Wardrick Wells or Zander's dark side

We arrived in Wardrick Wells tired from our rocky night.  Luckily, we found and tied to our mooring quickly, and were able to get off the boat and on to the beach in a short time.  We had planned to hike the ragged hills to get to the park headquarters, but were sad to read that Zander was not welcome to travel past the beach at Wardrick Wells because of the protected wildlife (this will be very relevant later in the story).  So we took poor Zander back to the boat before embarking on our trek.


Our hike became what is now known on our boat as a "Pam death march" (PDM).  The PDM is a regular occurrence in our cruising lives, referring to a "walk"- usually in hot or rainy weather- that is supposed to be short and lead to a restaurant, grocery store or somewhere rewarding, and ends- sometimes unfinished- after 1-100 miles with our tongues dragging and Cyrus ( and sometimes Tyler) having a cow.

This particular PDM resulted in a spectacular hike through ironshore and poisonwood trees, past 2 beaches, with views of both the eastern and western shores- but no park HQ.  We ended up taking a wet dinghy ride to park HQ- but we were rewarded with $2 movie rentals....hooray!


The real stories from Wardrick Wells involve Cyrus and Zander, however.


While visiting park HQ on our second day in the park (dinghy ride- no death march), Cyrus and I saw children playing on the beach.  Cyrus flew down to greet them, seemingly a bit tired of his mother.  While I was finishing my business at park HQ, I recognized one of the faces of the other cruisers- but could not place from where.  She recognized me as well, and we eventually realized that we had met, not on boats, but at the airport in Ft. Lauderdale, when Cyrus returned to Florida from Denver.  Cyrus had flown as an unaccompanied minor and met a family from Alaska flying to Florida to refit their boat and sail to the Bahamas.  At the time, Wendy (the mom) had been traveling for 24 hours with 3 children and a plethora of flight/airline issues.  She was so frazzled that we were not able to exchange contact information, and I thought we would never see them again.  The cruising world is small, however, and there was Wendy, her 3 children (and husband) aboard Whistling Cay once more.  Needless to say, we spent the better part of the next 3 days onboard Whistling Cay, or playing with Lily, Eli and Jedo.  Cyrus had such a wonderful time that he stopped talking to me on the day we left. 
While visiting Wardrick Wells, we also met Jennifer and Royce on Cerca Trova- also first time cruisers learning things the hard way (although their boat is a beautiful catamaran with a refrigerator, water maker and oven among other lovely amenities).  We would follow Cerca Trova to Staniel Cay and then to Blackpoint Settlement and hope to see them again soon.
On our final night in Wardrick Wells, Zander was allowed to go off-leash on the beach during a cruiser cookout/ birthday celebration for the park manager.  All was well until Cyrus came to me and asked, "What happens when you touch a rodent?"  I answered (typical mom), " Well... a rodent is like a mouse or a rat..." Cyrus: " I know that...just answer me," Me: "Well nothing usually." Cyrus: "Good- because Zander has one in his mouth."
The Bahamian hutia- https://www.google.bs/search?biw=1366&bih=643&tbm=isch&q=bahamian+hutia&revid=280812034 - sorry no pictures- my connection is too slow
Yes- our little Zander had found the protected hutia-either chased and killed it, or (I believe) just found a dead hutia and dragged it out to the beach...in front of all the park management...and guests....good thing it was dark.  The park workers encouraged me to allow Zander to keep chasing the hutia- apparently they are over-running the island and impacting the plant life.  We had no idea he was anything more than a lap-dog.  More on that in the Staniel Cay post....