Norman Cay. Shroud Cay and Hawkesbill - Can't believe how beautiful

We left Warderick Wells on the edge of the front and as we headed onto the shallow waters on the Bank it was still pretty bumpy and we had 22-25 knots of south westerly wind.  Initially we motored into the wind but we were able to turn to run with the windy the sea was a little bumpy, this only really caused a concern because where were we going to get any shelter?  We headed for our first option about 12 miles away where it soon became apparent we were not going to get any shelter, a 100+ft powerboat was happily anchor there but we were rolling all over the place. So we pressed on about another 5 miles to Norman Cay, the chart showed shallow water in the entrance which was difficult to see in the white horse but we managed to sneak through, the charts explain to follow the dark blue channel, what dark blue channel? The water seemed to get light and lighter all around us and with around 20 boats already in this anchorage we just had round up into the wind and drop the anchor, good news was it was sheltered, bad news was there wasn't much room so we squeezed in close to this beautiful little island.

As the afternoon went on the wind built but we sat happily at anchor, as other boats came into the anchorage there was plenty of room for them to manoeuvre.  We went off to bed with the wind howling but happy that we had been there all day and there were no issue, as we woke up around midnight Mark looked out to check all way ok, yep all ok.  Less than 5 minutes later there was a huge bang and we both jumped out of bed and into the cockpit, the boat next to us was on just off our stern, it looked like our lifebuoy which is on our guard rail had collided with their pulpit, so it was a very close miss.  This had happened not because of the wind but because of the odd flowing tide which was causing all the boats to move in different directions.  We upped anchor in the dark and moved, very nerve racking in water which we knew was shallow all around us but we had to re-anchor.  Mark then sat on deck for the next 2 hours watching all the boats dance around but thankfully nowhere near us but it was a very sleepless night.  Next day Mark dingyed over to our neighbours who were as mystified as us that we had collided as we seemed to have plenty of swinging room, thankfully all was good on their boat as with Magnum but not nice night at anchor.

We were desperate to move as we did not want a repeat experience but decided to head out for a snorkel before making a decision.  There is a sunken passenger plane in the Bay which lead to some great snorkelling, there we some huge stingrays gliding around and hidden in the sand and schools of grunt hiding in the plane plus a huge numbers of sergeant major fish swarming in our faces, I assure they get fed so are all over any visitors, they even bit Amanda’s leg!

Wow a sunken plane

Big school of grunts playing hide and seek in the plane

Amanda and the overly friendly Sargent Major fish

Mark and his follow me fish

Mark showing off his swimming skills

As soon as we were back on board we decided we would up anchor, by now then wind had dropped and we had a leisurely sail of 6 miles to Shroud Cay.  This is back in the Exuma Land and Sea Park, stunning location, with the tropic birds noisily circling around the boat, it is close to mating season so there were lots of displaying taking place, we also had a big flock on egrets fly by.

That evening when Mark jumped off the back of the boat to have a wash, he looked at the hull only to find the Ramora fish aka sharkersuckers which we had stuck to the hull in Warderick Wells were still with us! They did not seem to concerned that Mark was in the water and we were quite excited by having some pets.  That night we had a lovely time feeding them our left over vegetable peelings, they particularly like the inside of the butternut squash, at this point there seemed to have 2 friends  – Tilly and Tom as we named them, Tom was probably 2.5ft and Tilly closer to 2ft.  They are very odd looking creatures with a large sucker on the top of their head which is how they stick themselves to sharks and whales, oh and our hull, they have big wide mouths which looked scary at first but now look like big wide smiles.  It was nice to think they were enjoying their new home as much as we were enjoying their visit.

Next day after breakfast with Tilly, Tom and now Tiny had also appeared and we set out in the dingy to explore through the mangroves on Shroud Cay and then out to the beach on the sound side of the island.  The mangroves seem eerily quiet and we did not see any wildlife, the beautiful beach you reach on through the island is amazing, it is sheltered by a few small islands and a reef, with crystal clear waters.  What was really funny as we reached the beach was there were 7 director chair set up on the beach, along with a cool box, suntan lotions, towels, kayaks, basically everything you could want on your own private beach, funny that this had obviously been set up for guests from one of the 2 huge superyachts anchored in the bay but there were no guest to be seen and we didn't even help ourselves to a cold beer.  We were certainly glad that the guests were not on the beach and we had the place to ourselves, so we jumped in for a swim.

Pottering through the mangroves on daisy dingy

Mark loving another beautiful beach

Amanda  all alone on the beautiful beach

How the other half live with everything they could want waiting for them on the beach

That afternoon we were off again and the short 4 miles hop to Hawkesbill although we had briefly stopped here before we couldn't resist another stay as it was such a wonderful location.  We even allowed ourselves an entire day of relaxing on the beach, swimming and generally taking it very easy.  Not much snorkelling here but we did see a few fish and pretty much had the place to ourselves apart from a huge powerboat whose occupants occasional came out and whizzed around on jet skis.

Magnum at anchor before leaving Shroud Cay

Big boat and little boat at Hawkesbill

This lovely little crap was keeping his eye on us