Warderick Wells Cay Bahamas

Leaving O’Briens Cay

We thought that we were seeing the best of the Bahamas’ turquoise seas when we left O’Briens Cay at 0910 on 31 March but we were in for a treat.

Approaching Warderick Wells from the southwest

With too little wind to sail we motored the 15nm to the western side of Warderick Wells Cay and, with sun high in a clear sky, the colour and the glow of the shallow water to our left as we approached the anchorage area was just spectacular.

At anchor in the only permitted anchorage off Warderick Wells, close to Emerald Rock.  The Exumas Land and Sea Park HQ buildings are out to our left

It’s no surprise that the Exumas Land and Sea Park have their headquarters here; it’s stunningly beautiful.

Not a bad view!

Seal of approval from Nici

We anchored in the only permitted anchorage off Warderick Wells, one of 2 boats this ‘close’ in to the island (there were a couple of superyachts anchored much further out too).  The whole area is relatively deep for the Bahamas but actually pretty shallow – we anchored in an area with a charted sounding of 2.2m a couple of hours off low tide.  At that point our echo-sounder was reading 2.4m (so we had 0.4m of water under our keel) and with a range of about 0.5m we we were never going to see 3.0m on the echo sounder until a good few minutes after getting the anchor up the next day.

But clear, shallow water over clean, white sand makes for some stunning colours and plenty of enthusiasm for swimming. The anchorage certainly got a seal of approval from Nici.  Another success for BV Holiday solutions.

But since we were anchored in the Park someone needed to go ashore to pay our anchoring dues.  Nici and Nicky went ashore [Ed:  leaving Reg and Strevs in charge of BV, perhaps a mistake for maintaining healthy beer stocks!] taking my camera along as a bit of an after-thought. Well she came back with some lovely photos so, in hindsight, we should all have gone ashore to take a look. Plus I think that I should handover photography for the blog to her.

Exumas Land and Sea Park HQ buildings. Left: the main HQ building with dinghy dock, honesty box and visitors’ centre.  Right: staff accommodation building, Park boats and comms aerial

Nicky writes:  Unfortunately, the HQ building was closed as we visited on a Sunday afternoon but there’s a high quality dinghy dock, complete with honesty box for anchoring/mooring dues (anchoring is $0.50/ft/night, moorings are about $30/night), and what looks to be a proper visitors’ centre with displays and tourist information.

Standing on the Exumas Land and Sea Park HQ building veranda looking southeast towards where BV is anchored somewhere the other side of the jetty by the building

Standing on the Exumas Land and Sea Park HQ building veranda looking west

Yachts in the most popular Warderick Wells mooring field, just to the north of the  Exumas Land and Sea Park HQ buildings.  It’s a beautiful location but we preferred the relative isolation of our anchorage

Nici and I took a short stroll around the immediate area, heading down to the beach to the north of the HQ building where we enjoyed the views across the yachts on the moorings…..

Skeleton of a 52ft sperm whale found on Warderick Wells in Jul 1995

…..and examined the old sperm whale skeleton mounted on stands at the top of the beach.  It’s quite incredible that its been there since 1995. Unfortunately, with the afternoon slipping past there wasn’t time to go far but there are said to be some nice walks around the cay.  Something for next time!

Sundowners prep

Back on board BV, Strevs and I had been plotting a run ashore.  By the time our better halves had returned, we had cocktails and nibbles prepared and were able to turn the dinghy straight around for a sundowners expedition to Emerald Beach, a deserted spot close to the anchorage.

Emerald Beach

It was the perfect location for sundowners.  A soft white sand beach gently lapped by clear turquoise waters, a brilliant blue sky with almost no clouds in sight, a slightly orangey light from the lowering sun, BV, the only boat in sight…..

A small selection of the team’s photos

….and great friends with whom to share it all.  It doesn’t get much better than this.  And we learnt a new phrase from Nici and Strevs, one they had picked up on their recent cruise: Holiday bragging rights – and I think we’ll all be bragging about this holiday for some time to come!

Warderick Wells Cay, Bahamas