Hi John,

...what I really meant was "if you want to avoid the greatest concentration of larger charter yachts", Christmas week would probably be best spent away from that particular area of the Exumas... (grin)

I missed that during my first read of Chris' post, was he really suggesting that he was told that he MUST take one of the Park moorings at a place like Hawksbill, or Shroud? Wow, that sucks... I must say, in the brief time I spent hanging out around Warderick Wells (anchored outside of the mooring field to the south), I was underwhelmed by the way the whole deal was being managed, to say the least... Reminded me a bit of Boot Key Harbor, people hanging out on their VHFs for half the day, waiting to score a mooring from the waiting list... (grin)

What makes the whole mandatory mooring thing particularly annoying, does anyone think that those 180' charter yachts are lying to any of those Park moorings? I think not...

One of the coolest spots I sneaked into my last time down there, was anchoring fore & aft in the very tight channel inside Shroud Cay Harbor... I stayed there for 2 days in very settled weather, what a spot, I'd have been pissed if a Park Ranger came by and told me I had to leave... The bottom of that creek is very well scoured by the current that runs in and out of that huge expanse of mangrove behind Shroud, there is no way an anchor set there is gonna do any 'damage' to anything...

best regards,

Jon