gotta love catamarans! Morgan developed a safety method for Nyla - he clipped the main halyard to her life jacket. Funny!

The guide books highlighted "Camp Driftwood" on the NE side of the island. It apparently was set up by a solo sailor who was a bit of a hermit. He carved steps up the tallest part of the island and built things out of driftwood that floated ashore. As we arrived several hours before sundown, we decided to dinghy to the creek leading to it (it's also the only creek motorized vessels are allowed in). After rounding the SW point, we passed by a large catamaran with several people on the foredeck lounging and one skinny guy in a speedo dancing to beat the band. We don't know if he was practicing a cheer, doing the YMCA or demonstrating the French version of the Macarena, but he was having a ball! That's when we noticed that they were all guys and figured out the situation. If we were in doubt, the return trip view confirmed it (I'll leave it at that!) We didn't make it to the creek that afternoon because we spied another PDQ36 and stopped by to say hello. Phil and Margaret, s/v Sunshine, were headed north, having already done Georgetown. They gave us the tour of their boat, which is a customized earlier version of ours, and we reciprocated. Though they haven't been cruising long, I learned a few things from Margaret regarding storage and Morgan and Phil exchanged info and compared notes on PDQ's. Very nice couple whom we hope to cross paths with again.

The next day we made it to the creek at low tide (French boat was gone). As the entire area is protected, we saw numerous conch of varying sizes and some small rays. It was really shallow at certain spots, requiring us to get out and pull the dinghy over some sand. Of course where we go Nyla goes, so when we got out of the dinghy, she wanted out too. The first couple of times I helped her out, but she eventually developed a less than graceful method to get out, but we have to help her back in. At one point Morgan tied the dock line to her life jacket, told her she was now an Alaska dog and yelled, "mush!" She didn't really move it, but the pics are hilarious. We about wet our pants laughing at her. "Camp Driftwood" was a disappointment in that we could barely make out the steps and there is nothing left of the camp. However, Nyla had a great time running up and down the beach and continuing her environmental efforts of carrying garbage off the beach.