Warderick Wells Cay, Bahamas
24.23.816N
76.37.947W
Cocktail party at sundown on the veranda of the Park Ranger's Station; what a day. We began by camping out on the veranda of the Park Ranger's Station first thing this morning in order to get the internet connection to stay connected; apparently it didn't like our antenna. It took us most of the morning to upload the few entries into this site and pay a few bills.

We then lit out for the opposite end of the island to hike "Anita's Trail" which led to the Davis Family Ruins; a Loyalist Settlement built in the 1700's. The Loyalists were those who favored staying under the rule of England at the time of the American Revolution. When the colonies won their independence, the Loyalists struck out for other grounds. Can you imagine leaving the rich fertile soil of the U.S. to start over again on an island which is little more than coral, limestone and sand? Their homes were rocks, built upon a foundation of smaller rocks, surrounded by a rock fence, and they got their water from big holes in the rock. The houses (unless we missed the big house) were little more than a room for a couple of people to lay down in. Where in the world did they put those skirts? With a little imagination, it wasn't hard to envision that life must have been brutal in the heat of the summer, water being drawn from the natural cisterns and what little dirt could be found had to be situated in the pockets of the coral to sprout what food they could grow. If I were a woman in those days, I'd have thought I had been sold a bill of goods on the deal that England gave to them. Scenery only goes so far.

And Snakes! They have snakes here. I had convinced myself that there were no snakes on these islands. Well, there are no poisonous snakes on the island. They do have brown racers. What I saw was a 2.5 - 3' snake where I had planned to put my foot. Thank goodness I had to watch every step I took because of all of the rocks.

After surviving the snake attack, we took the dink around to the other side of the island to see the 'Pirates Lair'. The eastern side of this island has a naturally deep harbor that is situated between two islands. The Pirates would hide out in this area and plunder the merchant ships coming out of Nassau. Their liar was off a sandy beach, over a hill and down into an area that is protected by palm trees. In the center, the sun filtered through the canopy of palm fronds to a small pond which had a fresh water well to the side of it. Water which had percolated through all of the rocks on the rest of the island gravitated to this low area and well. A sign to the side of it declared "Sweet Water". Dale swirled his hand around in it and put it to his lips. Taste it! I swirled my hand around in it and put a few drops into my mouth; yep, tastes like water!

On our way back to 'the Palace' we circled around Emerald Rock but didn't see anything that enticed us into the water, so we skipped the snorkeling for the day.

At 5:00 on Saturday evening, the Park Ranger invites all of the boat people up to the veranda for cocktails at sunset. We were surprised to learn that the Park Ranger was an American volunteer. He and his wife had offered to keep things running for 2 weeks when the previous warden wanted to take a vacation. Four years later, they are still here but they said that they loved it. They are planning on adding more moorings throughout the park this coming year to protect the living coral. We had a nice visit with some of the other boaters and may run into at least one other couple later on into our trip as they are planning a similar route to the Caribbean. Tomorrow we head out to O'Brian's Cay to visit the 'aquarium'.