January 20, 2008.

It’s been a few days since my last post. We’ve spent the last few days as close to heaven as you can get without dying. Warderick Wells is just awesome.

The island is interlaced with hiking trails. Some are easy walks through sandy palm lined paths while others would make a Sherpa cry. Veranda is anchored about three quarters of a mile from the ranger station. We

had to go and sign up for 24 hours of internet so we decided to land the dinghy at the closest beach to the boat and walk across the island.

It was a good plan until we actually started walking. As soon as we got inshore the humidity went way up and we soon realized that the one bottle of water we brought was going to be insufficient. We traversed palm covered pathways alive with hermit crabs and lizards, climbed limestone paths and trudged across arid dry lake beds.

The view from the peak of the several hills we climbed was fantastic and worth the effort. Once at the ranger station we signed up for internet, dilly dallied for a bit and headed back to the dinghy.
We had about an inch of water left in our bottle for the walk home. The various paths we had to take brought us to different beaches so we could cool off but we had to keep moving as we had no water to drink. We made it back to the dink just fine but we were both glad the walk had been no further.

Today we decided to snorkel with the folks from Unchained, Bill and Sue.
They’re both divers so they really appreciate the water and take every opportunity to get in some snorkeling. First we went to a spot at the end of the north anchorage that came highly recommended.

We anchored the dinghies near the eastern tip of a small cay. One side of the cay was shallow with loads of plant life in 3 to 8 feet of water. There were plenty of small fish and the bottom was covered with conch roaming about.

When we went around the other side of the cay it was amazing. The water dropped off to 20 feet and was teeming with huge schools of fish. There was a Spotted Eagle Ray with a wingspan of more than 6 feet effortlessly swimming with us, while on a rocky ledge 2 lobster each weighing in over 4 pounds stole the show. It was a toss up as to which creature we saw was the most memorable. After an hour we climbed back into the dinks and headed over to another spot. The underwater vegetation wasn’t as dense but was more spectacular due to its diversity. At this spot we were treated to the sight of 5 huge Spotted Eagle Rays lazily swimming in formation. It was a great day in the water.

After going back to the boat for lunch we decided to take a short hike up to see the abandoned settlement that’s been dated to 1780. It’s only the remains of a couple of buildings and a stone wall that runs the entire width of the island but it was worth the walk.

After that, we hustled back to the boat to batten down for the storm front we’ve been waiting for. Once back we fed and walked the dogs and then raised the dinghy out of the water.

We were all done with about 10 minutes to spare and listened intently on the radio to the boats to the north of us as they were hit by the front.
For the first time in days we had no wind at all. We’ve been facing south south east for 2 days and finally we slowly turned and faced west. We could see the front approaching from the north, it looked very sinister. 20 miles to the north boats were reporting going from 2 knots of wind to 20 knots in 30 seconds.

That’s pretty much how it went for us. We were ready though and as the wind built steadily through 30 knots we sat in the cockpit and watched the storm unfold around us. There was a brief rain squall that came through at the beginning of the storm. It was a welcome rain as it cleaned the salt from the decks and windscreen.

Now after a few hours we have 20 to 25 knots with gusts into the low thirties. Things are good here though as we are the boat closest to the shoreline. So while the wind is up there’s no room for the sea state to build into anything uncomfortable.