March-1 2007

March 2007
The Exumas Land and Sea Park covers a group of cays in the central Exumas around Warderick Wells where the Park HQ can be found. Fishing is banned and as a result snorkeling is amazing. There are numerous shallow reefs where varied marine life abounds and where swimming is safe at slack tide.
Mooring balls are being laid to prevent anchor damage and as volunteers we helped splice some of the ropes to be used with them - quite worrying really. They had an offer of free professional help putting the moorings in so they were keen for as many as possible to be completed. Moorings were inexpensive but each day you helped as a volunteer was free.
The main mooring field was in a J-shaped deep water channel bounded by silver sand banks where you could paddle at low tide.

Warderick Wells Cay has had pathways cleared through the dense scrub to allow visitors to explore. The ground is mainly pitted limestone or sand and the former has been weathered to very beautiful but sharp shapes and there are large, deep circular holes everywhere. We saw many lizards and even the odd snake. A native rodent called the hutia (say “hootia”) is abundant and has been a part of local diet in the past.
Around the time of the US War of Independence, loyalist settlers came here rather than submit to the ‘patriot’ rule. The remains of simple stone dwellings can be seen and some of the holes in the limestone were used as wells.
An 18th century dry stone wall runs right across the cay and probably kept livestock confined. The settlers grew crops where they found soil and cleared the scrub. Fish, conch and lobster would have been plentiful then but they also planted crops and kept livestock.