May 16-17 Shroud Cay

We didn't take many pictures.

This morning we decided to leave Highbourne Cay and head the 15 miles down to Shroud Cay where there are mooring balls and a good anchorage.  It’s the first island in the Land & Sea Park too.

We had to take the small motor off the small dinghy and then put the small dinghy up into the sundeck.  I was afraid it would flip over in the winds and surf.

It was an uneventful ride except for the darn Coastal Explorer navigation program and its lagging position updates.  In one case it was showing us 2 miles behind where we actually were as determined by one of our tablet navigation apps.  I’m going to have to contact them because this could be dangerous.  And to make it interesting, Coastal Explorer has the newly purchased C-map Bahamas charts which are far more accurate than the charts we have on the tablets.

We arrived here at Shroud Cay and I could spot 2 free mooring balls from the 5 that are here.  In past years there were over 20 balls here.  Not sure why the reduction.  

We decided to grab one so we wouldn't have to deploy the anchor.  But as we approached, we began experiencing pretty intense wind gusts.  And a swift of current too.

What fun is it to have just high winds and swift current complicating matters?  Lets throw in a short pendant too.  The pendants here were maybe 4 feet long.  

Short pendants like this are a real problem because our bow is almost 10 feet off the water.  Mary, holding a boat hook and leaning out over the railings, places the boat hook down about, well, ten feet.  So trying to snag a rope with a hook and haul it aboard to thread a line through the end before the boat drifts to far  can be a trial of sorts.

Shroud Cay anchorage and mooring field

As it turned out I couldn’t get the boat quite close enough for Mary to use a boat hook to grab the pendant and slip a line through it.  We tried 4 times and never even got a hook on the eye of the darn thing.

As we lined up for another attempt, a sympathetic lady, Diane, zoomed over in her large dinghy and offered assistance.  After a few abortive starts she tied herself to the mooring ball while we crept close to her and after a few errant line tosses, passed one of our lines to her which she tied to the pendant but only with a slip knot since the boats were being jockeyed about so much in the wind and current.

After she left I got in the small dinghy intending to row over to the mooring ball.  But the wind, and especially the current was so strong I couldn’t make much headway against it rowing, and had to drag myself along side the boat to reach the mooring ball.  After 40 minutes of hauling and wrangling with the lines we finally managed to get securely tied to the ball with 2 heavy lines.  What fun!

At the moment we’re watching these squalls move in all directions around us but never directly at us.  So were dry for the moment.  I’d hate to have to close up the boat with this nice breeze running through.

I put the small outboard on the small dinghy and took it out for a spin.  It pushed the boat against the current but struggled.  If the swells continue to roll in here at this intensity I don’t think using it with two people will work.  We’d probably be swamped.

Later we were making water and as the water maker was just finishing up  I noticed water on the carpet in front of our bed.  The water maker membranes and much of the plumbing are located under the bed frame.  Uh Oh … Leak? 

I’m hoping its just one if the product water lines coming off the outflow nipple on a membrane.  But we’ll find out tomorrow.  We’re both too tired to disassemble the bed to gain access to the membranes.  Tomorrow!

I was up early this morning, but only because we are facing east and the sun stated shinning in through the front windows and right into the stateroom.   It really only effects me since I sleep on the side facing the doorway which lets me check out the electrical panel and detect any irregularities in the numbers.  It also affords me the delightful experience of having sun beams blast me right in the face.  Wakes me up every time.

Closing the door can eliminate the light but will also eliminate the sea breezes which help cool off the stateroom.  So we keep the door open to stay cool and when I wake up at sunrise I usually just close the door and go back to sleep.

After Mary had her coffee we tackled the water maker leak.  I didn’t run it but just checked for the wet areas and found two of the three high pressure fittings seemed to be looser than they should so I tightened them up.  Next time we run it we’ll lift the mattress and boards for a visual check.  If the leak is not at the fittings but in the hose itself we’re toast.  I have a single spare which might be too short to use.  I can re-plumb it all and use only one or two membranes but that will lengthen the water making time hence generator run time.    Well, we’ll see what happens tomorrow when we fire it up.

