Winds were NE at 15 when we left Ships Channel at 7:45 am and built to 18 knots so we reefed both sails en route to Shroud Cay, our first stop in the protected 176 square mile Exuma Land and Sea Park that begins at Shroud Cay in the north and continues to Cambridge Cay about 22 miles to the south. We picked up an open mooring at Shroud Cay, assembled a picnic lunch, paid the Exuma Park Ranger who comes by boat with a man carrying an automatic rifle the $40 mooring fee to stay in the Exuma Sea Park, and dinghied up the mangrove lined inlet from the west of the Cay to the east side, stopping to unload and have lunch on the white sandy beach where the mangrove river empties into the Atlantic. We had the place all to ourselves, save for a visit from a few lizards who were interested in us and our lunch, and then we floated with the outgoing tide from the mangroves to the sandbar where the mangrove river empties into the Atlantic. A favorite activity experienced several times as each float only takes a few minutes. We stayed long enough for the tide to change direction but the current wasn’t nearly as strong for our return voyage so we dinghied back to the west side of Shroud Cay, spotting sea turtles en route. Out in the sound the wind was still blowing from the NE so we raised one of our Turkish towels overhead to catch the wind and “sailed” the dinghy towards the anchorage. We decided to stay the night at Shroud Cay so that we could explore the southern mangrove river at high tide tomorrow morning.
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