Hawksbill Cay

After leaving Norman's Cay, we did a little provisioning and headed toward the Exuma Land and Sea Park- a 25+ mile stretch of protected cays.  No fishing, shell collecting or hunting allowed- the stretch of islands are a beautiful example of the natural Bahamas.
Our primary destination was the park headquarters on Wardrick Wells, with its protected moorings- we knew that a pretty nasty northern wind was headed our way in the evening and wanted to be tucked away safely for it.  Unfortunately, as we headed south, having to motor because of strong headwinds, our engine began to have trouble.  At first, the engine was losing rpm slowly, and then, randomly, the rpm would dive- never quite fully quitting, and then rev back up to our original speed.  Reluctantly, we made the decision to take our chances on a mooring outside of Hawksbill Cay- still within the park, but not as protected as we had hoped.
The water was rough and it took 3 tries to hook the mooring ball: Tyler yelling at me from the bow and while I tried my best to steer a 10,000 lb. tub slowly toward a ball that I could not see.  Tension?  Yes.
After recovering from grabbing the mooring, we decided to enjoy the weather and the island before the evening winds came in.

Hard to believe that bad weather was headed our way

As we explored, we found a lovely trail- marked by cairns (piles of rocks) and winding through ironshore (amazingly hard volcanic rock) and mangrove.  While wading through a shallow creek, we spotted a nurse shark- about 2 feet long- that sent Tyler out of the water quickly.  Cyrus, on the other hand, was excited to wade more and try to find another shark.  The trail led to a beautiful and untouched beach on the eastern side of the island.  The entire family played, chased crabs (Zander) and enjoyed amazingly clear water.  

As evening approached, we went back to Mirage, watching clouds approach from both the west and north.  The wind prediction we had said that the winds would be "clocking around" from south to west to north and the come in strongly from the north by 6pm.  The weather we were watching, however, told a different story. During the hour before sunset, we watched 4 boats come in to our same mooring field- escaping the approaching storm.  By 6pm, westerly winds and a strong storm were beating down on Mirage.  In the waning light, one last boat made an attempt to hook a mooring ball, but the storm and waves were too strong and the light was too dim- they ended up anchoring nearby.  Completely unprotected from the west, our mooring was now a roller coaster ride.  We were happy-now a relative term- to be tied to a strong mooring, however, the waves and storm made for a sleepless night.

In the morning, the wind and waves had died down somewhat, and we crawled out to the cockpit.  Sadly, our dinghy had flipped over in the waves during the night- spilling its contents into the sea.  The motor stayed attached, but the flippers and yet another dive mask and Cyrus shoe were lost.  We learned our lesson to never leave anything in the dinghy overnight and counted our blessings that we did not lose the outboard.
We licked our wounds, made a bunch of coffee, and headed toward Wardrick Wells.