Warderick Wells

January 29th – January 31st

We had a great sail down from Normans to Warderick Wells and arrived in the early afternoon with perfect sun light and clear skies to visually navigate our way into the mooring field.

There are about 20 mooring balls in the part of the park where we planned to stay. We were assigned mooring ball number 8. The current running through the mooring field was pretty strong and it took us two passes and sacrificed one boat hook (long pole used to pick up lines) to secure our mooring.  As we finished tying our lines to the mooring ball pendent, we watched the boat hook we dropped on our first attempt quickly being swept out the channel and away from us.  It was a small price to pay for knowing we were safely secured to mooring ball #8 for the next several days.

We lowered the dinghy, attached our little heavy slow motor to the back of the dinghy and proceeded to make our way to the dinghy dock at the park office to register and pay for our parking spot.  That same current that took our book hook out to sea, had since changed direction and was now helping push us along our way to the dock. 

We secured the dinghy and made our way to the office to pay our fee and then do a little exploring of the beach and trail closest to the park office.  While in the office, we picked up maps for the hiking trails and snorkeling hot spots.  With so much to do and see in the park, it was going to be a great place to spend a few days waiting for and then riding out the upcoming ‘big blow!’

We made our way back to the dinghy dock, started the engine, untied the line, pointed our bow into the current and were prepared to slowly make our way back to Eos. With our bow pointed directly into the current the dinghy barely moved forward at all.  Something just wasn’t right with this motor.  We quickly turned out of the current and were able to head the dinghy to shore so that the current wouldn’t pull us out to sea for an unplanned rendezvous with our traveling boat hook!

Once close to shore, we again turned into the current an inched our way back towards Eos.  By continually holding and applying pressure to the shift lever we were able to barely keep the engine in gear. While frustrating, it did give me hope that I had stumbled upon the problem. I would simply need to tighten the shift linkage once back on board and we should be good to go. Since our trip back to Eos took us forever, the repair would have to wait until tomorrow as it was now time for dinner and the sun was setting.

The next day after breakfast and our morning devotions I dove head first into figuring out how the shift linkage worked and ultimately fixing it.  We lowered the motor and installed it onto the dinghy so I would have easy access to the top of the motor and shifter cables. I made several adjustments, started the motor, and prepared to enjoy a victory lap through the mooring field.  As I shifted into forward the propeller whirled around but the dinghy didn’t move.  I stopped the motor, made adjustments in the other direction, and got ready for my victory dance.  Again, the propeller whirled but the dinghy didn’t move. Strange. So I returned the linkage back to its original position and decided maybe that wasn’t the culprit after all. Maybe the whirling propeller was sending me clues.

Diane helped me hoist the motor off the dinghy and put it back on its storage bracket so I could have access to the propeller.  It was still well before lunch, so once I got the propeller issue figured out and fixed, we’d have the afternoon to go exploring. Rather than bore you all with the details of each of my many failed attempts that day, I’ll just say we did not get to the beach to go exploring. I spent all day trying a fix, lowering the motor from its mount on the boat onto the dinghy to test my repair, then rehoisting the motor to try another solution when my fix didn’t work. We must have done this 10 times before finally conceding.  I apparently was attracting the attention of one of the park residents as a large nurse shark kept swimming by and hanging out under the dinghy as I worked. I liked to think it was simply coming by to offer me encouragement and not waiting for me to fall in!

After a frustrating day of failed troubleshooting and repair it was time to call it a day and retire before it got too dark. Throughout the day while I was busy working, the mooring field was beginning to fill up with boats coming into the park to also ride out the upcoming big blow. At least we’d have people around with working dinghies to hopefully give us a ride ashore once or twice so we could go explore the island.

