Warderick Wells, Exuma Land and Sea Park HQ

Off the hook at 8 am and headed to Warderick Wells. While we were underway, we put the finishing touches on the Cartermaran sacrifice to King Neptune to leave on the Boo Boo Hill Trail later today. Roo wanted to draw a picture of the Cartermaran on it- from memory- and did an incredible job! While we were in Great Sale Cay, we found a washed up and mostly intact sea fan that we knew we wanted to add to it. 

This time, with better maps and depth routes, we were able to cruise closer to the islands on our journey south. There were beautiful sandbars and spots with waves crashing over the reefs, both indicating much shallower waters. 🌊 

Successfully grabbed a mooring ball at Exumas Land and Sea Park close to the HQ beach. Even though I grabbed the eyelit when we initially passed over it, I dropped it as it went under our tunnel. Ben backed up slowly and I snagged it again, while Lori and Sasha got our lines threaded through. I was able to put the boat hook away and take over Sasha's line to cleat it off while Ben supervised Lori cleating her line.

Everyone sunscreened up (and wore their dreaded UPF shirts to avoid reburning the sunburn from yesterday) and we all jumped off the boat and swam 20-30 feet to the sandbar. We found some conchs- both abandoned and with critters. There seemed to be a lot of corals buried in the sand that we kept stepping on. I found an orange squishy thing and Lori pulled it up to find out that it was a piece of live coral! 🪸 She put it back and we decided we shouldn't be touching them.

There were SO MANY baby critters at one spot that Roo and I walked to with Lori. We called it the nursery. There were baby sea stars and baby BABY sand dollars. I'm talking just a tad bit larger than a sesame seed!

Exumas Land and Sea Park is a no-take park, so after we looked at our finds and talked to them, we tucked them back into the sand and continued on our way. We had to take mental pictures because we were far from the boat, didn’t bring our cameras, and didn't want to go all the way back to get them.

Swam back to the Cartermaran for lunch and shade. The current had us zooming back to the boat and we had to swim hard to make it! The kids jumped off the front of the boat, used the current to float under the tunnel, and then grabbed a line or the swim ladder on their way through.

Lori was hanging in the water and I saw a shark swim towards us. She grabbed her snorkel and was able to watch it and saw it had 2 remoras with it. 🦈 

Moose wanted to see it, and it was swimming toward the sandbar, so he jumped in the water to look. Meanwhile, a bull shark came swimming under the boat and when he realized it, he started kicking and splashing as hard as he could to get back to the swim steps and out of the water. He said his life flashed before his eyes. All I could think of was that his splashing was going to attract it rather than deter it and my heart was racing long after he got out of the water.

After a while, Keith dipped back in and the same thing happened to him that happened to Moose- a shark came from under the boat unexpectedly and he jumped right out of the water.

Once everyone was out, we were hanging in the hammocks, playing games, and chatting, and I spotted a shark swimming toward the back of the boat. The kids decided to go say hi to it on the back steps. This guy and his remora hung out with us for a while. Everyone got to pet him and say hi, except for me and Keith. Keith attempted to but the shark stopped swimming as close to the boat so he couldn't reach. I was just too chicken.

Right before high tide, we got into the tender and rode over to Boo Boo Trail. This was not the same place we hiked from last time, but it was a super steep shortcut. On the way up there, another family was coming down and excited to see our contribution.

Roo wanted to be the one to place the sacrifice to King Neptune. She had to climb up part of the pile to put it exactly where she wanted. It was so hot outside that we managed to stay up there for a few pictures and then head back down.

We tendered over to the sperm whale skeleton on the beach and the HQ building. Ben wanted to see if the station would be open tomorrow so he could get another Bahamas National Trust shirt like the one he has and loves, but it sounds like there is no one working there today or tomorrow, despite open hours being posted for both days. (9-12 & 1-3)

Another nurse shark came over to the boat after dinner. This one had 3 remoras and I decided I was going to pet it. He was curious about the boat but sadly never got close enough to let any of us pet him.

Shroud Cay- revisited

Got to sleep in a little. Out around 8:30, and headed to Shroud Cay. We pumped up Big Bertha and let Moose try her out behind the Cartermaran for a bit while we were underway and almost there. Hattie was quite concerned about her boy all the way back there by himself and was barking at him from the swim steps. 

The plan is to pack lunches, sunscreen, and head to the lazy river and the hidden beach just as low tide is passing. We learned last time that low tide makes the little river nearly impossible on the tender, but it also made the hidden beach more of a sandbar.

Adults plus Sasha loaded into the Chicken and the other 4 kids were pulled in Big Bertha behind us. At some point, probavly after our first shark spotting, Moose jumped out of Big Bertha and held the line between the Chicken and Big Bertha for some high speed snorkeling. 

