Warderick Wells, Cambridge Cay and Staniel Cay

Pictures for this leg of the trip: http://tinyurl.com/warderick

Wow, what a great stop! Warderick Wells is home to the headquarters of the Exuma Cays, Land and Sea Park. The park covers 176 square miles, from Wax Cay south 22 miles to Conch Cut extending out 4 nautical miles on either side of the cays. It is a no take zone – nothing living or dead can be removed from the park. What you bring into the park, must be taken back out with you. Apart from the natural beauty of the islands, we have had a great time meeting and hanging out with other cruisers. We have been snorkeling and hiking and having beach parties and gatherings with other boaters. We have also enjoyed a secure place to wait out a cold front with 30-40 knots winds. This is probably one of the best stops on our trip so far. Steve has relaxed quite a bit since we stopped here, after being stressed out quite a bit since we’ve come to the Bahamas.

We arrived in Warderwick Wells on Friday, February 27th. Catching the mooring was a bit of challenge as the wind and current were working against us and there is virtually no room for error. On one side of the mooring channel there is a huge sand bar, and the other is rock. It was very stressful and we put on quite the show for the other boats – luckily only a couple of boats there at the time and no one seemed to have noticed. When all was set, we both breathed a sigh of relief and kissed and made up. We spent 4 nights in Warderwick. The first morning we got up and went snorkeling in two different places. The first place had quite a bit of current, so we moved on to Emerald Rock which was a smaller coral reef, but we saw quite a bit of fish. In the afternoon, we went for a long hike through the limestone rock trail, through mangrove nurseries, thatch palm groves, and finally along some amazing cliffs. Saturday evening on the beach at 5:30 there is a happy hour where you bring what you want to drink and an appetizer to share. Well, we had such a great time. Celeste and Gary, from Sol Surfin’ brought there guitar and drum and played music by the campfire until the evening hours. We met lots of new cruisers and some that we had met previously, including Randy and Nikki, from Kristenly – an IP 38 just like John Ray. We had met Randy previously in Nassau where his girlfriend Nikki joined him for the next two months. Nikki is on leave for a few months as a high school counselor up in Vermont.

On Sunday, Steve and I went to first snorkeling site where we had too much current the previous day. This time we went at slack tide and the snorkeling was great. We have been snorkeling instead of diving since the water is shallow and there is no need to waste the air in our tanks. It was a little frustrating when I saw a huge lobster inside a rock and I couldn’t dive down and get his picture because I was too buoyant in my wetsuit. I did eventually get an okay picture when he decided to come out of the little cave he was hiding in. Believe it or not, it has been quite chilly in the Bahamas, and we have to wear our wetsuits to snorkel. Right now, as I type this blog, the wind is blowing 18-25 knots. The water temperature is 68°F. Swimming for the fun of it hasn’t even been an option.

On Sunday evening we went to Sol Surfin, along with Randy and Nikki, for dinner and drinks - another fun night. The next day, we left our mooring to head a little more south to Cambridge Cay which is still part of the Exuma Park area. Here we caught another mooring. After arriving on Monday, we took a long dinghy ride to “The Aquarium” site for a snorkel. It was a great little place, but we didn’t stay in the water too long as it was freezing (even with wet suits).

On Tuesday, Steve and I took the dinghy to a little beach and walked a path to the Exuma sound side of the island. From there we walked along a cliff trail which was even more amazing than the cliffs at Warderick Wells. The rock formations were incredible. I hope you can appreciate how spectacular they were from the pictures, but it was simply incredible to see such beauty on this planet.

Sol Surfin and Kristenly joined our anchorage on Tuesday afternoon. We got together again on Sol Surfin for games. We had such a blast playing this game (guys against the girls – girls lost, but only because of bad luck. We definitely outplayed the guys J.) On Wednesday, we decided to stay put at Cambridge Cay since the winds were blowing like stink again! We did venture out for a long dinghy ride across Conch Cut to the Rocky Dundas – a cave snorkeling site. However, after an insane, wet dingy ride, we decided not to even attempt this site as the water was way too rough. We rode the dinghy all the way back to our anchorage and snorkeled at a site directly behind our boats. It was incredible. Two of the highlights were a huge barracuda that went swimming right by me and then a stingray that was under our dinghy when we returned after snorkeling. The current was pretty strong but we got a great workout. We’ve headed out of Cambridge Cay, stopped one night at Sampson Cay. Today we left Sampson Cay and we are anchored off of Staniel Cay at Big Major Cay – Staniel Cay is the place to go ashore and provision and get Internet though. We’ll stay here for a couple of days before starting our trek back up north towards Eleuthra and the Abacos islands.