Warderick Wells – Exumas Land and Sea Park

Cliffs at Warderick Wells
Cliffs at Warderick Wells

Warderick Wells

We left Shroud Cay on a forecast of 12-17 knots of favorable wind and 3-5 foot seas. Let me tell you what I’ve learned about forecasts: they are sometimes made up. They are made up to encourage boaters to get out and sail, I guess. Often, they have little to do with reality. This was one of those times. The wind direction was less favorable than predicted, which was ok but meant that, in order to sail, we had to go a little wide of our destination. OK, we do this all the time. No big deal. The wind was also 20-25 knots as the day went on, gusting 30ish. Well, that’s a good bit of wind, but we have had 30 knot gusts before. Not ideal, but doable. Our boat can handle that, and so can we. The real issue was the sea state. 3-5 feet? Try 6-8. Gross. Uncomfortable. Hard on the boat, hard on the crew. And it caused us to make ridiculously slow progress. We had planned to get into Warderick Wells at slack tide, but instead we got to come in against the running tide to take a mooring in the narrow river of water at this park. We made it fine, but my nerves were shot by the time we did. Read more

What about the Stuff???

“A house is just a place to keep your stuff while you go out and get more stuff.” ~ George Carlin

Moving Day

Living aboard a boat or in a tiny house. That thought crosses lots of peoples’ minds, apparently. It’s a beautiful, romantic thought. But then comes another thought – not as romantic. That second thought is about your stuff. It is paralyzing to think about dealing with all the accumulated stuff that life has piled on you throught the years. At least, that’s how it seemed for me. We had lived in the same house for 22 years. When I say the amount of stuff we had accumulated was overwhelming, that is a huge understatement. Every closet, it seemed, was full of things kept “just in case” or for sentimental reasons. And so many duplicates! Did I really need four pairs of red heels? Three slightly different 1.5 quart saucepans? Why did I have four bottles of soft scrub? Who knows? But that kind of excess wasn’t going to cut it on the boat; I knew that.

So, how to begin the process? For me, it ended up having two phases: One, a leisurely, one-small-bite-at-a-time, year-long effort, approached with the ambition of someone under no time constraints whatsoever (read: no ambition, really…) and the other, a three week mad dash like my hair was on fire, ending with hauling a trailer containing all the things that remained to the boat to move aboard. I recommend a more balanced approach. Your blood pressure would thank you, I am sure! Read more