Cheryl's Notes:

We left Nassau bright and early Wednesday morning. We wanted to get as far south in the Exumas as we could before the weather shifted. We motored 62 nautical miles down to Warderick Wells which is the park headquarters for the Exuma Cays Land and Sea Park. The Great Bahamas Bank was a sheet of glass as we motored south. It was a new experience for us. You could see the sea bottom the whole way, as the water is so clear. Scandia called ahead for us and along with Kumbaya, we all grabbed mooring balls in the harbor.

On Wednesday, we checked into the park and decided to do a little exploring. Our first major experience was to feed the Bananaquits. They are small yellow and black birds that love sweets. If you place sugar in the palm of your hand they will come and feed. At one time I had 10 small birds all eating out of my hand. We watched hermit crabs making their way down a path to the beach. Saw lizards laying in the sun. Then walked all the way up to Boo Boo Hill. This is where cruisers leave driftwood carved with the name of their boats. There are also blow holes here, but the wind and waves were not conducive to a big water spout. We could hear the wind rushing through the holes, but there was no water erupting.

Today we will be heading to Cambridge Cay (aka Little Bell Cay). One of our fellow boaters from back in Northwest Creek Marina is volunteering in the mooring field there for the park service. We found out that the mooring field is empty, and the next cold front has been delayed a few days. We decided that it would be a great place to hole up until the front passes. We will have our own personal guides on Sunspot Baby. It is weird that we are over a thousand miles from home and all four boats will be from the same home marina.

It is beautiful here. This is why we wanted to be cruisers. Clear blue water, warm tropical breezes and white sand beaches. It doesn't get any better than this.

John's Notes:

This is fantastic. You have to experience it to understand. Crossing the Banks from Nassau, we could have anchored anywhere we wanted in 25' of water and land nowhere in sight. Weird. If we were going to stay here in Warderick Wells for any amount of time I would volunteer a couple of days a week for the work detail. For every day you volunteer, you get a free nights mooring. Not a bad deal and you are contributing something for future cruisers to enjoy.

Yesterday, we were standing by the park headquarters which is on high ground looking out at the moored boats and saw a dark shadow in the lagoon. It was a huge eagle ray. I mean it was big even from the distance we were at. On our arrival, Arne had a shark circling his boat a few times. They are small nurse sharks and not much to be concerned about.

We hiked several miles yesterday. Photo opportunities every couple of minutes. The travel brochures don't come close to the reality.

Navigation remains a 120% effort every hour that you are traveling. Just being close is not good enough. If you are off just a few feet could mean disaster. If you run aground in soft sand is one thing, hitting a coral reef is quite another. When in doubt, take a safer route. If you are in doubt of your seamanship skills, stay home till you get better. It can be really intimidating. We definitely have to get better at reading the water. We haven't had any problems yet but have been close a couple of times. Even people that have been sailing down here for years have problems. It just goes with the territory. Somehow, I'm not sure that our insurance agent, Mike Berke, would see it the same way.

How about those Vikes Barb? Jerry Jones and Dallas will be suffering from shell shock the rest of the winter. I had no problem with the Vikes running up the score at the end. There are plenty of us that remember the "Hail Mary pass and Drew Pearson pushing off and getting a touchdown 25 years ago. You reap what you sow. Could we really make it to the Super Bowl again? Unless we can find someone with Follow-Me TV it doesn't look good for our chances to see the game with New Orleans this weekend. Kumbaya has XM Radio, so we plan to sit on his boat Sunday to listen to the game. And again, Cheryl will not be allowed to listen.