Warderick Wells Exuma Cays Land and Sea Park

North mooring field @ Warderick Cay

 As nothing special was happening in celebration of Easter on Staniel Cay and a bit bored with it all, we headed for the Exuma Land and Sea Park Headquarters at Warderick Wells. 


Ah ha!  While underway, we heard over the VHF a notice to boaters that there was a Pot Luck Easter Dinner at the Park Headquarters at 1:00 PM.  I got so excited!   We get to celebrate a holiday with others!  And, we’ve been cruising for over a week now, pretty much alone, and party animals that we are, beginning to miss people and conversations.

Sperm Whale @ Warderick Cay

Panic.  What can I cook that will be ready in a little over an hour to bring to the Pot Luck?  Rummaging around in all the tiny hiding places on the boat, checking to see what items were remaining in our dwindling ship’s stores, trying to figure out  how to make Something Out of Nothing, I settled on whipping up a batch of brownies....Not just ordinary brownies, but Nieman Marcus Brownies, made from a Butter Pecan cake mix, cream cheese, 2 sticks of butter and covered in pecans.   Rich, delicious and loaded with calories, they baked while we cruised toward the Park.  


Taking turns while underway, we showered and made ourselves presentable,  making the dinner just in time, hot brownies in hand!  What a feast!  Turkey, hams, about 30 side dishes and 20 desserts!  Fabulous food and fun company as we again met boaters from all over!   

DeFevers at Warderick Cay

We were stunned to see so many trawlers tied to mooring balls as we entered the anchorage.  I don’t think we’ve seen that many trawlers before except at a Trawler Fest!  Amazingly, about 11 of the boats were DeFevers!  And they just happened to be there, each on his own - no planned rendezvous!  Aloha Friday; Lucky Stars; Adventures; Tides In’; Maya; September Song; Conched Out Too and Miss Grace were the only names I could catch on the DeFevers, but there were several others at the northern and southern end of the Cay.  

DeFever owners on Easter Sunday at Warderick Cay Exuma Park

Happy Hour for DeFever owners on the beach

We had fun chatting with the DeFever owners and matching people names to boat names that we were somewhat familiar with.    

Mangroves abound here in the Park

The Exuma Land and Sea Park rates as one of my most favorite places in all the islands and is certainly one of the most beautiful places ever.  I've raved about it in my blog entries when we were here last year.  

Click to enlarge to read the legend of BooBoo Hill

Hiking back up BooBoo Hill, we searched and searched, finally finding the sign we’d left there last year.  We understand Hurricane Irene rearranged the signs -- ours was at the opposite end we’d placed it on, but it was there!!

Notice the trees are stripped of every leaf....hurricane damage?

BooBoo Hill is up there, at the top

Signs with boat names left on BooBoo Hill

Okay, so where IS our sign we left last year??? !!!

FOUND!  Finally Fun's sign was now on the opposite end of the pile

Sign has held up well with just slightly faded lettering