Stats for February 7, 2019

Origin: Hawksbill Cay

Destination: Warderick Well mooring field

Distance: 16.8 miles

Speed: 7.5 mph

Time on the Move: 2 hours and 13 minutes

Heading from Hawksbill to Warderick was a bit of a bumpy ride. We try to travel on the Banks side as much as possible because it is more protected, but some days it is still plenty bumpy (like on this particular trip). The Banks are pretty shallow, so the waves tend to be quite choppy when they build up. On this particular run we had to actually head straight for a cut to the Atlantic in order to get into our mooring field, which meant we were heading straight into the bumpiness. It didn’t really seem like the best idea, but after we were in that skinny blue channel you can see in the picture above, the seas were calm again.

Warderick Wells is known for it’s beautiful color variations due to very shallow water (white) divided by deeper channels (blue). It is gorgeous to look at, but it is not the easiest to maneuver in. First of all, the mooring balls are pretty much placed in the middle of the channel. The boats tend to turn the same direction and favor one side of the channel or the other based on current and wind. The day we came into the field, we had to keep the boats fairly close to our port side to stay in the channel.

Then comes catching the mooring ball. Mike drives the boat up to a big floating ball and tries to hold it in place while I stand on the bow and reach down with the boat hook to pull up the line attached to the giant ball. I really have to PULL UP the line because the eyelet our lines will run through is very strong and huge–like cruise ship strength (not really). I quick unhook the boat hook and set it down (it’s not much of a “set” as I’m still holding the eyelet), grabbing one of our bow lines and looping it through as quickly as I can. I have to be careful here because if our boat is moving too much, the mooring line will pull and it could be very dangerous (as in scrape my hand or finger against the side of the boat and karate chop it off). After one bow line is looped through and cleated off, Mike moves the boat back into position again by the ball. I use the hook again, loop again, and cleat again on the other side and we are set. On this particular day we had to try twice because the first time was too close to karate chopping off my hand. Mike always reminds me that I can’t move the boat by pulling or pushing when the wind/water is against me, as it weighs 30,000 pounds. We really have to communicate about where I need him to drive the boat to for all of this to work. But, the 2nd try isn’t all bad, plus I got to keep all my fingers and hands!

The last factor to consider when manuevering in Warderick is the current. We learned (kind of the hard way) that the current really rips through that channel. It was apparently slack tide (half hour around either high or low tide, when the water is not really moving either way) when we decided to kayak and paddleboard around the mooring field. It was a calm, easy paddle that I even extended a bit because it was so beautiful. Then when we wanted to get back to the boat, the current was flowing fast like a river in from the ocean, down the deep water channels, and into the Banks. We had to paddle up stream to get to our boat and it was tough. I towed Tobin on his kayak and Mike towed Hayley on hers while Colin was left to fend for himself (he probably had the easiest paddling situation). It was not an easy paddle despite moving to the edge of the channel where the current wasn’t so strong. The dad from another kid boat we just met came out in his dinghy, downstream, ready to stop and rescue any of us that couldn’t make it up stream to our boat. We all made it, but it was a little more than we bargained for. Whew. Lesson learned!! Beware of ripping currents.

Warderick Wells is where the main offices for the Exuma Land and Sea Park are, so Mike and I headed over in the dinghy to check in while the kids watched a movie on our boat. We passed by a boat full of kids on the way to the office, so we stopped by to say hi and let them know that we have kinds onboard as well. Ironically, this boat was Walden that I had just messaged a few days prior on Facebook about being on an island near them and we were hoping meet up. Since I didn’t have service for several days in the park, I never got to tell them where we were headed. However, the meet up was now set since they were moored on a ball 2 down from us!! Kid playdate in the making!!

We paddled over to the beach and the kids played together. After some playtime on the beach, we headed over to Walden to play some more and get to know their parents a bit. We went over the usual topics of conversation: where are you from, what got you out here cruising, and what is your plan? The people you meet cruising all have such interesting stories about WHY they are out here, especially the kid boats. It seems these topics are the first to get covered when you meet someone new. We were happy to hear that Walden was on a similar path as us, heading south to Georgetown, so we could have more playdates in the future. They also had another kid boat they met weeks before, coming in to Warderick the next day. More fun with more kid boats!!

