The sunrise on Wednesday, December 24 was delayed by a giant cloud, but it did eventually rise above the cloud.
In the morning, we got Kosmos ready to go to sea and pulled up anchor at about 0840. The rest of the flotilla left about the same time as us. The ride from Hawksbill Cay to Warderick Wells Cay was smooth and uneventful — for us in a powerboat. At first the sailboats moved faster than Kosmos since the wind was good, but at the end they had to turn into the wind to get into the anchorage, and they all slowed way down. We arrived at about 1100.
We anchored father south than we had last time, on the edge of a mooring field.
Looking south.
Looking north towards The Horseshoe and ranger’s station.
We got the dinghy down right away. Eric and Christi headed to the ranger’s station to register for the Christmas dinner that the ranger was hosting tomorrow in his home. It was free to attend, but it was a potluck and we had to tell them exactly what we were bringing. Here was the ranger station.
His house
And the shed in between the two buildings.
Almost as soon as they returned to Kosmos, they left again to meet some of the other adults at the beach closest to where we’d anchored for a hike. Once upon a time, there had been a home on the island, and they were trying to find the remains of the home. They found what looked like it may have been a trailhead at the beach and followed it up the hill.
After a few false starts on trails that turned out to be dead ends, they eventually made it up to the peak. Looking north.
Looking south
They followed the peak south.
They passed a low wall running perpendicular to the peak and wondered why the wall had been built.
The trail was just as narrow and overgrown as the Hawksbill Cay trail, and the ground even more eroded and uneven. They had to carefully watch their step as some of the erosion holes were huge — a few were big enough to fall into!
Christi regretted wearing flip flops and wished she had sturdy hiking boots onboard. It wasn’t long before they found a clearing with the remains of a foundation of a building. The sign said… to be continued..