This morning SYL pulled out at 8AM for another massive ambergris hunt. Jono is so pumped he can’t stand it. We thought we would run the eastern side of Highborne Cay today since the wind was down to look for ambergris. Jumanji pulled out a bit later to find us a nice anchorage at Shroud Cay, we both achieved our objectives. Jono took the dinghy ashore to hunt the beach while I trolled for Mahi offshore. Jono did better than me, I caught one barracuda and jono found a small piece of ambergris so while it was not a huge day for discovery jono and I had fun doing man stuff while Mike and Laurie made a great sail on the baby blue water inside the islands to Shroud.
The Shroud Cay anchorage is awesome.. it truly lights up your eyes. Acres and acres of sweet blue water, as we pulled in there were beautiful long tailed tropical birds circling overhead. I understand they are only here for a few weeks this time of year.
About 3:30 the tide was right for a dinghy ride across the island through the mangroves so Jumanjji and SYL took their dinks in all the way to the offshore beach. It was a great ride, lots of rays on the bottom and even a sea turtle hugging the bottom as we idled by. The beach was in Laurie’s words “truly beautiful”.
So here we are… in the Exumas doing the “Exuma Thing” sailing in nearly zero waves at good boat speed seeing amazing things along the way. Jono and I talked to Greg (captain of a small trimaran) next to us. He’s looking to upgrade to a larger boat so I invited him over. Jono is at his boat now checking it out…… Jono is so ready to own his own boat. He has learned so much, he pays perfect attention to everything we do here on SYL. Often I don’t instruct him on what to do next, to see if he has it and he does…. He’s on top of his game. He still makes small mistakes, but so do I… nobody’s perfect.
I’m running the generator, charging up all out computers and battery backups, as well as making fresh water with the water maker. We should be fine on water until we fill up in Staniel, but it’s free so I thought I’d use the water maker while I’m charging. We tested our water with Mikes meter and our water maker is putting out some super clean product. It’s 6PM, the sun is getting lower, there is almost no wind. Jono and I both took a dip in the water to cool our core. It’s not hot but the cool clean salt water is a great start to our baths for the day. We are fresh and clean.. we’ll sleep comfortable tonight.
Jono has been over at the trimaran “Wings” for a while now. I wonder if he’s finding some interest over there. The couple on board are from Austin, Jono is more than interested looking at different boat designs so he’s having a ball I’m sure. I picked up the cabin a little in case they come look at SYL. Two men on a boat may not earn the Good housekeeping seal of approval. We told them if they want to see a clean boat go see Jumanji.
There are two major mangrove cuts across Shroud. We did the North channel today. Tomorrow I expect we will all explore the Southern mangrove channel. It is reserved for non-powered transit only. Today we crossed into the Exuma Land and Sea Park. It begins at Wax Cay and ends at Bell Island. The park is a natural preserve, no fishing or shelling, the rules are made to reduce the human footprint in every way. It is the Bahamas effort to maintain the original ecosystem in at least a part of this beautiful land. Scenery inside the park is thankfully not that different than the rest of the Exumas at this time. There is more wildlife here, in the water and on land but the entire ecosystem is pretty well intact except for major hubs like Nassau.
Greg and Angie on “Wings” came over to look at SYL, we talked until after dark. They are definitely vagabond travellers… life before boating (which they are new to) consisted of touring America in an RV. They are probably in their upper 30’s. The trimaran they are on is a late 1960’s fiberglass boat. That means its solid fiberglass, no weight saving core like modern boats. The first fiberglass boats had something to prove regarding reliability so they were made three times too strong. The only negative to reliable and heavy is, that often makes it very slow. They plan to move today, we will probably stay at Shroud again tonight. They are travelling our same direction so I’m sure we will see them again.
SYL !!