We enjoyed beautiful Bahama Bank sailing to Shroud Cay. The anchorage on South Shroud Cay is beautiful and exciting to explore but the mangrove river in the south are non-motor crafts only. The reviews said it was a kayakers paradise and I believe it. We motored to the Northern end of Shroud Cay. In passing a cut that lead to the windward side of the Exumas, we saw a sprawl of coral growth. We dropped anchor and found some of the best snorkeling since Guadeloupe (Jacques Cousteau Underwater Park). Sharks, barracuda, schools of fish, COLORFUL corals at manageable depths. We stayed here for a few hours before moving on to the mangroves on Shroud Cay. We took our dinghy in past immaculate beaches through calm and clear waters, and entered the river with mangroves reaching out on either side. We wound our way around the twisting river turtles fleeing on every turn, eventually finding the famous, Camp Driftwood. I read that a hermit sailor carved out steps to the top of a hill to create his own little sanctuary. Over the years cruisers brought driftwood and plastic tokens to the top to add their own flair etching their boat name on the surfaces. In 2012, rangers came through and cleaned out Camp Driftwood. When we found it, the hilltop was pristine and beautiful. I was a bit dismayed to see that I missed out on the art of Camp Driftwood… but the more I come to think of it… so many islands, cays, and beaches (ex: Warderick Wells/Big Major) have tokens from cruisers. The Exumas are not missing out in having one less hill with plastic & driftwood from cruisers stating they’ve arrived. You want to make your mark & celebrate your travels? Fine, as someone who is also proud about our own travels I support that but make it in the sand, or etch your name on a barstool, let nature be. That’s my rant, sorry if I rained on someones parade.

Kirsten playing on the limestone.

Normans Cay

Normans Cay has seen a sordid past with drug trafficking playing a major role. An airstrip and a few dozen beach homes that lay in ruins are all that lives on from the stories. Oh and a wrecked airplane on the SE coast. Flipped upside down nose first in 25 feet of water.

The island itself is amazing and uncomplicated – beach, land, air. Me, I loved the beaches! On land there’s a bar called McDuffs. It’s throwing distance from the airstrip. Mike once visited this place years ago and since then, it’s had one heck of a makeover.

For the day, we traveled to North Normans Cay, Galleon Point where a most treasured sandbar flourished. I LOVED this place. We inched the big boat in before taking the dinghy in as far as that could go and then we walked the dinghy to the sandbar. Very much worth the voyage.

We were finally able to drop off our stinky garbage and lightly provision the boat with gas, water, and food in Highborne. Despite the Yacht Club being a bit pricey, we decided to splurge and share a phenomenal dinner. We split a fish sandwich. Sounds kinda lame and boring but the sandwich and fries filled us up and was the best damn fish sandwich we had enjoyed in the Bahamas. Heres to the chef! We snorkeled the reefs nearby and they were nice… we’d done so much snorkeling and exploring at this point we were both in and out within 20 minutes.

Leaf Cay / Allans Cay

Leaf Cay is host to the endangered Bahamian Iguana, only found here. They ask you don’t feed, scare, hunt, chase or agitate the iguanas. That all sounds redundant to me… they should have posted a sign saying ‘Leave the endangered iguanas alone. If you think you might be disturbing them, stop what you’re doing and walk away slowly, you probably are.’ We pulled up our dinghy on the beach and found that the iguanas  have poor eyesight and may stagger towards you but the tiny dinosaurs are actually quite timid.

Sail Rock

From Leaf Cay we sailed to Sail Rock, not a common anchorage. Most people sail to Allans/Leaf Cay via Berry Island and Bimini from Miami, FL. We considered taking the popular course, after all, one of my favorite songs from the Kingston Trio is about drinking rum on Bimini. But we’ve been traveling every day for 8 and a half months, going out of our way to further see remote islands with great snorkeling, ruins, and fun bars… was weighing less on our list of things to do. Our priorities were closer aligned with cute towns, seeing Spacex shuttle launch in June, and most of all Boston. It was settled we’d sail as far NE as possible on the Exuma chain (Sail Rock) then over to Spanish Wells to provision, then sail the Great Abaco Sound, eventually crossing over to Fort Pierce (which is just South of Cape Canaveral). But I’m getting ahead of myself… Back to Sail Rock and our remote anchorage.

Getting to Sail Rock was a slow sail we had a strong current on our bow and even needed to turn on the engine so we wouldn’t be pushed into a chain of large rocks and small islands. We passed Bush Cay and saw ruins on this little stumble of an island. Throughout the Exumas and the rest of the Bahamas, you don’t come across much green. Bush Cay, on the other hand, looked like something straight out of Ireland, particularly with our overcast evening skies. We made it in to Sail Rock close to sunset.  A string of rocks kept the windward waves at bay and coral flourished near the cuts in the rocks. It was dicey to navigate close to the rocks particularly since neither our charts or active captain/garmin had much advice on how to approach. We eventually found sand to anchor in and were quite pleased to find the swells and current didn’t rock the boat at odd angles. Sail Rock was unlike anything else in the Exumas, it felt more wild. It was you, a thin line of rocks for protection, and open ocean. When the sun dipped below the horizon there was nothing but wind blowing and waves and this foreign oddity of a boat visiting for the night. I would have loved to explore the string of rocks or spit of sandy beach but we had a full day sail in front of us with good wind.

NEXT STOP Spanish Town Eleuthera! YAY~