Christmas with the Ranger at Warderick Wells Cay, Exuma Islands, The Bahamas

On Thursday, December 25, 2025, Christi woke up at 0500, before first light. Warderick Wells basically has zero lights and it was cloudless (which was rare), making the stars especially vibrant. She sat outside for a few minutes and saw a shooting star! This was the dawn.

Early in the morning, the park ranger’s wife sang to us about the rules of the park. We’d forgotten about her morning announcements!

Some of the other parents organized a scavenger hunt around the island for the kids. in the morning, Keith went on the scavenger hunt. Here was a shot of the group.

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Moving to Warderick Wells, Exuma Islands, The Bahamas

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.

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Hiking on Hawksbill Cay, Exuma Islands, The Bahamas

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.

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Moving to Hawksbill Cay, Exuma Islands, The Bahamas

Dawn on Monday, December 22, 2025

When we woke up, it was overcast and the wind screaming. Much to our relief, the charter boat moved early in the morning, so at least we didn’t have to worry about them dragging and hitting us. The anchorage was rolly and uncomfortable, so Eric put out the starboard flopper stopper, which helped dampen the motion. That said, the motion made all three of us kind of grouchy. Even though it was rolly where we were, it was much worse on the north side, so we were glad we moved yesterday instead of waiting until today. Rain was in the forecast.

As soon as Keith finished his school work, he went to Zimovia to hang out with the kids. He stayed there for 7 hours. They played outside on the deck for the majority of the time.

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