Shroud Cay

The following is our blog entry to our few days at Shroud. Jo has been taking some fabulous pictures (sorry if I missed labeling some that should attributed to her!). So the following is a bit of a photo documentary of our time :)

Blossom anchored at Shroud Cay. Note the Yorkshire Rose flying in honor of our guests!

The forecast for Monday was calling for pretty strong easterly winds. We were still a bit shocked to find the bank very choppy. Luckily, Ed & Jo don’t get sea sick though conditions were rough enough that even Ed had a rough time and took a Dramamine. Jo was the star mariner, easily bopping around the boat with no trouble! We were well sheltered from the easterly wind in the anchorage, however, and it was gorgeous.

Views from the anchorage at Shroud

The ride down was so choppy that we had waves spraying the fly bridge windows so we weren’t too surprised to find that Blossom was about as salted up as she has ever been. The bow was quite literally caked with salt. And so Ed & Jo began their “active vacation” by swabbing the decks J 

Hello there, let me introduce you to the shammy mop!

Ed to working hard!

With four of us working on her, Blossom was sparkling again in just a couple hours and Ed & Jo jumped in and took a swim.

Ed diving in

Ed & Jo testing out their snorkeling gear

Snorkeling off Blossom J

After a swim, we retired to the fly bridge to relax.

Ed & Mart chilling at Shroud

Jo & Ed

And Martin taught Ed the ins and outs of keeping busy at anchor.

The boys making sure everything is a-okay in the anchorage

Martin has been working on in conch-blowing skills, he needs a bit more practice!

We enjoyed a classic American meal that night ;)

Burgers

On the aft deck

Tuesday was a fabulous day exploring Shroud. We packed a picnic lunch and our snorkeling gear and headed to Sanctuary Creek. We passed through to the east side, walked the eastern beach and hiked up to Camp Driftwood where it’s said that the FBI used to watch out for drug runners landing at Norman’s Cay. I was thrilled to see a bunch of tropic birds flying over the beach. Jo even managed to catch a photo of one up close.

Heading out on Petal

Ed & Jo on Petal

Ed manning the bow

 Ed & Jo on the beach

Landing Petal on the eastern side of the creek

Tropic bird (some photos by Jo)

Birds over the beach

Lizard on the beach (photo by Jo)

Camp Driftwood

Ed searching for drug trafficking planes

We had another one of those wonderful “small world” moments when we bumped into a couple on the beach as we were heading back to Petal. They asked if we were from Blossom and introduced themselves. We had met Dee & Molly on the VHF in Georgetown.  Back in April, our friends Diane & JP had told us to watch for their friends and they had then anchored near us in the anchorage. We had had our dinghy up and were leaving the next day so we chatted and hoped to meet up for real later in the season. And voila, very cool!

Dee, Martin, Me & Molly

We arranged to get together later in the day for happy hour and then headed back to the west side to find a beach for our picnic lunch.

The beach

Ed & me chilling out

After lunch we decided to head back to Blossom with some snorkeling on the way. We stopped at a hopeful coral head and Martin demonstrated a proper back roll entry.

And there he goes!!!

The ladies getting ready

Jo chose the less flashy entry method

I think they enjoyed their first snorkel J

Fish on the reef

We tried another coral head but found that the current was ripping and we were all getting pulled away too strongly. It was for the best as we were all getting a bit hot and tired and it was time to head back to the boat and relax!

Our second day at Shroud was a busy one as well. We got up, packed our snorkel gear and headed north to Norman’s Cay. The first stop to visit the wreck of a drug trafficking plane that went down just off Norman’s.

Wreckage above water

The plane rests in about 10 feet of water

Underwater view

Then we went around the corner to McDuff’s for an early lunch.

The beach

Martin’s ready for lunch!

Enough cell coverage for hot-spotting means lots of business to attend to!

The McDuff burger

A gorgeous visitor. I've never seen a glowing green lizard in the Bahamas before

The airstrip at Norman’s Cay

 Ed and Jo on the beach with Martin pulling in Petal in the background

Ed & Jo on the beach

Martin’s working hard pulling in Petal

A gratuitous pretty pic of Petal

After lunch we went to Morris Cay.

Isn’t it quaint?!

Can we claim it, it's written in the sand?

And there’s a bench – Ed & Jo

Mart & Steph

Petal at Morris Cay

Foot prints in the sand

Getting onto Petal isn’t always easy

Next on the agenda was to explore Hawksbill Cay to the south of Shroud. The weather was fabulous and we had a great ride down to Hawksbill on Petal. We didn’t find any good looking snorkel spots but we took a look at the cave and the ruins.

My view

Jo’s view

Smuggler’s Cave

A sting ray with his bar jack friend

Ed & Jo enjoying the ride

Ed relaxing on the ride

We stopped at Russell Ruins Beach. The water was clear that Jo took some photos and you wouldn’t even know it was in the water if you didn’t see fish and their shadows.

Fish in clear water

Hiking to the ruins, there wasn’t much to them

Petal at anchor off Russell Ruins Beach

I was rather hell bent on finding a good snorkel spot that day so we passed by Elbow Cay on the way back to Blossom. Elbow is a very small cay but seemed to be home many different birds.  I used on “Bahamian Bucket” to search (it’s a glass bottom bucket, this one was a gift from Jim, thank you Jim!)

Osprey on Elbow Cay

Osprey nest

Searching for fish

Ed & Jo snorkeling

We found a modest coral head

Angelfish with wine bottle

Queen Triggerfish

Blue Tang with Yellow Grunts

Grouper

I jumped in to join her but saw the family of remoras living under Blossom and didn’t like the big guys sitting on the sand. So I went in!

Remoras on the hull

The big guys sitting on the sand

We had another fabulous evening, enjoying sunset on the fly bridge and dinner on the aft deck. We awoke the next day to an amazingly beautiful, calm morning and headed out to Big Majors.

Our final morning at Shroud Cay