{"id":752,"date":"2017-05-21T14:48:37","date_gmt":"2017-05-21T14:48:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nandu.world\/blog\/?p=752"},"modified":"2017-05-21T14:48:37","modified_gmt":"2017-05-21T14:48:37","slug":"it-keeps-getting-better","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nandu.world\/blog\/2017\/05\/it-keeps-getting-better\/","title":{"rendered":"It keeps getting better"},"content":{"rendered":"

Warderick Wells Island is part of The Exuma Cays Land and Sea Park, which protects 176 square miles of water, reefs and cays. Warderick Wells, where the park headquarters are, turned out to be the crown jewel of The Exumas. Unknowingly, we had left the best for last.<\/p>\n

We picked mooring buoy number nine from the field that the park manages in an anchorage that’s well-protected, albeit narrow and subject to a wild tidal current. We lost the boathook in the process and recovered it later, but from what we saw during our stay, that appeared to be standard procedure when trying to pick up the buoy pendant in those strong currents. Never mind that we arrived at slack tide and didn’t really have any current to contend with, but we like to blend in, so we lost the hook anyway.<\/p>\n

Buoy nine happened to be the closest one to an old sunken boat that became an artificial reef, home of a multitude of fish. A flood current would place \u00d1and\u00fa right on top of the sunken boat, gifting us with a colorful tropical garden underneath us. Getting wet was optional, as we could see the schools of fish, the huge resident lobster and the visiting nurse shark from the deck.<\/p>\n

We spent an entire week enjoying the spectacle in our backyard, watching the tide come and go and the sand bars hide and show. We snorkeled in nearby reefs, and took the dinghy to shore to explore every inch of the hiking trails. The trails zig-zag from sandy beaches on the Bank side to rocky bluffs and seas that roar through blow holes on the Ocean side. They took us through mangroves, shady palm forests, not-so-shady Swiss-cheese-like rocky terrain, ponds, sand flats, small hills, ruins, and even a pirate lair.<\/p>\n

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Trail across a mangrove creek<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Many years ago a schooner sank off Warderick Wells during a storm. The whole crew was lost and not a single body was recovered. Locals say that on a full moon you can hear the voices of the lost souls from the top of this hill. Cruisers leave offerings to appease the gods. The park asks you to “leave only footprints” but makes an exception for this cairn: “mementos left by passing cruisers […] offerings to placate the ghosts that inhabit the island, remind us of fellow travelers who love this special place. […] Please leave only driftwood.”<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Our offering. We requested tail winds. We forgot to specify no more than 15 knots.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Sunshine Causeway<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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The north half of the island<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Beryl’s Beach<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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One of the wells of Warderick Wells. These are limestone sinkholes that collect rainwater. Fresh water stays on a precarious layer above the heavier salt water.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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The Bahamian flag (or how I think it should look like)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Yes, she did poop all over my dinghy<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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View from the top. The sunken boat shows behind.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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The narrow anchorage<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Florence, the visiting nurse shark<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Barracudas like to stay under the shade of our hulls<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Ripples in the sand bar uncovered at low tide<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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What’s up?<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Palm forest<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Underwater selfie<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Sea creature<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Curly-tail lizard<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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The ocean side<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

What a gourmet dessert it was! You can see twice as many pictures in the photo album<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Warderick Wells Island is part of The Exuma Cays Land and Sea Park, which protects 176 square miles of water, reefs and cays. Warderick Wells, where the park headquarters are, turned out to be the crown jewel of The Exumas. Unknowingly, we had left the best for last. We picked mooring buoy number nine from … Continue reading “It keeps getting better”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-752","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7GCAo-c8","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nandu.world\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/752","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nandu.world\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nandu.world\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nandu.world\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nandu.world\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=752"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/nandu.world\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/752\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":815,"href":"https:\/\/nandu.world\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/752\/revisions\/815"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nandu.world\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=752"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nandu.world\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=752"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nandu.world\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=752"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}