After leak patrol we, well I, took the little dinghy into shore on a reconnaissance mission.  I was trying to locate the pay box.  It was supposed to be by the little beach so I headed that way.  The poor dinghy was shipping water over the side from the wind generated swells.  Luckily the beach was only a half mile away.

We made it to the beach

Steps up to the pay box and path to the well

Lonely pay box

Nice beach too.  And the pay box was up some roughly carved steps in the stone.  Simple box.  No specified amount.  So I stuck $30 in an envelope figuring they need cash to keep the mooring balls in good shape.

I took a brief tour around looking for openings in the rock.  There are a few little creeks here, one leading out to the ocean side of the island.  But alas, not close to us.  Given the amount of water getting in the dinghy I only ventured a mile or so before heading back to the boat.

 

After I returned we sat around reading for a bit before I went up and took the cover off the big dinghy so I can remove the starter again.  The bendix binds and wont release from the fly wheel.  Cess had replaced the broken spring in Nasau, but all he had was one that fit on the shaft but was way too weak to push the gear back down.  And I think the darn thing is just worn.  So a new starter is in our future.

But we are here and there are no Yamaha parts stores anywhere close.  So I’m biting the bullet and we’ll get the big dinghy down and see how it goes trying to manually start the thing.  

While I was up top removing the starter we noticed our Diana, benefactors boat, Dream Maker, appeared to be leaving.  But oddly they had their mooring bridle still on the bow and appeared to be just drifting off into the sunset.  It turns out the mooring pendant parted at the loop end and they basically broke free.  It’s just lucky this didn’t occur at night because they may not have noticed.

They started up their engines and circled around a bit before anchoring.  Later they came over to examine the parted pendant and then stopped over by us.  I mentioned we wanted to drop off a bottle of wine for them and so we made plans to head over to their boat later this afternoon.  But I said we’d have to see how feasible that will be due to the high winds and our little dinghy.

Later it seemed to calm down some so we decided to pile into the small dinghy and head for this small beach where the pay station is located.  The swells weren’t too bad so we managed to get there without too much wetness.  Mary wandered around the sides looking at the tidal sea creatures while I swam around and cooled off.

After a while Diane and Jim from Dream Maker came into the beach with a dog.  Diana’s husband , TJ, was still on the boat but Jim, their friend came along.  He and I talked boat tech for some time but I soon noticed some swimmers coming in towards us.  They were a New Zealand couple with their friends along from a catamaran anchored near us.  We had the makings of a party!

But alas, we just talked for a few hours enjoying the warm waters and sun.  Mary and Diana altered the original plans for us to dinghy over to their boat at 6 for sun downers.  Instead we were all going in their dinghy through the mangrove creek a short distance away to the ocean side.  Their dinghy is about 20 feet long with a Yamaha 90 so I think we’ll all fit.

Drinks while following a meandering creek several miles to the ocean.  Sounds divine!

We headed back to the boat where Mary got dinner ready and I packed a cocktail bag with cocktail fixings and cheese and crackers.

Diana and TJ her husband came over and picked us up and we headed north along the island about 2 miles to a little creek inlet where a sign reminds everyone that it’s the Land & Sea Park.  And it’s no a wake zone.  But as people have mentioned, its not uncommon for jet skis to shoot through here at high speed.

We brought along wine, drinks and munchies which, when added to what to Diana and TJ’s brought along, made for quite a delectable party stash. 

The creek runs from the Exuma Banks side to the ocean side and meanders around mangrove swamps which seem to grow right out of the coral rock.  Its deep in some places (9 feet) and shallow in others (2 feet).  To navigate the creek requires many abrupt turns usually to head to the other side where deeper water can be found.  It’s an almost continuous zig-zag course.

We met a few other people returning from the ocean side, one a dinghy with a young family loaded with beach paraphernalia. 

Once we reached the end where the creek empties out to the ocean, we found a raging current running through the narrow rocky opening.  But, there was a nice small and secluded beach there which, I’m guessing, the young family used.