After growing his hair for about 5 months, Mike finally decided it had to go. He was sick of feeling like he always had to have a hat on, and I encouraged him to take it back short!! Hayley did the honors. That is a LOT of hair!!

Warderick has several marked hiking trails that we explored. Hiking to the top of Boo Boo Hill was top on our list of areas to explore. The legend of Boo Boo Hill says that a ship crashed onto the rocks near the cay long ago and all souls onboard perished. If you go to the top of Boo Boo Hill on a moonlit night you can still hear the voices of their spirits singing in the howling wind. Sounds pretty creepy, but it is actually a beautiful spot.

The tradition is to leave a piece of driftwood with your boat’s name at the top of the hill as an offering to King Neptune and the other sea gods for safe passage. The hill is covered with hundreds of driftwood signs.

There are also some benches and other memorials at the top, which was great because we could actually get our first cell signal in days waaaay up here. If you follow us on Facebook, you see posts daily, but then they just stopped until we got to the top of Boo Boo Hill and we were BACK. It felt so good to get some messages out (too our worrying mothers and dear friend Courtney!) and check weather at the top of that hill!

We went exploring further along the ridge near Boo Boo Hill and found this sign. Unfortunately the waves weren’t coming in strong enough to push water through the blowholes, but we still enjoyed looking for them.

From there we hiked down to the beach on the Sound side.

That night we played with Walden again and got to meet the other kid boat, SummerCamp. What a great name for a kid boat, right?! The kids played on the beach until after dark because the adults were entertained with a spontaneous cruisers happy hour complete with a jam session/sing along on the beach!

The next morning we moved from the north mooring field at Warderick to a different mooring field around the corner. It is more protected by the landmass of the cay, so we hoped we wouldn’t have such a strong current by the boat which can rock us side to side a bit and also sounds loud in the quiet of the night, with all that water rushing by. We loved the Emerald Rock mooring field and luckily, the other kid boats followed suit, and came over to join us at Emerald.

We met up with Walden and SummerCamp for a hike shortly after moving to the new mooring. Brent (or the dad from Walden, which is how we usually refer to other adults!!) led the hike for 6 adults and 8 kids. Whew! I bet you can just imagine all the energy those kids bring to a hike!!

Our hike evolved into a one-way hike, so the dads swam back to get our dinghies which were beached a few corners back and drove them to the end of our hike.

Dinner that night was hamburgers and hot dogs. Except, we had no fresh bread because food goes fast when you don’t see grocery stores for weeks and everything gets stale and moldy quick. In Great Harbour I tried making my own bread, and it was pretty good. However, every time I attempted it afterwards, it got worse and worse. I tried making hotdog and hamburger buns for dinner, and the family ate them, but then we decided they were like rocks. Good effort, but not quite what we were going for. Sometimes it’s a rough life out here in paradise!!

The next day our kid boat friends moved south, and we headed out to follow some more trails around the cay.

We got a bit turned around and it was going to take a bit of back-tracking to get to our dinghy. Plus, there were some menacing clouds in the sky. So we decided to blaze our own trail over the sharp jagged limetstone, to get back much faster. Luckily, these kids are hiking pros and everyone did great. I’m telling you, though, this kind of hiking is very uneven and usually on sharp jagged edges of limestone that are sharp as knives. We don’t hike in flip flops unless we know that it is going to be an easy, sandy walk, just for this reason!

There was one more spot I really wanted to explore before we left Warderick Wells, so we headed out in the evening to see if we could find the Davis Ruins.

Sure enough, we found ruins very similar to those on Hawksbill Cay. These buildings were made in the late 1700’s by a family of British Loyalists who arrived on Warderick to build a new life where they could live safe from persecution. As a trade off, they had to live in a place where the only fresh water was rain water that gathered in the natural limestone “wells” on the cay and where very few plants could actually grow. Hard to have a plantation when nothing will grow! I can’t imagine how hard life in this harsh climate and desolation was for them. Unfortunately, just around the south end of the cay from where they settled is a harbor called the Pirate’s Lair, where large ships would hide away and wait to attack unsuspecting ships passing by. The story goes that the Davis family was also attacked, and perhaps even killed, by these pirates.

The structures were easier to see on Warderick, as the foliage wasn’t quite as thick as it was on Hawksbill. Here is a long wall that surrounded the plantation.

Thank you for following along on our adventures!! Start your own adventure!