The next day we attempted one last ditch effort at repair and did manage to get the propeller to stop ‘whirling’ around on its own and actually go into gear.  We took a short dinghy ride to shore and just as we were ready to go exploring, we ran into a crew from a large boat that had managed to get their dinghy stuck on dry land. Apparently, they came ashore earlier in the day when the tide was in, pulled close to shore and went for a hike. When they returned the tide had gone out so much that their dinghy was about 50 to 75 yards from the water and at over 1000 pounds (this was a larger dinghy with a jetski inboard engine in it) there was no way we could pull it towards the water.  They asked if I could perhaps take one of them back to their boat where they had a jetski onboard and they would use that for the rest of the day until the tide returned and re-floated their dinghy.

I told them I’d be happy to but also warned them that I was operating with a suspect prop. They accepted the odds and we pushed off. I left Diane on the beach and promised I would return so we could take our hike.

We got about 100 yards off the beach and the prop died! The dinghy, two power boaters, and I were drifting through the mooring field. If I listened carefully, I could hear our lost boat hook cheering off in the distance thinking I’d soon be swept out to sea to rescue it.  Fortunately, we had oars on board so I wasn’t too nervous. I did manage to eventually get the propeller to bite enough so that I could maneuver us alongside another boat.  Once alongside, we called to the people onboard and they graciously offered to take the powerboaters back to their boat and then pull me back to Eos (not exactly the victory lap I had planned) and then went to the beach and picked Diane up. No hiking for us today.

The good news out of this was that we met some really nice powerboaters along with the crew from the sailboat/water-borne Uber driver and all agreed to meet later in day at the beach for a socially distanced social on the beach. We of course were going to need to hitch a ride to join the party.

The couple on the sailboat that rescued us agreed to shuttle us and ended up contacting all the other boats in the harbor and invited them to join the fun as well.  After almost a year, and with everyone having recently had multiple Covid tests, we felt fairly comfortable socializing with a group of people out on the beach.  I think everyone felt the same way, yet we all still managed to keep a respectful distance as we all shared stories of how we ended up being in the Bahamas for the winter. It was a great evening.

The next day, some crew members from a boat (Shonto) we’d run into a few times during our crossing and time here offered to give us a ride ashore so we could go exploring for the day. We gladly took them up on the offer and made arrangements to be picked up later in the afternoon.

Our first stop on shore was to hike up to the ocean side of the island and watch to see if any of the several blow holes on were active that morning.  Although not spectacular, they were active and we did manage to see the sea spray spew up through several of the holes as the waves came in and pushed the water up through the holes. 

We then visited Boo-Boo hill and made sure to find some drift wood, carve our boat name and date on it, and add it to the pile of other similar signs. Legend has it, that it’s good luck to leave your boat sign there. Apparently the name “Boo-Boo” comes from boats that ended up getting shipwrecked on the rocks just off the coast. Not sure I’d equate being shipwrecked with just a ‘boo-boo’ but I’m not the one who came up with the name.

Boo-boo Hill …. our sign is in there somewhere

During our hike we met up with a gentleman we had met the previous evening and spent the rest of the day hiking with him.  Since we were the ones with the hiking map of the island in our backpack, we became the defacto guide.  To say the trails were poorly marked would probably be actually a little too generous.  Once you got a few hundred yards from the park office, most of the trail markers were pretty much non-existence.  So we ended up simply following whatever looked more like a foot path than its surrounding terrain and being fortunate enough to occasionally stumble across a painted rock marking the trail, or a cairn (pile of rocks) that someone had used before. We joked about how poorly marked the trail was but ended up having a great day exploring the island and occasionally bushwhacking our own trail, we made it safely back to the office. Fortunately, none of us spent too much time in close proximity to the infamous poisonwood trees as no one reported strange and itching rashes over the coming days.

After a great day hiking the island, our hiking partner gave us a ride back to our boat. Later that evening we were joined onboard for a hardy game of dominos with a crew we had met earlier in January in Stuart Fla before we crossed over.  We also had met up with them in Great Harbor in the Berrys. All in all it was a great day, starting with the ride in the morning, the chance to spend a day on the island making a new friend and then spending the evening connecting with a crew we’d met before. 

Tomorrow would be spent making sure everything topside was secured and ready for a couple of days of strong winds, but for now, we were thankful for a great Sunday spent in God’s creation.