We turned around and then Diana wanted to hop in the water and get towed while she used a mask and snorkel to watch the bottom.  The joke was that in previous excursions she had found several good pairs of sun glasses most likely from speeding jet skiers.

There was significant current running through the creek, and from what I could see, the creek bottom was almost all sand with occasional clumps of grass.

TJ slowed down and Diana jumped in and grabbed hold to a line off the stern.  And then away we went, at a slow speed, mostly from the current pushing us along.  After a few minutes we reached the midpoint where the current switched and began pushing us backwards but Diana stayed with it. 

TJ asked me twice if I wanted to jump in and I finally said yes.  So while Diana pulled herself to the boat I jumped in and grabbed the line.   The water was 85 degrees.  After a minute we started up again.  The snorkel was fixed at an odd angle making it impossible to use so I just took big breathes and dove under while being pulled. 

It was quite fun flying across the bottom.  But I never spotted any sea creatures or, like Diana this time, sunglasses.  Just many furrows in the white sand bottom from propellers running in the shallow water. 

After about 10 minutes I got out.  We were nearly at the end of the creek anyway.

After another 2 mile ride back to the anchorage we reached our boat and they dropped us off with plans tomorrow for some snorkeling exhibition.

We woke up to a line of showers moving off to our north but with more out on the horizon moving towards us.  Boat wash!  But probably not a good snorkeling day since the winds have picked up.

With these winds and now showers, we have clocked around 360 degrees as did all the other boats in here.  The anchored vessels stayed anchored too.  No one dragged!

In between showers we saw one of the Land & Sea Park warden boats come speeding in to the mooring field.  I didn’t pay too much attention to where they were heading at first but I think they stopped at the beach to empty the collection box before heading around to all the boats here. 

They stopped by us and said hello before uttering something neither Mary nor I understood, and then abruptly sped off to boats further out in the anchorage.   It remains a mystery but I think we’ll have to go and pay some more for using the mooring ball.  I think the fees are $30/per night for a boat our size.  And considering what befell Dream Maker yesterday with the parted mooring pendant, they can sure use the funds.

Ran generator this morning hoping we could take the big dinghy down but it’s too windy to really go any where.  Plus I have to try and manually start the engine which is difficult enough when it’s calm.  So we’ll wait until all this weather passes by which I’d guess won’t be until tomorrow.

Except for a brief flurry of cleaning while the generator was running, we pretty much just read all day.  Not much else we could do with these bands of showers and brisk winds rolling in from east to west every few hours. 

We have two lines out on the mooring pendant so we aren’t dragging anywhere thankfully, but we sure do swing a lot.  And we haven’t been off the boat all day except for my short swim plunge into the water while it was raining. 

The plunge was fun.   A soothing warm ocean and cooling rain make a nice combination.  While I was swimming I checked the small dinghy and it’s retained a fair share of rain water.   Guess we’ll need to dig up a bailing cup.

I noticed two of our sailboat neighbors took their dinghy into the beach and frolicked in the shallow water during one of the longer rain bursts of showers.   They are another New Zealand couple.  The ones we met yesterday left early this morning.

Internet access, or lack there-of, is taxing.  Sometimes we have it and other times not even a voice connection.  Even with the bag hanging trick its hit or miss.  As we trek further down the chain I’m hoping we’ll come upon a BTC tower close enough to keeps a data connection alive.

So we have no weather information to speak of although I did catch the Highbourne Cay Marina weather forecast on VHF channel 6 this morning at 8AM.  No mention of steady rain, just a chance of showers.  Well, at least there are still surprises to be experience out here.

So this evening I’m finishing off the wine that nice French fellow in Marathon gave us in return for using our mooring for a night.  Very good!  Many boats have left and others arrived to fill in the voids.  The winds and swells are predicted to diminish substantially over the next day so we’re thinking of leaving for Big Majors Spot near Staniel Cay Wednesday.  It’s a large protected anchorage and with the big dinghy, and easy journey to the good spots. 

We’re about to check the water maker for leaks, but after we drain the last if this scrumptious wine!