We took the first lazy river to a beautiful beach, and we didn't have a moment there alone, unlike last time. This time some crew members brought out and set up a table, chairs for 9, and some pop-up tents on the beach. We never got to see what came out of it. We imagined it being some expensive add-on trip to a "picnic on a private beach" or the staff of a large yacht setting up for the owners. Meanwhile, we enjoyed our pb&j or pb & Nutella sandwiches and Sour Cream & Cheddar Ruffles- living our life of luxury. 😂 

After lunch, we explored and swam around some more. As the tide was coming in, we walked out away from the boat and floated in the current back. Moose was excited to find a conch where someone was finally home!

Onto the next lazy river... we floated most of the way there and wound up walking the last part of it in super warm, almost hot water. We got to play at this beach and no one ever joined us. Last time we were here, we couldn't stop at this beach due to the wall of black clouds hanging behind it and said we would come back. Roo wished she could've played there longer. Moose was trying to catch tiny fish with his bare arms. It looked like he was hugging them.

We tried floating back, but were unsuccessful because the current was getting too strong, going in the opposite direction. We kept expecting the current to shift but it never did, so we tendered back to the boat.

Over the course of the day and on both rivers, we saw 3 sharks, countless turtles, and 1 stingray! We were gone from the boat for 5-6 hours today. Everyone was getting fried, even though we kept reapplying sunscreen and covering up, so we ate dinner inside to avoid the sun. We barely missed the sunset, but I think it was probably too cloudy anyway. After dinner, we started watching the video from our Canada trip in 2024 that Keith put together for us.

Highbourne Cay

Found out at 2:42 am that our boat was running on battery power and not shore power, which is weird because we were plugged in for 2 days prior. Everything turned off and it was silent. Ben had to turn one engine on for a little to reset it and get it back on shore power. Turns out it came unplugged or loose around 9:30 pm, but we didn't notice. Since Hattie has been feeling better, she and Dixie have been running around on the boat deck, so maybe they kicked it loose.

Engines started for real at 7:45. Our salon turns into sleeping quarters for 3 while the Grasshoppers are here with us and we love it.

We had 3-4 footers, 4 seconds apart. Not fun! Ben told us last night that we would have 1.3-1.6 footers at 6 seconds. He wound up zig-zagging so we didn't have to keep taking the big waves on the beam. Even the dogs were laying down waiting for it to end.

Finally got to our anchorage at Highbourne Cay. We love the little secluded beach right by the anchorage here and have been here at least 3 other times. It's a great spot to hang and break up the journey between the Exumas and Nassau.

Everyone put on sunscreen and called for me or Lori a total of 78 times. Did anyone ask for Ben or Keith? No. Just the moms. Once we were ready, we loaded up in the Chicken. Moose drove us all over to the beach where everyone started to explore. 

Moose and Lori snorkeled a bunch together. They are good snorkel buddies and could float off together watching the sea life for hours.

Everyone else found giant conch shells- most of them were still occupied! We were on Conchwatch 2026 and tried to get them to come out, with a few successful ones. The eyes are so funny and the conchs themselves are just strange creatures. The foot, body, eyes on antenna-type things- it's all just so different from any other animal we see on a regular-basis.

Photo below taken on Eleuthera in 2021:

Ben took Bear, Moose, Keith, Sasha, and Luke to go see the iguanas at the island where Moose got bit in 2022. This time when they came back, no one was bleeding! That's a win.

They came back to get us and we went back to the boat and started making dinner. Then, we got to make our plan for the next several days while they're here and we make our way through the Exumas south to Georgetown. 

Atlantis

Atlantis said our slip would be ready at 11 am and we were up around 8, so I worked on updating our blog notes. Uncle Paul, Aunt Denise, and Jac each got a conch from Honesty, as well as some fresh mangos.

Around 10:30, we made our way over to Rubis and fueled up so when Wednesday rolled around, we could just head out of Atlantis with the Grasshoppers and not have to worry about stopping for anything. At Rubis, Denise saw a spotted ray. I wondered if it lived in these waters and was the same one we saw in the Atlantis Marina years ago.

As the fuel prices rose in the US this spring, we started to worry about what that would mean for us and anticipated the marine diesel prices this summer. At Rubis, we wound up paying just a little less per gallon than we did at the end of July 2022.

Once we filled up, we made our way to the Atlantis entryway canal. It was about 11:30 when we got there, but the dockmaster told us the people in our slip were preparing to depart, so we sat just outside the entryway for 30 minutes watching the boats and looking for animals. We got to see a sea turtle surface quite a few times. Didn't get to dock until 12:05.

Tied up. Checked in. Slip 1. Literally the furthest slip from anything. Lots of steps in our future! Ben said we could call the marina staff on the VHF and they'd come drive us.

Uncle Paul and Aunt Denise came with us to get wrist bands, then went to the casino for a bit. 

