Exumas Land and Sea Park 4-20

We sat anchor for 3 days waiting for the passage of a front. The time in Staniel Cay had changed our attitude, especially the attitude of The Fisher King. After even three days of being boat ridden he still was “When can we snorkel?” instead of “I hate this place!”. With time passing and me getting the feeling of the need to move on it was nice to see the patience he was having. So we stayed for him to snorkel the coral heads near the anchorage and emerald island.

While talking about the anchorage I must inform you that we have been here when the park officials demand that a couple of sailboats move from behind the mooring field. Not too politely from word of the grape vine but that is subjective. Also as previously mentioned they will not sell internet activity without a paid mooring. At this point in time I have to conclude that Warderick Wells has become unfriendly to the budget cruiser. The official anchorage is now only on the west side but outside the white vertical floats that say “no anchoring” once you are close enough. The one boat that actually hailed the office and asked for anchorage information was told that near wogfo9whgeurh was the anchoring field. This is over a mile and a half from the ranger station.

The following is only ¼ the distance. N 24 23.156 W 76 37.889 is where we anchored. In sand partially protected by the sand bore to the NW but wide open to the SW. There is 6' of water all the way to within 100 feet of Warderick bore near the “no anchor” line posted by the floats. You can get very close to the park, a lot closer than the south mooring field, to anchor and place your placard on Boo Boo Hill. It is pure sand with excellent holding. The coral heads near Emerald Rock are marked with round dinghy moorings. Our eight nights (total for both stays) there cost us nothing compared to being on a mooring for $200.

During our time snorkeling we expected to see some of the best “life” in the Exumas. It was more populated and we did see the largest Lion Fish yet. We also part of the largest lobster we have seen. He must have been 8 pounds or better and all we could see was part of him down in the coral. The Fisher King was sad but expected it when I made him set the tulip shell free.

Overall we will rate the Exumas Land and Sea Park a 5 for us on a scale of 1-10. Too many restrictions , no supplies available, moorings have taken all the protected anchorages at Warderick, and you have to pay for a mooring to get to pay for internet. Maybe our attitude will change before we come back but we have enjoyed all of our other stops more!