Big Reunion at the Exuma Land and Sea Park

I'm sitting typing this anchored at Compass Cay after spending an amazing 3 days at Warderick Wells in the Exumas Land and Sea Park.  In order to post an update we have had to haul my cell phone up the mast and use it as a hotspot as the nearest tower is about 10 miles away on Staniel Cay.

The Exumas Land and Sea Park is a 22 mile stretch of cays and the water around them that have been protected from development and all fishing since 1958. It is a very popular place for cruisers to anchor or pick up a mooring ball.

We were looking forward to it in particular because we got to meet up with our cruising buddies on Darwin who we haven't seen since New Year's in Marathon.  They were able to go to the Bahamas 6 weeks ahead of us and are now heading back stateside just as we are getting here.  

Mooring at Warderick Wells gives plenty of opportunity for activity.  Reg and Sam go some snorkeling in, Sam and Riley tried their hand at windsurfing, we went for hikes, and the cruisers all gather at about 5pm for drinks and socializing on the beach.

I'll let the pictures do the rest of the talking.

Our first glimpse of Darwin was their AIS signal on our chartplotter

Here they are!

Look at that pristine mooring field.  We are near the far left on this shot.

The park has lots of hiking trails which had us scrambling over the rocks in the hot sun

My only encounter with wildlife.  A little north at Allen Cay you can see giant iguanas.  We elected not to stop there!

Boys exploring

Monkey see...

....monkey do.  Sam was determined to do at least as many pull-ups as Ed (6)

Coral growing in the neck of an old bottle.  I find it had to wrap my head around the fact that coral is an animal.

The monument on Boo boo hill.  People leave signs made out of driftwood here with their boat names on them.  An offering to King Neptune to secure safe travels.  Right before this picture was taken Sam received word that he had been accepted to the University of Waterloo for Mechanical Engineering. Boo boo hill will always be special to me for that memory.

Our small offering to Neptune.  Some boats come with fancy plaques pre-made but we had to make do with what we could scrounge. 

The view from Boo-boo hill