Tag: warderick wells

Snorkeling Rangers Garden at Warderick Wells, Exumas, Bahamas

A wonderful snorkel opportunity awaits you when visiting Warderick Wells, moored either at the north field or Emerald Rock. The Google image below shows the small cut at the southwest end of the north mooring field (aka HQ or the horse shoe). The red star in the image is the turning mark for folks rounding the sand bar heading to moorings 16-22. The two yellow circles are dingy moorings. The southernmost mooring gets you closer to the coral.

Just west of the moorings are a a couple of coral mounds (green arrow) that are full of fish, turtles and an occasional sleeping nurse shark. Swim from there to the deeper coral and the other green arrow just outside the cut and south of the “No Wake” buoy (pink star).

Rangers Garden at Warderick Wells

This is an area of moderate current so the deep coral in the cut makes for a great drift dive. Alternatively, time your dive for slack. As a general rule, slack in this cut is about 45 minutes before, and up to 15 minutes after, Nassau high and low tide. Winds and the height of the previous tide will determine actual slack, which lasts 20-30 minutes. The easiest way to determine slack is to just watch the boats on the moorings in the north field. As the ebb approaches low tide slack, the boats at ball #16 and 17 will begin to swing off the current and into the wind. Slack will be 20-30 minutes after this. On the flood, the same thing will happen to the boats on balls #4-6 as they begin to lose the effect of the current and bend to the wind. Flood is milder than the ebb.

If you have weak swimmers aboard, try anchoring your dinghy on the sand bar to the west of the shallow coral and swim over. There will be only mild current at this coral and it is easy to get out of the current by swimming back to the sand bar. The flood current at the dinghy moorings is usually weak to moderate, but the ebb can be stronger than average swimmers can handle and the current in the cut itself even stronger.

Spotted Eagle Ray

Eagle Ray school

The high point of your dive will be swimming with the spotted eagle rays. We have seen as many as ten rays in a school. They hang around the deep coral and often swim through the mooring field. They are so accustomed to snorkelers that they will pass under you and allow you to get within a few feet before they accelerate ever so slightly in order to keep their distance. Just stay in place and they will often circle underneath you. Bring your camera.

Nurse Shark

Plenty of nurse sharks in the area. Often resting on the bottom. They usually make the rounds of the moored boats looking for handouts. (Bad idea).

Reef Shark

There are also a few resident reef sharks that will keep an eye on you while you are snorkeling in the area. They keep their distance so unless you are looking out a ways you may never see them.

Turtle at Rangers Garden

Turtles are also well accustomed to divers so they tend to let you get closer than in other settings. Expect to see many schools of fish in the area. Jacks, snapper, wrasses and more.

Yellow Tail snapper

Queen Angel
Grouper

Somehow the grouper and the lobster, usually shy, know they are protected in the park.

Warderick Wells by trawler

Exuma Cays Land and Sea Park

A beautiful place. Well protected from development and fishing by the park laws and boundaries. And great for cruising in a natural environment. Plenty of places to anchor and excellent moorings. We were here a few years back while cruising on Chasseur and looked forward to our return on Privateer. Coming up from the south, our first stop was the Cambridge Cay mooring field. The entrance from the south is a bit skinny, the charts showing some 5′ spots, and we draw almost 5. There are enough Active Captain descriptions that attest to at least 5′ at low, assuming you stay in the so-called channel.

For those of you hesitant to lock on to the “magenta line” while in the ICW, this is different. The Explorer Chart route needs to be followed exactly. Especially if you draw 5′ and are coming in at low tide. Unlike the ICW, you can see the bottom clearly. Way too clearly. And even if you are very experienced at reading depth in the Bahamas, I defy you to differentiate between 5′ (enough) and 4.5′ (not enough). All I can do to add to the knowledge base, is that if you follow the Explorer route you will have at least 5′ at low. But not much more. And the channel gets down to about 30′ wide at one point. But by the time you get this far, the channel is easy to read.

Once in, the area is mostly covered with mooring balls, but room to anchor if you choose. We took a ball. A quick note on the balls in the park. Very well maintained, very strong (more on that later). Most rated for 60′, some for 100′. That said, some get chewed up by the props of the incompetents, so we always dive on them.

Cambridge Cay anchorage is a spectacularly beautiful spot. Looking north or south you can see up and down the island chain. Looking east, over a large coral shoal, is the bank forever. for one of our three days here we were the only boat in the anchorage. If you are looking for quiet, this is the place to go. And not too far north is the snorkeling spot called the sea aquarium. Dinghy moorings and lots of fish. Not to be missed.