Hutia and the Blowfish

Our sailing day from Shroud Cay to Warderick Wells Cay was met with wind on the nose, which meant we were “in the irons.”  This caused additional sailing time as we had to tack away from the rum line in order to sail to our destination, adding at least a couple of hours to our planned trip.

Dulcinea heading to Warderick Wells Cay
(Photography compliments of our friends on s/v Sanctuary)

During that time, we hailed Exuma Park Control to establish a mooring location.  The park headquarters is located in Warderick Wells Cay and there is limited anchorage.  Because of the amount of coral and sea life, Exuma Park provides decent mooring anchorage at a reasonable cost.  We picked up mooring ball number 18, which was deep in the channel and that meant for an easy nights sleeping with no rolling anchorage. After Sherry missed the mooring ball and we lost the boat hook while attempting to pick up the mooring ball, we were finally able to grab it and settle in with a double painter.  Our water quantity was getting low so we decided it was time to make use of the water maker.  We had installed a Katadyne 80E water maker prior to our initial departure.  This is a great little unit as it produces 3½ gallons of drinkable fresh water straight from seawater using a reverse osmosis system.  We topped off 5 gallons by the time we had the dinghy loaded and ready to go exploring.  

The park headquarters was established in the 1950s to help the fragile Bahamian sea life. It is a nonprofit trust organization that ensures local poaching is not taken to extremes.

We made way to the park headquarters and were greeted by a 6’ nurse shark at the dinghy dock.  This got everybody questioning our desire to go snorkeling these waters.  Jim assured us the nurse shark meant us no harm.  After checking in and returning to the boat, we grabbed our snorkeling gear and went for a swim.  During our snorkel, within 100 yards of our mooring ball, we were presented with vibrant colorful fish, large eagle rays and many sharks.  Because of the current running in and out of the channel, this was almost like a drift dive over a coral field.  Because of the protected species, we found numerous LARGE lobsters and abundant sea life.  
 

Dune What Comes Naturally

 

Jim did a Great Job designing our boat sign to leave at Boo Boo Hill

Boo Boo Hill Trail

Dulcinea (in the forefront) on a mooring ball

What a view we had here

Our Contribution to Boo Boo Hill

This little guy came out to greet us

Gorgeous overlook

Spectacular!!!

Jim at Boo Boo Beach

Sherry at Boo Boo Beach

 

Murphy's Hideaway

Freshwater Lens

Jim Relaxing at Pirate's Lair

And Now it is My Turn

Watch Your Step!

Curly Tailed Lizard

Beach Man

Makes You Want to Stay Forever

What's that look for?  Just as he snapped the camera, a noseeum bit me

Retake

Ooh!!!

Ahh!!!

Snorkeling was followed by a hike to Boo Boo Hill, which we thought meant “Boo” as a boo boo to your boat; however, after reading up on it, there was a sailboat that wrecked near the point, losing all souls on board and it is rumored that on a full moon you can hear the souls cry out, thus, giving it the name, “Boo Boo Hill.”  The big attraction to Boo Boo Hill is to leave a marking of your sailboat so that if a wandering soul decides to board your vessel, they will know the name.  We picked up a piece of driftwood, made our mark and left it on Boo Boo Hill for any wandering souls wanting to hitch a ride aboard the s/v Dulcinea.  Sherry was greeted by a visitor on this hike as she looked down to find a 2 foot brown racer snake fearlessly slithering along the path next to her. He went about his way and she went hers.  It seems as if the wildlife here know they are protected.

After a wonderful day of sailing, snorkeling and hiking, we were beat tired, but were blessed with an incredible sunset that took our breaths away.

Today, we awoke to a beautiful sunrise and Sherry’s wonderful warm blueberry muffins and yogurt.  A hearty breakfast was necessary for another day full of adventures.  Warderick Wells Cay was once a pirates’ hideaway.  We laid out the map, took our bearings and ventured to find the Pirates’ Lair and Capture Beach.  This meant a very long dinghy ride around the southern tip of the island.  As we rounded the tip, we were in awe of the beautiful waters that separated the cays.  With a little more discovery, we were able to locate Capture Beach and land the dinghies.  We loaded the backpacks with water and headed out to find the Pirate's Lair.  The trail was rough and rugged; however, we were able to locate it.  It was quite interesting to find the Pirate’s Lair and that it had its own freshwater source.  This was the perfect place for a hideaway.  We continued exploring and walking around the entire southern part of the island.  The day was ended with a cruiser’s happy hour on south beach, under a canopy.  We met lots of new friends and shared lots of exciting stories. 

What made the happy hour really happy was as the sun set, the Hutia came out.  Hutia are a non-native marsupial that was introduced to the islands that looks like a large gerbil.  They are fun to watch as they run around on the beach and literally will come up to you to beg for food. 

Our worst end to this was that we drank too much wine and forgot to bring the spotlight for returning to the boat after dark.  Sherry managed to gracefully land a faceplant in a bush while attempting to untie the dinghy from a tree and we were left to find our way back to the boat with no lights in shark filled waters.  

All is well that ends well and we are safely tucked away in our little Dulcinea.