Staniel Cay and on to Shroud Cay

Hi everyone,

Today we had a very light wind day sail from Staniel Cay to Shroud Cay.  Less then 50nm to go to Nassau now.  We spent three days and four nights at Staniel Cay.  On day 1 we visited the famous swimming pigs and Thunderball Grotto.  Just as well, because days 2 and 3 were wet and windy!

Spectacular Thunderball Grotto

We visited the swimming pigs fairly early in the morning.  They were up and about but not swimming.  We beached our dinghy and walked along to meet them.  Quite a few pigs and many piglets.  The piglets are cute. 

Pig Beach

Big Pig

Little Pig

Piglet Roll (with Mum)

After returning to Zen Again to don our snorkelling gear we dinghied onward to Thunderball Grotto.  There were several tour boats outside and a couple of other yacht dinghies.   We anchored the dinghy outside the entrance.  It was mid-tide so we could swim through the main entrance without having to dive.

Thunderball Grotto

Swimming through the entrance

In the grotto

Another entrance/exit

After a while in the grotto we swam out and snorkelled around the island.  Some very nice coral, fish, a decent sized barracuda and two turtles.

Nice corals

Barracuda

Spot the Turtle

The next two days were were holed-up on Zen Again riding out bad weather.  A front had come off the US SE coast and a trough was lying W-E to our north. Wind gusts up to 35kt in the anchorage.  We had 20m of chain out in 2.5m of water with the Manson Supreme well buried in the sandy bottom.

The first morning the rain was so heavy we stripped off, soaped up and had a good shower!  Couldn't see the boat 100m away through the rain.   Filled our water tanks in 10 minutes after the salty deck had been thoroughly rinsed off.

Weather clearing in Staniel Cay

Today we sailed to Shroud Cay.  It was a 30nm sail in very light SE winds of 5-8 knots.  It took us 9 hours at an average speed of 3.8 knots, gybing downwind over the 3-7m banks W of the islands.

Here are the usual plots...

Overall Track

Arrival Track

Graphs

It was a lovely quiet sail, marred only by the big motor yachts passing by.  We'll have to get used to them as we get closer to the US.

Anchored at Shroud Cay

Trust all's well where you are!