Carters did a bunch of slides and the River Rapids (best "lazy" river in the world!!!) Last time we were here, Roo was too little to do anything but the Rapids River, so she couldn't wait to get down all of the other slides, especially the Serpent Slide which ends in a tunnel surrounded by all kinds of sharks.

Walked through the area that we don't spend a lot of time in- the beach, the Coral Pool, and got to look at some of the tanks along the way.

Found our Cartermaran sticker from 2022! Can you find it?

Came back for dinner on the boat, then the kids and Ben walked for ice cream.

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Ben called the marina office a little after 8:00 am for dock pickup and had the marina office call for a cab. Uncle Paul and Aunt Denise left for the airport with their conchs in tow. Bringing them through customs was a debate they had before leaving. Uncle Paul wanted to leave them with us to bring to them when we return at the end of July. Aunt Denise thought they brought them back just fine last time. Turns out they should've left them here. TSA said they can't have them in their carry-on, but they could have them if they checked their bags. Uncle Paul did not want to check bags, so he said that TSA now owns them for resale. (Don't tell Honesty!)

Ben did maintenance on the boat engines. I threw the guest bedroom sheets into the laundry, sunscreened everyone, then took the kids to the water park. I kept my phone in a water bag and noticed that toward the end of the day it had a moisture alert, so I set it out- charger port side facing the sun. Thankfully, it dried out pretty quickly!

Roo decided she was ready to try The Leap of Faith slide. This body slide is almost a straight down drop through a tunnel in the same shark tank as the Serpent Slide. Moose, being the only other one of us there to have done this slide, decided he would take her while Bear and I waited to take video of her drop. He didn't initially want to go, but as he got closer to the top he yelled down that he would go right after her.

Hattie's test results that we were waiting on came back, so Ben had to run back to New Providence/Nassau. He docked the tender by Honesty, and picked up her new antibiotics, to replace the current ones.

The kids and I came back to the boat with 30 minutes to spare (just enough time for a quick shower and to make guest bed) before the Grasshoppers arrived.

We walked to Shake Shack for dinner and enjoyed looking for and watching the manta ray, spotted ray, tarpon, and other large fish. For some reason, Atlantis lit off a ton of fireworks while we were eating. Roo thought it was for World Ocean Day and I explained to her that that would be contradictory to the type of celebration World Ocean Day would be. The display of fireworks was very loud because they were just outside of the restaurant, and lasted a long time. We did not enjoy them. 

We walked back through The Dig, which is an underwater viewing area of all sorts of tanks. There were jellyfish, lobsters, grouper, sharks, etc. One of the lobster tanks was a tunnel, so when we looked up, we saw a lobster with all kinds of orange eggs under her tail. We couldn't believe how many there were!

Once we were back to the boat, I had just about 20,000 steps for the day! I walked back and forth to the waterpark area 3 times, and that was in addition to the steps through the waterpark.

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Ben woke us up at 7:30 am so we could all eat, get into our suits, and get sunscreened. The park opened at 9, but most rides didn't open until 10. We all stuck together for one run on the Rapids River (we were there before it opened and we one of the first ones on!) before the kids ditched the adults for some more thrilling slides. We ate lunch and then did a little more together.

We walked back to toward the boat, but stopped along the way scoping out restaurants for dinner. We also got to show the Grasshoppers the Predator Lagoon and Tunnel. There was a very mobile (albino?) sawfish that Lori and I enjoyed watching. Any other sawfish we had ever seen had always just been laying on the floor. This one swam over us in the tunnel and was moving all around the tank.

Ben started working on the boat, using parts he ordered and had the Grasshoppers bring with them. The rest of us reapplied sunscreen or put on UPF clothes and went back to the park. Keith, Lori, and I just did the Rapids River over and over while the kids went together, again, on the slides.

Moose, Lori, and I were the last ones off the Rapids River. First ones on, last ones off. That was exactly how we wanted to spend our day. Time well spent.

We gathered all our stuff and met Ben at the marina pizza restaurant. All of the outdoor tables were occupied and we had to wait 30 minutes for our 3 pizzas to be made. We played a guessing game of which table would be done first and got one with a few minutes to spare before the pizzas were ready. Lori and the kids were busy eating all of the not-honeysuckle, honeysuckle flowers in the bushes next to our table.

After we ate, we walked back to the heart swing for a few photos. Sasha and Keith stopped for a drink at Shake Shack. My crew wanted Ben & Jerry's, so we decided to meet up there. Once the Carters got there, the line was so long, and Roo and I decided we didnt even want anything, so she and I walked back to the boat to shower. The Grasshoppers and the rest of the Carters caught a Cirque de Solelil advertisement parade. Ben was told that the marina staff leave at 8 pm, so the Atlantis Hotel people would be able to give him a ride to the slip instead. When Ben walked there, they told him no, so the 7 of them all wound up walking back to the boat too.