Dawn on Friday, December 26, 2025

Given how long and busy yesterday was, today we were off to a slow start. After finishing morning schools and chores, Eric really wanted to go on a family snorkeling trip. Christi didn’t feel like she was up for an intensive swim and Keith wanted to hang out with his friends. Keith wound up going tubing with some of the other families, then the kids played on the beach near the anchorage. 

Meanwhile, Eric and Christi agreed to go on what they’d been told was an easy hike to a viewpoint called Boo Boo Hill. They took the dinghy to the dock at the ranger station, then followed the path from the ranger station to the beach. Not far past the sperm whale skeleton, they saw the trail head that led inland.

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.

Tuesday, December 23, 2025 continued… At 1300, we went to shore to go on a hike to the ocean side of the island with three other families. We landed the dinghy on the beach. As we started on the trail, one of the other kids asked Keith why he wasn’t wearing a swimsuit since they were going swimming in the ocean. Eric volunteered to go back to Kosmos for Keith’s swim suit. He said he’d be a few minutes behind us. This was the trailhead.

The group followed the narrow hiking rail. The foliage all along the trail was a bit overgrown, but the trail was marked with debris along the way so we knew we were on the correct path. Being a limestone island, the ground all along the way was uneven and dotted with erosion holes. The hike up was mostly through spindly trees.

Being that it was a tiny island, it was a relatively short hike up to the peak in the center of the island.