Exuma Park Headquarters – Warderick Wells

1/2 – 1/5 and counting - This morning we decided to see if we could get reservations for the moorings at Warderick Wells for the next few days. While Shroud Cay had lots to see, the timing wasn’t quite right. Any exploring of the waterways must be done at close to high tide (as we discovered yesterday). Unfortunately, high tide today was around 6:00 a.m. (way too early to go exploring) and the second high tide was not until 6:15 p.m. (too late to go exploring). Also the mooring was a little uncomfortable last night as there was lots of roly-poly ocean surge.

We called the Park on the VHF at the appointed hour (9:00 a.m.) and since we were able to get 2 mooring balls we headed out. We had a very easy cruise arriving a little after noon. This area is gorgeous. We think we’ve found Paradise!! We keep pinching ourselves to make sure we’re really here. We could stay for days (and may, we’ll see). We are moored right next to the sailboat, Whisper, from Newfoundland (Vic and Marilyn) whom we met in Nassau at the marina. They know quite a bit about the area and invited us to go on a walk with them to the other side of the island to Barefoot Beach. So as not to get over baked by the sun, we came back after a couple of hours and just relaxed on the boat. Gerry’s cold is really bothering him, so we have some serious relaxing planned for the next few days.

On Monday, we basically hung out on the boat. Gerry slept a lot trying to get over his cold, which seems to have settled in his chest. We decided maybe it was time for antibiotics. It is so beautiful here that we were perfectly content just being on the boat and gazing out at the gorgeous scenery.

On Tuesday Gerry was still in rest mode so Linda went with Michael and Jana, and two other couples we’d met, over to the Plantation ruins and Beryl’s Beach.

On Wednesday Gerry was feeling a lot better and there were several of us that went to a beach north of Warderick Wells in the Kelly’s reef area where we lounged on the beach, explored the rocky coastline, had lunch and went snorkeling. All in all, the day was exactly what we envisioned it would be like in the Bahamas.

In the evening we joined most of the other boaters moored in the area for a happy hour on the beach. We had a very enjoyable time. There was another couple from Annapolis and two from Maine close by the area where we had lived. Several of the other couples we had already met either on the ICW or in Bimini or Nassau. Two of the couples had children on board. We and Second Star were the only trawlers – the rest were sailboats – but we seemed to fit right in. As it grew dark we headed back to the boat for a nice relaxing evening.

Second Star approaching Warderick Wells

The view from our bow --check out the beach close by

Monk's Vineyard on the mooring ball - beautiful blue clear water

A shot of the mooring field from Park Headquarters.
Can you spot the only 2 trawlers?

Park Headquarters

A shot along the trail on our first day of exploring

Fish ball with mooring area in the background

This is a bananaquit.  There are hundreds of them
in the area.  They are quite tame and love to
eat sugar as you can tell from the sugar on its beak.
  This is taken from the doorway of
our boat.  We put a little sugar on the rail and they
magically appeared.

A shot of the mooring area at Emerald Rock

Exploring the Davis Plantation ruins

A shot of the wall leading to Beryl's Beach

The view as we approached the beach

There was a houseboat moored in the cove

The gang on the beach (minus Gerry as he was at the
boat resting)

This was the next day (Wed), setting up on the beach where
we went snorkeling

Vic, doing some serious exploring

Gerry on the top of the hill exclaiming -- Look !!
Gorgeous views

A shot of the area where we went exploring

The next 3 pictures are shots we took while snorkeling

A blue fish of some sort

Another shot on the reef

Happy hour on the beach