We woke up this morning and had to pinch ourselves. The view from the cockpit was fabulous – exactly what we had imagined being anchored in The Bahamas would be like. We have thoroughly enjoyed every part of the trip, but this really is something else.
Warderick Wells has a number of hiking trails providing many options to explore the cay. On Wednesday we went for a hike up Boo Boo Hill. The cays are comprised essentially of limestone, formed during the last Ice Age, which has been dramatically eroded and mottled over time. The shores are very rocky with rather tall cliffs interspersed with beautiful beaches. 
Boo Boo Hill is the highest point of land on Warderick Wells with a cairn and markers on top of it. The lore is that the boatload of missionaries that wrecked off Warderick Wells are buried there and the cairn was erected years ago in their honour. Boaters have been leaving mementos with the names of their boats on this site for years.
I also have been snorkeling a number of times. There is an amazing variety of fish. Some are bright and vivid while others are so well camouflaged that you don’t notice them unless you look very carefully. It has been fun using my camera with its underwater housing, a great Christmas present from last year.While snorkeling one afternoon, Corinne and I thought we saw a small reef just off one of the beaches. As we got closer to shore, Corinne said, ‘It’s moving.’ Could that be possible? Sure enough, the black form was moving back and forth along the beach. As we got closer, it began to move towards us. When we stopped the dinghy a black ray, over three feet across, swam up to us and stopped under the dinghy. Corinne said this was much too close for comfort (not in exactly those words) and we slowly motored away. We asked the park attendant about this afterwards, and she said it was likely just happy to find a place in the shade.
On Friday we went on a guided walk with Bill, a volunteer for the park. Many cruisers volunteer for a day or two to support the programs within the park. In this picture he is explaining that the fifty plus foot Sperm whale skeleton behind him was from a whale that had washed up on shore a number of years ago. It had apparently died from ingesting plastic bags that it had swallowed thinking they were squid, a staple of their diet.On both the micro and macro level, refuse is a major concern. As thoughtful as we have been, we have a full garbage bag accumulated after a week in the Exumas, and there are few options to dispose of it. More disconcerting, though, is the distressing amount of litter, mostly plastic and glass, which washes up on the beaches. Corinne and I are trying to be thoughtful about our impact on the environment.
