Saturday, February 27, 2010 Warderick Wells, Exuma Park North Anchorage

Long/Lat: 24*23.814/076*37.943

This has got to be one of my favorite places. The colors are so magnificent here. You just want to inhale and taste them as well as surround yourself in the hues of aqua, turquoise, royal blues and whites. I could drown in all the colors without ever diving into the water! Such a feast for the eyes and soul… We enjoyed a nice leisurely morning drinking our coffee and looking at the scenery. A bananaquit came by the boat for a sugar handout and of course I obliged. Then we hiked through the mangrove area up to Boo Boo Hill with Azaya to leave our names carved in wood and bone on a pile of driftwood that had been started by so many other boaters before us.

We read the other boater’s names and looked at the many artifacts left behind. Some were quite ornate in design, others simple carvings. The view from Boo Boo Hill is spectacular. It’s the highest point on this island (at 70 feet tall) and you can see for miles in any direction. I know I probably keep repeating myself but this has got to be, without a doubt, the most beautiful and pristine areas in the Exumas. There is no commercial development and the surrounding Cays are not inhabited or are privately owned. Where the Bahamas banks meet the deeper sound area, the greatest diversity of marine life exists, unspoiled by fishing and hunting. It’s one of the things I love about this park. It protects and creates a nursery environment for the marine life thus ensuring future generations of the conch and lobster that have mostly dwindled in the surrounding areas.

From Boo Boo Hill we followed the trail to the Blow Hole and down to Boo Boo Beach and oohed and ahhed at all the large chiton in the tidal zone, along with the various snails and other mollusks and shells. Beautiful fossilized coral and bedding planes from ancient beaches were exposed for us to explore and wonder at, along with so many bivalve shells and sea glass.

When we returned to the boat, I had every intention of swimming in the center of the anchorage on the large white tidal flat of sand to cool off, but once I got on board and made lunch, the only thing I was craving was a nap. Delicious… The tidal flat in the center is exposed at low tide and drops off sharply into the channel that the boats moor in. It’s one of the areas that make the blues bluer and adds to the color pallet that delights the soul. It’s a great area to find sand dollars and pen shells along with other mollusks. The only problem is that you have to leave them. This is a ‘No Take’ zone not only for the sea life but also for the homes that they once inhabited. The good part is that because it’s a “No Take” zone, everyone can enjoy them. Take only pictures; leave only footprints to be washed away by the tides…

After a delightful nap I accessed the Internet ($10/24 hours or 100mbs which every comes first) to check email, pay bills, try and update my blog (yikes there’s a lot to post), get news from home and check in on Face Book. The connection here is very poor. Worse than I remember, and more expensive. But you make do with what you have. I didn’t post all the pictures I could have, because I didn’t know how much time and bandwidth I could use before I ran out of time. We’re also searching for somewhere to leave the boat during hurricane season this year. If we end up in Deltaville again this year, that would be okay - I like it there :) So many things to do and so little bandwidth/time…

Before I knew it, it was almost 6pm and potluck time on the beach. I threw together a chicken salad, we buzzed by Azaya to see if they were going, and then headed to the beach. By the time we got there half the food was already gone but chatting with the other cruisers was fun. One guy named Scott was talking to Axel and Wayne about the Pacific. He’s done two circumnavigations, and asked Wayne what was holding him back? Good question LOL.

During the discussions some of the little Hutia (part of the rodent family – endangered but thriving here) came out from the brush to see if there was anything good to eat. The kids were throwing them popcorn and I found myself feeding them Ritz Crackers that I’d brought with the chicken salad. Around 7:30pm I found myself getting cold, so we headed back to the boat to call it an evening.