Peggy’s Trail, Tubing and Games in Warderick Wells Cay, Exuma Islands, The Bahamas

On Thursday, March 19, we pulled up anchor first thing in the morning. As had been forecast, it was raining with no wind. The lack of wind meant there was a lot of slack in the chain, so it was easy to get the snubber off and the anchor up, and we didn’t have to be out in the rain for long. We left near high tide, on the rising tide. We were following the previous track that we’d taken in, so there wasn’t the anxiety going through the pass today that there had been on Monday when we weren’t 100% sure of the depths. Thanks to the lack of wind, it was a comfortable 2.5 hour ride to Warderick Wells Cay, though it did rain lightly the whole time.

The catamarans we were meeting had anchored in the same area that we’d anchored in at Christmas. The water in that anchorage was, for the most part, too shallow for us. Eric managed to thread through the narrow, slightly deeper channel to score the lone deep spot amongst them. We had to go out in the rain to anchor.

By the time Keith and Christi had finished schoolwork, the rain had stopped. Zimovia took all 9 kids (between the four boats) tubing. They ran two tubes at a time to maximize the number of kids being pulled per run.

Afterwards, the kids hung out of the beach for a little while.

When the rain started again, it rained really hard. In the mid-afternoon, the Zimovia and Tiki Tour kids came over to play D & D. Afterwards, Keith and the other kids went over to Zimovia and played games. Eric and Christi spent the rainy evening watching a movie.

Here was the sunrise on Friday.

The rain had stopped, but the wind returned at 22+ knots. The anchorage was a bit rolly, and Eric put out the port flopper stopper. Thanks to all the rain, Kosmos was a lot cleaner now, but she still needed a good wipe down with rags to clean off the residual salt and dirt that had accumulated in the cracks and crevices.

Eric checked the dinghy motor. The menu screen was flashing as if someone was pushing buttons rapidly. It was cycling through the menus and doing weird things. He realized that water had gotten in there. He tipped the tiller down so the water could drain out. It was sunny and windy, so in theory, it would dry out fast.

Christi hadn’t been on land since Saturday, and was anxious to get to shore. Diane from Tiki and her cousin Angela, who was visiting this week, were going for a walk onshore. Christi joined them. Eric stayed onboard and did school with Keith.

Christi, Diane and Angela followed Peggy’s Trail from the beach at the south end of the anchorage, called Beryl Beach, through the interior to another beach a bit further southeast, called Loyalist Beach. For reference, Beryl’s Beach was where Tiki Tour had picked up Eric and Christi on Christmas Eve.

The interior had lovely foliage and lots of lizards. Unlike the Davis Ruins and Boo Boo Hill hikes, it was flat. Like the Davis ruins, the inland areas were mostly uneven limestone rock that were littered with large erosion holes.