Sailing Ohana

Our next stop after a few restful, off-the-grid days on Shroud Cay was Warderick Wells Cay. The island is the location of the main office of the Exumas Land and Sea Park, and some really lovely scenery. We arrived at low tide and were directed via radio by the woman in the office to pick up mooring ball #22, the very last one at the end of a tight horseshoe-shaped curve. We had had such an easy time getting the mooring ball at Shroud, that I expected no trouble with this one. Our biggest concern was that the mooring ball was located just feet away from an exposed sandbar on which people were walking to the beach after snorkeling. The current was so strong that at the first pass when I grabbed the shackle with the boat hook, it pulled the boat hook right from my hands. I could have held on longer, but would have risked seriously hurting my arm. Locals are fond of reminding cruisers that there are no medical facilities on most of these islands. The boat hook quickly floated to the sandbar in the current, where the snorkelers set it out for us. The boat was being pulled hard in the current as well, so after Tommy drove us off the sand that we almost got stuck on, we had another go at the mooring ball, this time with the gaff we use for fishing. Again, the current and momentum of the boat pulled it out of my hands. Because the water was so shallow, it landed like a spear with the handle sticking straight up out of the water, and I was able to retrieve it. By this time, I’ve been told there were plenty of spectators on the beach (I was too busy scrambling around to notice them) and the office had radioed their team to come out in the park dinghy to tie us on from the water. I cleated a line to the bow of the boat and threw it to them. They tied us to the mooring ball so at last we were secured. Mike and Susie, our friends from SV Grace came up and helped us hook up the bridle and recover our nerves.

The beach there is called Whale Beach because it features a giant whale skeleton on display with an explanation that it died from having too much plastic waste in its stomach. What a tragic reminder of the damage humans are doing to our planet. The beach was full of families including Adiona, who we had been separated from since Nassau. All the kids played on the kayaks that were donated to the beach for public use.

There is a designated snorkeling area in the park, where we found one of the brightest, healthiest corals reefs we have seen in a long time. There were wide variety of fish and overall it was a wonderful afternoon. We swam with a group of about 10-15 huge spotted eagle rays, which was a highlight of the trip so far. However, at one point when Jackson was swimming near our dinghy about 30 yards away from me, he yelled “shark!” and jumped into our dinghy. We immediately swam to our friends’ dinghy which was near us. Jackson was pretty shaken up and once the shark was gone we packed up and went back to the boat.

Our stay on Warderick Wells was capped off by a fantastic hike to Boo Boo Hill, where there is a tradition of bringing mementos and leaving them on top of the hill. There is a giant pile of wood carvings, artwork and messages in bottles. It gave Jackson and Oliver the idea to put a message in bottle and throw it out to sea next time we are on the open ocean. There was also a blowhole, but the winds and waves had calmed enough that it wasn’t blowing much, even at high tide.