Shroud Cay was recommended to us because it has a series of tiny creeks through the mangroves at least one of which bisects the island and can be navigated – carefully – by dinghy from the Bank to the Sound side of the island. It’s uninhabited and part of the Exuma Cays Land and Sea Park.It wasn’t far from Norman’s Cay and we arrived before lunch time and anchored slightly north of the centre of the island. It was reasonably hairy: we anchored with .9 metres under the hull which meant, at low tide, we would, probably, have .2 metres clearance – probably.
As before, we could only take one party on the dinghy at a time. The creek is incredibly shallow especially at low tide. Some of the time the engine had to be pulled up and the dinghy had to be pushed. The Park authorities recommend that you explore the Cay at idle/no wake speed to avoid grounding, but some people ignore this advice – in particular, a powerful tender crewed by a bunch of teenagers (+) from one of the visiting stinkpots ripped along merrily creating mayhem and wake. “Wouldn’t it be funny“, mused our slightly jealous crew, “if they crashed into a sandbank!” and lo and behold, they did. From 20kts to zero in less time than it takes to say “No wake!” Our crew didn’t laugh at all...
Pics: The Landing Party, Baby Mangroves
