Shroud Cay
We spent a
peaceful night at anchor along with over 20 other boats of which 6 were over 80
feet long. There was a lot of activity
on the water beginning at about 0900.
There were a couple of kite boarders out sailing and two of the mega yachts were deploying float rafts. The usually
dinghy and tender traffic was zooming about.
We joined the melee and headed out to explore Settlement Creek,
Driftwood Beach and Camp Driftwood.
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| Settlement Creek Mouth - Exuma Sound |
Settlement Creek runs through the mangroves and bisects the cay allowing you to take your dinghy from the Exuma Banks to the Sound and arrive at Driftwood Beach. It was a bit difficult for us to find the mouth of the creek and we passed it by at first. We turned back and saw a launch with a tall flagpole flying an orange pennant heading toward a gap in the stone shoreline. We watched them meander about a bit and then disappear into the mangroves. We keyed off them and were soon tilting our outboard to the shallow water mode and feeling our way through Settlement Creek’s sandbars. There are numerous creeks on Shroud Cay which is unusual. Most are so shallow, only kayaks can travel on them and often even the kayaks need tidal help to cross over the very shallow spots which are above water at low tide. We came in at mid-tide rising and still found a couple of really low spots.
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| Settlement Creek Sandbar |
There were two other boats and about a dozen people at the spot Settlement Creek enters the Exuma Sound. Some were resting and a group of about a dozen who appeared to be extended family were romping around and taking pictures. Driftwood Beach is a long, wonderful, fine sand beach. The high winds were creating sizable breakers on the beach and all along Shroud’s eastern shoreline. It was a perfect day for dramatic pictures on the beach.
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| Settlement Creek Mangroves |
Shortly after spending a while the beach, we climbed up the steep trail to Camp Driftwood. It is no longer a camp. All that is there today are a number of rock cairns erected by fellow visitors. Carla added a rock to one of the many cairns.
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| Camp Driftwood - Adding to the Cairns |
The “camp” is located on a high point on Shroud Cay which provides a clear view of Norman’s Cay to the north. It was from this spot that US agents spied on the air traffic flying into and out of the airfield at Norman’s which was a private island owned by Carlos Lehder, a Columbian drug-lord. He used the island as a staging point for flying Medellin Cartel cocaine into the US. We will stop by Norman’s on our return trip north to check out the plane that crashed short of the runway and now lies in a narrow channel near the center of the island.
We took some
pictures from the Camp Driftwood vantage point and returned to the beach. We didn’t stay too long as we wanted to get
back to the Bank side before the tide changed to ebb. We had an extra foot of water in Settlement
Creek on our return trip which made the trip much easier. We headed for our anchorage upon leaving
Settlement Creek.
We stopped
at the small beach a short distance from Foreign
Affair for our picnic lunch. We had
the beach to ourselves for over an hour.
We watched some beautiful green and white hewed, long tailed birds doing
acrobatics above us. Carla saw them
first and alerted Dwayne to the presence of these “long-tailed, tropical birds.” We watched them for quite a while and
suspected they were engaged in some sort of courtship flight. We wondered what these birds might be named. We discovered the name of the bird we found
so amazing and beautiful was the “long-tailed, tropical bird” (da, how
simple). Unfortunately, we were not able
to get good pictures of them as they did their sky-dance above us. Our iPad was not up to the task.
Later, three
crew members from the mega-yacht, Vava,
came ashore for a little R&R. They
brought beer and music. We chatted with
them for a while. One was from Wales,
one from Australia and the third from the World. They appeared to be in their thirties and all
have been crewing on Vava for more
than 10 years which was amazing. They
reported the captain was with “The Family” for 16 years. Vava
is a private yacht and not for charter.
We were discreet and did not inquire as to who “The Family” might be and
they, as appropriate, did not offer to share that information. It was a pleasant visit. We left within an hour so they could have the
beach for themselves.
We cranked
up the generator upon returning to Foreign
Affair. Dwayne pulled out the
cruising guides and charts to continue planning for the rest of our stay in the
Bahamas. Carla continued to putz around
trying to dry out the fore-cabin and items which were still damp from our
journey over from Highbourne Cay. From
now on, she will double check the hatches to make sure they are fully closed
when we are underway. We had a light
dinner and ended the evening reading. It
was a long, fun day. We were asleep by
10 pm.
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