Woods and Water Trails, Shroud Cay

Surprise!  We found internet at Normans Cay.  Thank you Linksys!

Finishing up our Warderick Wells Cay visit we went on a dangerous hike! 

Here is our boat on it's first ever mooring ball.  It took a little figuring out but we got it.  That is Emerald Rock under the sun.

After a short dinghy to the beach we found this hidden entrance to a trail.  Christine is in this pic already hiking up the little cliff.

There were several rat/wombat like things scurrying around in the trees.  We found out later they are Bahamas only native mammal, the Hutia.

We passed lots of ruins that just looked like rocks stacked up but are from the 1800s.  This was someones house a long time ago.

The trail was rocky and you had to watch out for these really deep holes.  We don't know how they were formed but they were deep and creepy.

We passed signs warning us of the "Touch Me Not" flower and "Poison Wood"

Then we found a ruins wall leading us to another beach.  How pleasant.  Actually the whole hike was fun and not really dangerous at all.

This beach had a curious floating house on the water.  Maybe that's what we will buy next.

The next day we had to move off the mooring and anchored again.  The next morning our trusty Claw anchor decided to take the day off and we woke to find that we had dragged some 200 feet into shoal.  We don't think we were on it long because we didn't notice any bumping till we got up.

After a few attempts of using the engine and the anchor windlass to pull us off we realized we were stuck good and had to call the Park.  They sent out a boat that pulled us off pretty easily and we headed off to Shroud Cay

After a nice sail north we arrived at Shroud Cay at high tide and decided to give that river trail another attempt.  On the way down the Exumas we tried to kayak the river at low tide and failed miserably.

This time we had another 2 feet under us and took the 3.5hp dinghy!

Exuma Cays Land and Sea Park

It was a lot nicer this time and a very scenic ride.

We are glad we gave up kayaking last time because it was a long, windy ride, about 25 minutes in the dinghy.

But eventually we found the secrete beach on the other side and it was sure worth it.  The whole area was beautiful so we broke out the camera for a Scopes like shooting.

This dark spot was a ocean hole.  It was shallow all around it but the hole is supposed to go down deep!

At the beach we climbed a hill for some high shots. Here's the river we took to get there.

The next day we went to our favorite beach on the north side.  We just spent the day reading, running, and relaxing until the tide came up and kicked us out.

Shroud Cay is one of our favorite islands.  So pretty!

Lionfish and Sharks and Pigs, O my

Saturday the 11th we arrived back at one of our favorite spots, Staniel Cay!

And we just happened to walk in during a Lionfish competition.  Lionfish are small fish covered in poisonous barbs.  Because of this they have no natural predators and are over populated.  The Staniel Cay Divers sponsored an event to help fish them.  

Two teams caught over a hundred Lionfish that day with spears.  We arrived for the good part, the music and Lionfish cooking competition.

As people were gutting the Lionfish a bunch of sharks came to feast on the scraps.  They were circling all around the fish table and really big.  We have never seen so many sharks even at the Nassau Aquarium.

The band was an acoustic duo that played a lot of songs we liked so that was really cool.  For the cooking competition 5 chefs made 5 distinct dishes and everyone was given a plate to taste and vote.  There was a onion and pepper fish, jelly sauce fish, curry fish, teriayki fish, and our favorite and the winner, a sweet and sour fish.  Mmmmm they were all served over rice and delicious.  They were also selling Lionfish cookbooks and serving free drinks.  The winners of the competitions received over $3500 in total prizes.

Staniel Cay Divers sure know how to throw a party!

We fed our left over rice to these hungry fish.

As we mentioned before, our underwater camera never came into George Town.  So we bought a disposable underwater camera at Staniel Cay to take pictures of Thunderball Grotto.  We need to get them developed so we still can't post pictures of the amazing, fish filled cave.  We hope the pics turn out.

We left Staniel Cay Tuesday and stopped just around the corner at Big Majors, home of the pigs!

We noticed Thunderball Grotto and Big Majors were a lot more crowded this time with visitors, but this piggy must have slept through his last meal because he was hungry!

As soon as we got to the beach he came running out and would sit with his mouth open waiting for us to drop Graham Crackers in.

Then as we tried to feed the other pigs he got a little rude.  He would follow us and nudge his nose into us and  once he even bit me and then Christine!  It was just a nibble on the thigh with no teeth but it was still surprising.  Most the pigs were so well behaved.

Me in a stare down with fatty.

Our old friend baby piggy. 

Then as we were about to leave, the trouble maker thought we were holding out on him and tried to jump in our dinghy!  I had a cracker in my hand and had to yell for him a couple times before he got out, although we think he was stuck for a second.

We said goodbye to the pigs and continued north.

Our next few destinations were just beachy islands we decided to anchor at instead of skipping them.

