Bahamas Cruise

Day 41 – Warderick Wells

Last night as evening set in, Paula got some great pictures of the sunset. We know we take a lot of these, but somehow each one seems more beautiful than the last.

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Beautiful sunset last night.

After coffee this morning, we got in the dinghy and went to the north part of the Island to explore some more trails that looked interesting on the map. It’s about a half mile dinghy ride that once again took us through that tricky little cut with a swift running current. Once on the trail, there were several informative signs describing the wildlife, land features, and history of the Island. The trail was also marked very well with orange blazes. It was high tide when we got there, and part of the trail at that moment was under water.

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Fording the river on the trail to Boo Boo Hill.

The most abundant wildlife were the little lizards that kept darting in and out of the thatch. Some of them seemed to want to pose for a picture.

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These little guys are everywhere, and are much fatter than the ones in Florida. Paula is pointing to one with her left hand.

There were several parts of the trail surrounded by small palm trees and other vegetation that made it look exactly like “Gilligan’s Island”.

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I was sure I’d see the professor right around the corner.

The trail we were on went to the top of the highest hill on Warderick Wells to a place called “Boo Boo Hill”. There is a legend connected with this place. It says that a long time ago a schooner sank off the coast of Warderick Wells in a wild storm. All on board perished and no bodies were ever recovered. The locals say that if you climb the hill when the moon is full, you can hear the voices of the lost souls singing hymns. Some time after that disaster, a tradition started when cruisers visited the Island. In order to appease King Neptune in the hope that similar disaster would never befall them, each visiting cruiser would leave an “offering” on the top of Boo Boo Hill (featured picture). The park doesn’t mind, but would like each offering to be principally made of wood, preferably driftwood.

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You can see how extensive the pile of King Neptune “offerings” are. There’s evidence this pile has been blown down and rebuilt several times.

Yesterday, we discussed what to bring and decided on an on-the-spot assembly of some spare pieces from one of our Mortmade projects. We found a small piece of driftwood and some palm bark on the way up the hill and put a “C Ghost” pictogram together in a style similar to the other offerings. Hope Neptune likes it.

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We were limited on the available pieces of driftwood, but this one seemed to fit. The two pieces were attached to the driftwood with a little glue, and held in place with thread till they dry. Ultimately the thread will disintegrate and won’t show. We put it on the western side of the pile, in the lee of the easterly trade winds.

We had a great 360 degree view from the top of the hill. The sound side of the Island is just as gorgeous as the bank side. We could see our boat way off in the distance We then explored Boo Boo Beach, which was a short walk down hill. There looked to be the beginnings of another shrine to Neptune on Boo Boo Beach, consisting of a pile of colorful ropes that obviously came from boats.

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The arrow is pointing at our boat in the Emerald Rock Mooring field.
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This mockingbird on Boo Boo Hill was nice enough to stand still for a picture.
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That’s Boo Boo Beach behind Tom.

Next, we made our way back to the boat and had a nice lunch. We had intended to go snorkeling in the afternoon, but that got pre-empted by several things. First, and this was Tom’s mistake, we did not have a proven method for each of us to get back into the dinghy once we jumped out in deep water to go snorkeling. Tom tried to rig something up with a little plastic boarding step we had but wasn’t having much luck. As we were testing this, a very nice couple pulled up in their dinghy to mention that they had the exact same model boat as C Ghost and were in the other mooring field. We had a pleasant conversation for a while, discussing cruising plans, our boats, and the fact that they also got their boat in Maryland. After that tiredness set in and we put off snorkeling for another day.

We would love to stay here longer but a strong West wind with some squalls is now predicted for Monday through Wednesday and this anchorage would be very exposed. So, tomorrow we are heading for Big Major, an Island about 24 miles south that has several good anchorages on its eastern side which should provide protection.

8 Responses

  1. I’m enjoying your blog. Little jalous maybe, but most I’m so happy for you.
    Any fishing yet?

  2. We too anchored in Big Major and loved it. The friends we boated with had to leave to get to Georgetown as their daughter was flying in. We don’t like schedules and stayed. We met another boater who was local and he opted to show us through the reef Oceanside. He had a tough time getting back into his dingy which was tied to our swim platform once we were on the ocean underway. Getting through that reef would have been dicey without his local knowledge.

    1. I agree. We have no plans to go through the reef while we are here, but we’ve got a great view of it on the way into our anchorage. When the wind clocks back around to the east later this week, we will move over to the big anchorage on the west side of Big Majors to have a look at the pigs.

  3. Your blog puts a smile on our face. Glad you are finally in the Exumas!

    We are relaxing in Ponce and enjoying all that Puerto Rico offers. We’ll be back for the Family Island Regatta in Georgetown.

    Don & LaVonne

    1. Hi Don – so glad we are here as well. We’ve been very much enjoying just taking short island hops south. We have a list of places we missed so we can visit them once we turn around. One of our daughters is flying to Nassau the third week in April so our general plan is to slowly make our way back there by then. Glad you are enjoying Ponce and that all is well. Tom & Paula

    1. Thanks K. Mostly thanks to Mort for making those two extra pieces so we had them to offer up. It really did feel like I was on Gilligans Island.

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