Warderick Wells to Pipe Creek

This update was originally loaded a few days ago at the Staniel Cay Yacht Club without most of the pictures due to a poor Internet connection. We are currently at Lorraine's Cafe in Black Point and have added the remaining pictures, which I think you will really enjoy, so please take a look.

On Sunday, May 4th, we took our homemade boat sign to Boo Boo Hill and then followed the trail back to the north a short distance to the blowholes. Unfortunately, we were there at low tide and the holes weren't blowing. I'm sure they are a sight to see when they are, though.

Didn't the Captain do a fine job on our "Life's2Short" sign?\


This is the view of the Warderick Wells north anchorage from Boo Boo Hill.



The conglomeration of boat signs on Boo Boo Hill.


We then went south, past Boo Boo Hill again, and on to Boo Boo Beach, which really wasn't much to see but they had a great sign for it! The Captain had planned to follow the trail quite a bit further south but decided to cut it short since I was struggling. The hiking paths are very rough and rugged and it was quite warm and two hours did me in!



A few shots of Exuma Sound from the hiking trail.



After resting for a while, we took the dinghy and went northwest out of the mooring field toward Long Cay to find a beach we had been told about called Naked Beach. It was very nice and private and we enjoyed a peaceful, relaxing afternoon.

Sorry, no naked photos!


It was calm again Monday afternoon so we snorkeled some of the reefs around the mooring field. It was my first time in the water and it was quite chilly! We then went back over to Long Cay to check out Brad's Reef, reportedly one of the most beautiful reefs in the Bahamas. I'd had enough by then, though, and needed to warm up so we went over to Naked Beach again and enjoyed the rest of the afternoon.

A sampling of the Captain's underwater photos.





Can you see the lobster?


We moved to the south mooring field on Tuesday, located between the south end of Warderick Wells (east side) and the west side of Hog Cay. Once we were settled, I did some "bucket laundry" on the bow using reserved cooler water (melted ice). We then took a brief dinghy tour to get a feel for the area and Todd did a little snorkeling nearby.



That afternoon we went to an exposed sand bar just east of the mooring field where we were joined by a group from the "Bahama Star," a sailboat charter that came in to the mooring field about 3:00 p.m. Their captain, Bruce, chatted with us quite a while about the Exumas so Todd invited him over to "Life's2Short" the next morning to have a Bloody Mary and look at the charts together.  Captain Bruce is a white Bahamian, locally known as a Conchy Joe, and is full of stories about famous people he has taken on charters. He mentioned Cher, Billy Joel, Dr. John, Jimmy Buffet and several others and has spent many years sailing the Exumas.

There are only six mooring balls in the south field and five of them were taken by Tuesday evening. However, by noon Wednesday we were alone again. We took the dinghy over to Capture Beach and walked to Pirate's Lair, a circular clearing where pirates reportedly made camp and hid out. We then followed the trail to another beach on the west side of Warderick Wells before returning to the boat. About 4:00 that afternoon, we dinghied to an unnamed cay east of Hog Cay that has a great wrap-around beach, probably one of the nicest beaches we've seen thus far.

All alone in the south mooring field.


Yet another great beach!


After several calm days, the wind started to pick up again. We had planned to move to Cambridge Cay (a.k.a. Little Bell) on Thursday but you have to run in the Sound to get there and it was too windy for that. We did, however, brave a rough and bumpy two-mile dinghy ride to the Park Headquarters in the north mooring field to get some ice ($5.00 per bag, block or cubed). Actually the two miles getting there wasn't as rough as the two miles getting back, but at least we had ice!

By Friday we needed to replenish our dinghy gas before going to Cambridge so we decided to go to Sampson Cay instead. Just as we were getting ready to leave the mooring field, Kim from the Park Headquarters came by and offered to pick up some dinghy gas for us at Sampson and bring it to Cambridge, which worked out great for us.

The Sound was relatively calm with the inevitable rollers, but it wasn't too bad. We picked up a mooring at Cambridge and waited for Kim and her husband to return with our dinghy gas, which they did about 4:30 p.m. After they left we dinghied over to snorkel the caves at Rocky Dundas. The caves were pretty neat and the water wasn't nearly as chilly as it was around Warderick Wells, which suited me just fine!

This was taken inside one of the two caves at Rocky Dundas with sunlight shining through the hole in the rock above.


This was also taken from inside the cave, looking out.





Saturday morning we hiked a short distance across Cambridge to Bell Rock. If you go at low tide, you can walk from the cay to the rock without getting wet, but we were past low tide so Todd had to wade out to the rock, which he then climbed to the top of. After he came back down, we walked along the beach where Todd found a hammock to relax in.

This is Bell Rock.


The mooring field at Cambridge Cay (a.k.a. Little Bell).


Nothing like a little nap on the beach!


That afternoon we went to the sea aquarium between Soldier Cay and O'Brien's Cay and it was loaded with fish. We took a couple of cheese sticks along to feed them and they weren't at all shy about taking our food!










We later went to an exposed sand bar near our mooring and spent a couple of hours enjoying the view before returning to the boat where we fed a three-foot long barracuda off the bow. We tried feeding him cheese and popcorn but he only wanted meat so we fed him some ham. The smaller fish were happy to eat his discarded cheese and popcorn so nothing went to waste.



Sunday was Mother's Day and we needed to find a telephone. We left Cambridge and went to the Sampson Cay marina where we filled up our water tanks (188 gallons at $0.50 per gallon) got some more dinghy gas ($5.68 per gallon) and ice ($4.00 per 10-lb. bag), got rid of our three-week accumulation of garbage ($5.00 per bag, any size) and called our mothers. The water was rough enough on the way to Sampson to get salt spray all over the bow again, so the Captain used a few extra gallons of water rinsing off the boat.

We had planned to go to Big Major's to spend a few days with Tom & Jackie aboard "In Your Dreams" but the wind was clocking to the south and west and Big Major's isn't a good place to be in westerly winds. So, after leaving Sampson Cay marina, we backtracked a short distance to Pipe Creek and found a place to anchor between Rat Cay (a.k.a. Wild Tamarind) and what the charts call The Mice, a line of small rock cays that run parallel to, and northeast of, Rat Cay.  Locals consider Pipe Creek to mean the area between Compass Cay and Sampson Cay, including the waters between Pipe Cay, Hattie's Cay, Little Pipe Cay, Wild Tamarind Cay, Joe Cay, Thomas Cay and Overyonder Cay, several of which are private and off-limits to visitors.

The wind was forecast to pick up by Monday, and another boat that was anchored nearby told us the current is pretty strong here, so we put out a second bow anchor at a forty-five degree angle to our main anchor. After being in here for a night, we decided the second anchor probably wasn't necessary, at least not based on the amount of current we had, but the wind hadn't really started to blow yet either.

Late Sunday afternoon we took a dinghy ride to check out a nearby anchorage that we had considered going in to rather than the one we're in. Come to find out, that anchorage, which is between Pipe Cay and Kemp Cay (Little Pipe), is now filled with private mooring balls so there really isn't any place left to anchor. We did meet a few of the boaters who have mooring balls there, though, and will probably see some of them again before we leave here.

I'm not sure when we are going to be able to post this update, but because of its length and the number of pictures, I am going to end it on May 11th and will start a new one as of May 12th. We should have Internet access at Staniel Cay and possibly at Black Point, so with any luck we will be able to get caught up on our blog updates by the weekend.