Christmas at Warderick Wells Cay 12/23 - 12/26

We spent another couple of days at Highborne Cay but it was not super eventful with the high winds and storms. We headed on to Warderick Wells Cay on 12/23. It is our new favorite. It is one of about 20 Cays (pronounced keys-by the way) which make up the Exuma Land and Sea Park. It is basically like a National Park so there are extra rules like no fishing or taking anything off the islands. Because of this, there is a lot of pretty stuff to see. This cay had a huge open shallow area with sand bars and the water was awesome. Still kind of a cool wind going on, but otherwise perfect.

 

 

We walked on many trails and enjoyed visiting boo boo hill (supposed to be haunted :)) and to see blow holes too. The park warden has an office on this island and they have kayaks and stuff we got to use too.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We checked in at the office on Christmas eve morning and it was the craziest thing. There was another family there at the office from Utah and we started chatting and about 5 minutes later another family walked in and when they overheard us talking, they said -we are mormons too, we are from Idaho! How strange was that to have us all out here in the same place. The park warden said that was pretty unusual. Both families are out here just for a couple of weeks for the holidays, but it was fun to meet new people and have some instant friends. Everyone we meet out in this life is so nice and friendly.

Christmas day was nice and relaxing, but definitely didn't feel a ton like Christmas. We had told Santa that he could have a break this year since we might be hard to find, so we just got a few family board games (travel size of course) for the kids that we had brought back from Utah, and we had homemade gifts for each other that we had drawn names for.  That turned out to be really cool. We all worked on our gifts a lot this past week and they included things like: artwork, poems and letters, coupons for service, shells, and simple crafts. It was really cool.

After those gifts, we went to the beach and met up with some other cruisers for yoga on the beach. Very cool. We played around in the water a little, the kids threw sand balls -since there weren't any snowballs around they had to improvise, and then we had a big Christmas dinner in the afternoon. Apparently, this park office warden does a big Christmas dinner every year at his home and all the cruisers sign up for potluck stuff and the warden provides ham and turkey. It was so nice to have a big yummy meal and it was really fun to visit with a big group of people from all over the place. It was a very unique Christmas that we will have great memories of.

 

 

 

We have really enjoyed this island. We have done a little snorkeling, playing on the beach, kayaking, and walking around to explore. Our inverter also broke, so yes some more boat stress, but otherwise we are ok. This is a pretty crazy life.  Everyday is filled with ups and downs. Some things are really challenging -the boat, the weather, trying to conserve water, food, power, etc, but then also getting to be in a really beautiful place and see amazing things is so cool.  It is a roller coaster.

Next stop is Staniel Cay.