Days 173 - 175 - Boo Boo Hill — Captain Father John

Miles cruised 23, fuel purchased $0, slip fee $30 for a mooring ball, daily high temperature 76°f, it feels like 90°f

On Sunday, were up and off the hook by 8:45 am from Big Majors Spot. We needed to get to Warderick Wells Cay before the park ranger departs at Noon. We were assigned to mooring ball #18 in the north harbor. As we entered the north harbor we were greeted by Craig and Day Olney on Toucan Deux. They spent two rolly nights on a morning ball at Shroud Cay. They heard on VHF 09 that there were mooring balls available at Warderick Wells and came over first thing in the morning. We will stay here for two nights and then head to Shroud Cay for one night before cruising back to Nassau. After we spend two nights in Nassau we will cruise north to the Abacos.

There is a whale skeleton displayed on the beach.

Warderick Wells is “THE” Caribbean magical (one particular) harbor with palm trees, white sandy beaches, sand bars to walk and swim on, fish swimming around the boat and mooring balls so there is no concern about dragging our anchor.

We took the dingy to the beach and went snorkeling and swimming. No pigs here. There is a place called Boo Boo Hill where ghosts can be heard on nights with a full moon. The name derives from the sound a ghost makes – Boo! A ship sank off the coast of Warderick Wells with a group of missionaries with total loss of life. No bodies were recovered for a Christian burial. The legend is that the lost souls sing together during a full moon.

Craig and Day came over for sundowners. It was god awful hot with the afternoon sun and no breeze. We had been complaining about the heavy winds all week and now we are complaining about the light winds. It was slack tide so I moved the boat using the dingy to put the bow into the sun and our upper salon in the shade. It worked.

On Monday we climbed Boo Boo Hill. Cruisers have been bringing inscribed pieces of driftwood to to the top of the hill for decades. It is quite a pile. I thought with a little charcoal lighter fluid and a match we could have a bonfire that could be seen from one end of the Bahamas to the other.

In the evening we had sundowners with the Olney’s on Toucan Deaux. This is probably the last time we will see them on this trip. They are headed south and we are headed north. We did get together and snorkel on the reef and sand bar next to our boat. It is a beautiful reef system with lots of coral, lobsters, reef fish, sharks and manta rays. I saw a white tip shark swim past. It has gotten to the point that if you don’t swim with the sharks you cannot swim in the Bahamas.

A school of giant stingrays swimming past our boat.

On Tuesday we will cruise 20 miles north to Shroud Cay. There are mangrove canals that we can traverse by dingy and kayak. We have a two person inflatable kayak that we keep on the boat. We inflate it on the hydraulic dingy platform, climb in and launch ourselves using the remote control fob. We reverse the procedure when we return. We lower the hydraulic dingy platform using the remote control fob, paddle onto the platform and lift ourselves out of the water. Now that is technology.

After spending the night at Shroud Cay we will cruise 45 miles back to Nassau and stay at the Atlantis Casino Marina for one night. The cheap slips are $4.00 a foot and go up to $7.00 per foot depending on location. It should be an interesting visit.

Four Canadians from a 37′ sailboat near us were having engine trouble and drifting onto the sharp rocks along the shore. I watched them pull the chord to start their engine at least 50 times. Then as a random act of kindness I recused them using our dingy and towed them back to their boat.

Bonus photo – six ago I visited the ancient city of Petra in Jordan. One of the Indiana Jones movies was filmed there.

Carl (Chef) Wooden – quote of the day.

“The sea! the sea! the open sea!, The blue, the fresh, the ever free!”
Bryan W. Procter

Bryan W. Procter – Born at Leeds, Yorkshire, he was educated at Harrow School, where he had for contemporaries Lord Byron and Robert Peel. On leaving school he was placed in the office of a solicitor at Calne, Wiltshire, remaining there until about 1807, when he returned to London to study law. By the death of his father in 1816 he became possessed of a small property, and soon after entered into partnership with a solicitor; but in 1820 the partnership was dissolved, and he began to write under the pseudonym of “Barry Cornwall”.

After his marriage in 1824 to Miss Skepper, daughter of Mrs Basil Montague, he returned to his profession as a conveyancer, and was called to the bar in 1831. In the following year he was appointed metropolitan commissioner of lunacy—an appointment annually renewed until his election as one of the Commissioners in Lunacy constituted by the Lunacy Act 1845. He resigned in 1861.