Northern Mooring Field
Emerald Rock
Southern Mooring Field
Warderick Wells Cut
Hog Cay
Snorkel Brad’s Reef off Long Cay
Watch the blow holes spout along the eastern cliffs
Visit the pilot whale skeleton at the ranger station
Photograph the 53-foot sperm whale skeleton on the main beach
Join the Saturday social hour at the park office gazebo
Park Headquarters and Ranger Station
Long Cay
Bell Cay
Emerald Rock
The Main Beach
The charter season runs roughly November through July, with the calmest conditions typically in April and May before the summer’s hurricane risk builds. Because every stop here is a mooring rather than an anchorage, availability can matter more than weather: the park operates on a first-come basis with no reservations, so arriving reasonably early in the day, particularly over the winter high season, improves the chance of securing a ball in the north or Emerald Rock fields.
There’s no airport on the cay itself, so most guests join their yacht already under way from George Town or Nassau, both of which have international airports with connections from the US. The nearest airport with regular light-aircraft traffic is Staniel Cay, about 20 nautical miles north, itself reachable by small plane from Nassau or Fort Lauderdale. From there, Warderick Wells is roughly a half-day’s sail down the Exuma chain.
The Northern Mooring Field, closest to the ranger station, is the most popular and the easiest for checking in and paying the park fee. Emerald Rock, on the cay’s western side, sits a little further from the office but offers good protection from southwest through northwest winds. The Southern Mooring Field, approached from Exuma Sound near Hog Cay, is best kept for settled weather since it takes some swell in a strong northeasterly.
One or two nights is typical, enough time to check in at the ranger station, hike to the cay’s highest point and snorkel Brad’s Reef off Long Cay before moving on. Since anchoring outside the mooring fields isn’t permitted anywhere in the park, most itineraries treat Warderick Wells as a highlight stop within a longer Exumas cruise rather than a standalone base, pairing it with Compass Cay or Staniel Cay further north.
Generations of sailors have climbed to the cay’s highest point to leave a piece of driftwood painted with their boat’s name, an offering said to bring safe passage after a ship was lost nearby with all hands. The pile has grown for decades, with no formal record of when the tradition began. A short walk from the summit, the reassembled skeleton of a 53-foot sperm whale on the main beach adds another unusual sight to the same hike.
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