Warderick Wells just celebrated its 50th birthday as a Bahamian National Park. It is run by a private trust, which gets its funds from donations, mooring rentals, and membership fees. We’re on a mooring, the first we have been on with Wind Horse. Most of the better areas within the park have a no anchoring policy to preserve the bottom as much as possible.

There has been a no fishing policy since inception, with the result that there is lots of marine life. There are wonderful shallows to walk and explore.

And the views are spectacular.

How is this for a dinghy anchorage?

The next three photos were taken with a point and shoot Olympus underwater camera. With good light, and close proximity to your subject matter, it works pretty well.

These photos are in three to five feet of water.

The fish are not at all camera shy.

It is nice to see fan corals again.

An interesting hard chine, steel cruising yacht. Note the ROCNA anchor on the bow. Ours is working really well in the soft, thin sand of this part of the world.

A sperm whale skeleton which washed up on the beach a few years ago.

The park staff is full time. They have satellite TV and a high speed Internet connection, which is rebroadcast throughout the park. So, visitors can get a WiFi signal at anchor (which is how these photos and article are being sent). This allowed us to have another confernence call with New Zealand yesterday, discussing metal work details on the FPB 64s now under way in Whangerie.

During hurricanes the park staff will allow folks to leave their boats on the moorings, and assist with storm anchors. But you have to leave the boat and everyone moves to a "block" house a few miles south on the highest piece of land – 30 feet (9m) above sea level. So far they have survived winds of up to 90 knots without losing a boat.

We’re spending a lot of time in the water (something we rarely do these days). Between the inviting temperature, clear water, and things to look at, it is not to be missed.

There are some larger fish as well.

Would you believe a barracuda "this big!"?

Here is a simple and effective sun awning over the cockpit. It is set between split backstays. What is interesting is the angled topping lift support from the forward end of the awning to the backstay. You could take this same approach with a single backstay, as long as you had stiff battens along the forward and aft edges of the fabric.

It has been two months since we hauled and coated our props. So far, they are staying clean.