Sailed 7 miles from Shroud to Hawksbill Cay. While Shroud was mostly flat and uninteresting visually, Hawksbill excites the eye, here on the west side. A beautiful beach embraces rock outcroppings that rise abruptly forty or more feet. In between the mounts one can catch glimpses of flatland with heavy vegetation. A sparkling stream cuts through the beach and quickly disappears behind a mount but not before it hints at the existence of a blue lagoon and pink flamingos just out of sight. The mounts created tiny coves and pristine private beaches off which we swam yesterday, floated and cooled off to then sprawl superbly idle, soaking in the rays. While reluctant to leave the wonderful coves today, the lure of the unknown interior was overpowering. I scaled a mount on a recon mission and saw enough to get us moving. We found that the stream led into a gorgeous lagoon containing a small crescent shaped sand island. We named it our Secret Lagoon as it is not visible from the beaches. The creek feeding the lagoon meanders to the east, doing a couple of lazy “8’s” before petering out at the ridge on the eastern side of the island, behind which lies the Atlantic. South of the lagoon lie sand and mud flats which clearly are flooded at times. Crisscrossing the flats are rows of half foot twigs or sticks, which are rooted and show slight signs of life. The rows have varied patterns but a figure eight seems most prevalent. The seedlings are most likely mangroves and have been likely planted by Exuma Park employees or volunteers. At the edge of the flats, in rocks at the foot of a mount, we found a fresh water well mentioned in Pavlidis” guide book. It is easy to imagine pirates or ordinary seamen putting ashore here to partake of the cool fresh water and bathe in our Secret Lagoon.
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