We stopped at Thomas Cay which had an odd make shift hut that said "Pipe Creek Yacht Club"

From inside the "Yacht Club". There's our boat.

We found a few conch laced trails that led into the jungle island.

We crossed to the other side after a short safari.

Here's our boat from the top of the jungle with our kayaks landed on the beach to the left.

Next we kayaked over to Joe Cay!

It was a small cay that was mostly sand and had a few tiki huts in the middle.

Welcome to my island!

And Mrs. Joe

We then found out why it was so sandy with huts and a single dock in the middle.  It was private.  Kicked off our on Cay, shucks.

We kayaked back to the boat, kinda.  We actually got stuck in the strong channel current going out to sea but managed to land on the other side of Thomas Cay that we found earlier.  We then had to carry our kayaks through the safari and then kayaked back to the boat.  It was quite the work out for two lazy beach bums.

From Thomas Cay we anchored at Pipe Cay and then Belle Island near Cambridge Cay.  We attempted to anchor at Cambridge but the mooring balls took up most of the anchorage and we didn't know how to obtain a mooring.  (We later found out that there is a drop box on the beach that you just put $15 in for a mooring)

From Belle Island we slowly sailed to Warderick Wells Cay which is where the Exuma Land and Sea Park HQ is and Boo Boo Hill.  

This is where we currently are.  We hiked Boo Boo Hill again and saw our spray painted log with our name on it still there.  This time it was high tide and we had to cross a small 2 foot high stream.  Then we did a little snorkeling around Emerald Rock.

We went to the main office and after some thought coughed up the $35 for a mooring ball and one day of internet.  It had been 8 days since we had internet and we don't want anyone worrying out there :)

Next we will visit a few more Exuma Cays before hopping over to Eluethera by July 1st which is about when we should have internet again.

The Exumas: Allen's Cay Iguanas and Boo Boo Hill

The Exumas are supposed to be the most scenic of all the Bahamas.  They are not disappointing!

Our first stop was Allen's Cay which has wild endangered iguanas.  As soon as we beached our dinghy they came out like zombies and surrounded us.  They looked pretty friendly though so we played with them for awhile.  You aren't supposed to feed them but we found a piece of fruit on the ground so we figured that was okay.  You could tell they were used to getting fed cuz they all came out and had fun eating the fruit we smashed up.  They even ate some out of Christines hand.

Our next stop was Normans Cay. They were supposed to have internet and cheese burgers which we were excited about.  Sadly their internet wasn't working and the cheeseburgers cost $18 each!  We don't have a fridge on board and can't catch fish or lobster so when everything you eat is out of a box or can, a burger is the world.  They were not worth $18 though and we left unsatisfied.  We explored some and then decided to move on.

I was able to dive down and see our anchor nice and snug

We took a short trip down to Shroud Cay where we heard a lot of good things about.  This Cay had more beautiful water and secluded beaches.  We inflated our kayaks for the first time and did some exploring by water.  We even saw our first shark!  It was about 2-3 feet long, maybe a reef shark or nurse shark?  It wasn't that scary since we were in our kayaks and I was hoping to see more.

We tried to kayak up a river we were told about that lead to a nice beach but the wind was in our face and it was low tide so we had to drag our kayaks across land, so we turned around.  Anyone else who tries this river should go at high tide.

The next day we continued south to Warderick Wells Cay.  Our goals were Boo Boo Hill and internet.  We were let down again when the park lady told us that the internet was only for mooring ball holders.  That would be $15 plus $10 for one day or 100mb of internet.  We had a lot to do online so we would each need our own account, so we passed on the $35 for one day of internet. We were getting nervous now though knowing that it had been 12 days since we talked to anyone and family worries.

A whale skeleton!

We did succede with our other goal of Boo Boo Hill though.  This infamous hill of the Bahamas used to be covered in water and was a shoal a long time ago.  An unlucky ship wrecked here and everyone died.  The legends of their ghost resulted in the name Boo Boo Hill.

Now a days all passing cruisers stop by to pay homage by writing their name on a piece of driftwood and adding it to the pile.

The view is also spectacular from the top and we could see our boat anchored.  It's too tiny to see but it's in this pic.

Some cruisers get real fancy with their name but all we had was a bottle of spray paint so we did our best. The four sides of this log say "SV" "Bright" "Eyes" "4/11"

Eager to continue on to Staniel Cay,  the George Town Regatta, and some internet, we left the next day.  Anything we miss now we can always visit on the return trip.

We are currently anchored in Staniel Cay next to the famous Thunderball Grotto!  We were lucky enough to get internet from our boat but at a price. $25 for three days, each.  Crazy but I guess thats supply and demand. Plus we get 750mb each instead of 100 per day.  Once we are done catching up with people and lame land life chores we will explore this wonderful island.  We plan to stay here until we move to George Town for the Regatta on April 18th!