Tuesday & Wednesday April 19 & 20th: Warderick Wells 

     Tuesday we threaded the shallows of Pipe Creek back into the Exuma bank and continued North.  Today’s intended destination was Warderick Wells.  We had spent five nights at anchor on the back side of the island, in Hog Cay, waiting out a Northwesterly front.  This time we thought we’d take a mooring in the coveted North Mooring field, adjacent to the Exuma Land and Sea Park headquarters.  It was only about six nautical miles from Pipe Creek as the crow flies, but we had to follow a path that took us a few miles to the West before turning back toward the cays, because of the sand bars and coral studded shallows.  (Like in Maine, sometimes you can’t get there from here.)  

     We’d been assigned mooring #21.  When we entered the beautiful, pristine waters of the North Mooring field, we discovered the channel to be a very narrow ‘U’ shape, surrounded by sand bars. Mooring #21 was almost to the very end of it.  We carefully passed by the occupied moorings, sometimes within a few feet of the boat.  We startled the occupants of a fifteen foot wide catamaran: they had clearly not been expecting to see another boat come across their stern while they were enjoying a late lunch.  We continued around the bottom of the ‘U’ passing near dinghy moorings where people were snorkeling, and up to our own mooring without incident.  

Exuma Land and Sea Park Headquarters from our anchorage.  See the sand bar in the middle of the 'U'.  

     Dan and I tidied up and broke out the snorkel gear.  We thought we’d just snorkel from the boat, everything was so close by.  Once in the water, we discovered a very strong current.  We quickly understood we couldn’t swim down to the reef at the bottom of the ‘U’ - we’d never make it back to the Willie.  We decided to try for the rocks near the entrance of the mooring field, in the top of the ‘U’.  The surrounding sand bars came in very handy - we pulled ourselves along with our hands as we kicked.  It was quite the aerobic work out.  We managed to make it to and around the two rocks marking the top of the mooring field, where protected coral and fish flourished, but there was no hanging around to look at anything.  It took a lot of effort just to get around those rocks, and once around, the current was forcing us back toward the Willie Dawes.  I remarked to Dan “We’re going to get one shot at this, aren’t we?”, meaning grabbing the boarding ladder.  It’s a good thing we’re both strong and confident swimmers.   

     The guide book talked in glowing terms about the excellent snorkeling in the North Mooring Field, but it made little reference to the current.  Back on board, we watched other boats navigate the channel to their moorings.  One missed their pickup and collided with another boat.  Another slipped sideways into the bottom of the ‘U’, managed to snag the mooring but ended up dropping it boathook and all, before regaining control.  I turned to Dan to thank him for his piloting skills.  He’s so good at the helm neither of us noticed how strong the current really was when we entered this field.  It also was to our advantage that we had to round the ‘U’ for our mooring; the current was against us, not shoving us forward.  Far easier to pick up a mooring when you are heading into the current.  

     Wednesday we went ashore and met Sherry, the office worker who monitors the radio, assigns moorings, fields questions like “can we use our jet ski?” (answer - not in the mooring fields), and sells souvenirs and ice.  We got a copy of the Warderick Wells snorkeling map and went to explore the island itself.  This Park is terribly underfunded and understaffed, but they manage to maintain a few trails on the island and get around the many cays in a staff boat to try to oversee the many mooring fields.  It’s a sad comment on cruisers to note that some of them take advantage of the lack of staff to anchor in mooring fields to avoid the $20 nightly payment, to leave behind momentoes  other than driftwood (a sign asks people specifically not to use nails, plastic, or rope of any kind when adding to the pile of boat-related we-were-here signs), and to poach shells, conchs, and fish.  This is an incredibly beautiful area.  Some people just don’t believe rules apply to them.

     We followed the trail to Boo-Boo Hill, where a schooner was once wrecked with all had lost and the souls supposedly haunt the area, especially on a full moon.  Along the way there were many informative signs talking about the various indigenous flora and explaining the geology.  On the top of the Hill, which commands an impressive view of both sides of the island, there are many blow holes.  We weren’t there at high tide, so they weren’t active, but they were noisy and we could feel the air coming out as the waves slammed into the limestone below.  

<--Bank side ... Atlantic side -->

Looking straight down the cliff at waves slamming the side.

Dan feels the air come up through the blow hole.

     Back aboard the Willie we weighed anchor and big goodbye to Sherry and Warderick Wells and headed North about fifteen miles to anchor off Shroud Cay.  This is the edge of the Land and Sea Park, in the Northern Exumas, and apparently is a favorite stopover for people heading to the marina at Highborne Cay or going all the way to Nassau.  We anchored here with about fifteen other boats.  Shroud Cay is also known for scenic dinghy passages through mangroves.  We’ll explore them tomorrow.

Sunset from Shroud Cay.