1.28.11
We had a great sail on 1/26 and made it to Warderick Wells by 3pm. We grabbed a mooring ball and quickly dinghied in to the park headquarters to check in and get some internet (since Verizon wasn't working for us, they had wifi that you could pay to use). We were given some pamphlets about the island and told where the good snorkeling grounds were. We were in too late to actually go out and explore the island, so we just relaxed for the evening and plotted out our actions for the next day.
The weather disappointed us the following day, as we woke up to overcast skies and chilly temperatures. For those of you reading this who just had a snowstorm this week, please read, chilly = 65 degrees. While this may not seem cold to you now, when you get in the water and get out again, it is not so pleasant.
We waited until the early afternoon, hoping that the sun would warm up the day a bit – no such luck. We opted to go anyway and suck it up. We dinghied over to our first snorkeling area at slack tide. The park provided moorings for the dinghies so that people's anchors wouldn't ruin the coral heads below. We slipped over the edge of the dinghy and into a different world. The water was crystal clear, we could see a hundred yards in either direction underwater. The coral was only 10 feet below us and there were fish aplenty! Fish of every color darted in and out of the reefs, some shyly swimming close to us and then darting away when we turned to look at them. Huge parrotfish and grouper, both at least 15-20lbs in size swam lazily beside us. Smaller fish stayed in schools and stuck close together, ebbing and flowing based on our movements. The coral was different shades of brilliant blues and purples, swaying with the tide. We even found one coral head that looked like a huge brain, coming to within a few feet of the water's surface.
We snorkeled a few other locations, finding fish and coral just as vibrant and full of life as the previous ones. We snorkeled until I couldn't feel my toes anymore, then headed back to warm up and have a hot dinner.
The following day we woke up early and went to land. We hiked around the island to some blow holes, which, much to my chagrin, weren't blowing at the time because it was low tide. We also hiked up to the top of this large hill that is called “Boo Boo Hill”. In the past, sailors took an item off of their boat that they had brought that they later realized was useless here – things that needed to be plugged in, extras of things – and left them on this hill. Apparently the “trash” pile had become so large that the park rangers cleared everything out and decided that no more pieces of trash could be left. So, now boaters carve or paint their names and boat names on pieces of drift wood and leave/post it at the top of this hill. We carved our name into a piece of wood that was lying around and left it as our mark. The hill also afforded gorgeous views of the East beaches and the sailboats all moored below around the park headquarters.
We were back by lunchtime and packed up and headed south to Pipe Cay. The wind was considerably higher than predicted and also out of the West, which is unusual for the Bahamas. This made for a bumpy sail and we soon realized that our anchorage was unfit for Westerly wind protection. We decided to go a bit farther south and found some solace in the more protected Sampson Cay anchorage. We will just have to dinghy back up to Compass Cay and some of the other islands that we passed by.
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