Warderick Wells

This is the narrow blue highway that marks the entrance and mooring field of Warderick Wells. The blue water is about 10-12 feet deep. The light tan water on each side is about 0 to 3 feet deep. The channel is narrower in real life than the picture shows.

That’s Georgia on the left on her mooring in the middle of the blue highway. Warderick Wells is the headquarters for the Exuma Land and Sea Park - the conservation area within the Exumas. There’s no fishing or collecting of any sea life within the park boundaries. From what we can tell these rules are pretty well honored and enforced. This makes the snorkeling really great. Lots of large rays, sharks, conches and lobsters. Even the smaller reef fish we are used to seeing are 25-50% bigger. Must be a good diet.

We finally got around to mounting our new dinghy chaps. These are covers that extend the life of the sun wracked vinyl tubes. The chaps have been under construction for awhile now. They are made of a lot of Sunbrella canvas and copious swearing. I wasn’t previously aware of how much swearing is involved with the contact sport of sewing.

It turns out we were not the only ones interested in the new chaps. Soon after we arrived in Warderick Wells this shark stopped by to examine the chaps.

I didn’t tell Chris this, but one of the reasons I wanted to go to Warderick Wells was because I’d heard there was a Hooters there. Turns out I must have misheard. The gal above is a Hutia in normal island wear – aka Hooties. This  nocturnal endangered species is basically a rat with an embarrassingly small tail. They devastate the island undergrowth and eat through the rangers window screens and spray to mark their territory. They were reintroduced to the island without their natural predator, because no one knows for sure what it was, with predictable overpopulation resulting.

The island also has native, indigenous whale bones. Chris is keeping her clinical skills up and doing a pelvic examine of this sperm whale. The sign says it was a 52 footer which died as a result of swallowing plastic trash…

At the highest hill on the island its been a tradition for many decades to leave a piece of driftwood with your boat’s name on it.

Here’s a carefully engraved one from the Pacific Northwest. We’re still hunting for the perfect piece of driftwood to put Georgia’s name on the pile.

Paul