Into the Northern Exumas

Sitting on the anchor at Shroud Cay Exuma Bahamas.  8 feet of crystal clear water below us.  Currently blowing NE 15 kts and we have about a 1 ft chop that’s coming around the point from the north.  This will be the first of 2 posts from here as I have to catch up
for 3 days.

Highbourne Cay Sunset

The last 3 days have been awesome.  36 nm run from Nassau to Highbourne Cay in the northern Exumas.  We needed to top our rear fuel tanks, so we decided to stay one more night at the dock.  Julianne had a conference call, so after I fueled and moved the boat to the dock single handed.  I got the boat washed down and we got ready for dinner at the marina.  What a beautiful restaurant and the food was just as good.  We both had Mahi, but we both agreed that the bread pudding was the best ever.

Friday we had a conference call at 9 am and right after that we departed for the first anchorage of the trip.  We anchored west of Highbourne Cay which would give us time to launch the tender (small boat) we carry on Top Shelf.  I dove the anchor to make sure it wasn't fouled, then we were ready to go exploring.

The Cruising guides had talked about the Rock Iguanas on both Allens's & Leaf Cay.  We made the

Rock Iguanas - Leaf Cay

trip and couldn't find a place to land on Allen's, so we went east to a beach on Leaf Cay.  What a sight!  As soon as we approached with the tender, 50 or more Iguanas came out of the brush onto the beach to greet us.  They seemed to walk to a pre-determined position on the beach, then they froze,  I mean froze.  They didn't move a muscle until we left.  Other boaters must feed them.  We didn't bring any food.

We got back to the boat and I put the free diving gear back on to scrub the bottom of the boat.  We seemed to pick up a really funky green grassy type growth around the waterline.  I hadn't seen that before.  I bet it had something to do with the stop in Stuart and the algae growth problems they are having in the St Lucie River due to the fertilizing of the sugar cane crops and the outflows from Lake Okeechobee.

Remora Fish Cleaning Top Shelf

While cleaning the boat, I had a visitor.  A 3 foot Remora fish was helping eat the green grass off of the bottom while I cleaned.  He was wary of me for the first few minutes, but when I showed no threat, we worked side by side.  About half way done with the starboard side, a large 10 ft shark cruised right under me. As best I could tell it was a Lemon Shark, but I'm no expert.   As Rob Greig knows my past reaction was to high tail in out of the water, but since talking with Ryan Meyers, who I'll be spearfishing with in a few weeks, I just stopped and watched him.  Ryan says your not his target meal, and neither is he of us.  So everything is cool as long as you don't panic.  He eyeballed me and kept moving.  My helper the Remora are the fish that attach themselves to sharks.  I'm glad I didn't loose my helper.

I got done cleaning the boat about 4pm and started dinner.   We have to eat early down here or we'll be eating in the dark.  We are learning to cook dinner in time to and watch the sun set at about 5:15 pm.  First night:  Chicken, Filets and Lamb Chops…Julianne went a little overboard.  It was a great first meal on anchor.

Next:  Shroud Cay