Warderick Wells

Greetings from Warderick Wells mooring ball #13. This is HQ for the Exuma Cays Land and Sea Park and we arrived shortly after lunch today.

Yesterday was another relaxing day at Shroud, where Noah went off and played with kids from Contented Turtle and See U Manana. They all crowded into a dinghy and went exploring the mangrove creeks together. Beth and I worked on tracing down the wiring for the light on the arch, cleaned water intake screens, fixed the sump pump and played with the SSB radio. Noah finished his 1/2 year test and has completed 80 school lessons.

Today, after talking with the Exuma Park to insure they had a mooring for us, we pulled up the anchor and headed out. The wind was blowing 17-23 knots and we were able to SAIL at 6.5 with just the genoa deployed. We are starting to get the hang of reading the water as we sailed over depths of 18 down to 8 feet without freaking out. The Explorer Charts we're using (thanks Mom & Dad) have excellent routes and waypoints so we know the safe areas. The clear water and sun combination is great. As we turned into the wind to make our approach, the sails had to be furled and the engine started again, but we were rewarded with small rainbows every time we crashed through a wave that sent spray up beside the cockpit. This is lots more fun at 82 degrees than it was at 45 in Georgia.

Wardrick Wells is close to Exuma Sound and you almost go out a cut to get into the mooring field. The current was running 2.5 kts against us moving towards the sound, and then almost as fast with us as we entered the mooring field. The channel is about 100 feet wide and the moorings are in the middle. Had a bit of trouble turning around our full keel boat in the current, and almost caught the next mooring as we came around. As a matter of fact it isn't there anymore -- hmmm. We are now firmly attached to ball #13, Beth's lucky number. It is almost in front of the park headquarters building.

By the time we went ashore, the park office was closed for the day since they leave at noon on Sundays. There were maps in the mailbox so we went off exploring after spending a few hours building a sand castle on "Powerful Beach" which is just off our stern. A 52' sperm whale skeleton sits prominently on this beach. It washed up in 1995 and died from ingesting too much plastic. While Noah and I were checking out the whale, some yellow finches landed on the skeleton and approached us looking for handouts. Also spotted an interesting spotted lizard that we need to identify. The beach is probably named after the generator station that is in a building behind the beach. Following "Shaggy Dog" path took us over coral rock, through a mangrove swamp and up a sand and scrub covered hill where there are great views of Exuma Sound. The east wind was whipping up waves that crashed into cliffs on the eastern side of the island that reminded us of Schoodic Point in Maine. The coral rock had a few holes in it that extended down to the ocean below. When waves crashed into the undercut cliffs they sent big puffs of air up through the "blow holes." From their we climbed "Boo Boo" hill where people leave pieces of driftwood with their boat name on it. (Earl - there was a Luna Sea). We took a group picture of a family from Portugal for them. The view from the hill was fantastic and the kind of thing we had been hoping to find. On the way back down we noticed some tiny trees that looked just like the Hikado Elms we have growing in the garden railroad back in Durham. The wind generator has the batteries all charged up so we can stay up late with all the lights on, but we will probably go to bed shortly after sunset.

Sound Side at Warderick Wells

Ocean Side at Warderick Wells

The "Blowholes" in Warderick Wells