Hog Cay south through the inside

On Tuesday, we took the MERCY, towing the Whaler, and meandered to the south through the inside, up against the islands instead of in the deep waters of the Sound or going way out on the bank. These areas are known for shoaling sand, and it had been years since I had been through there.





We ran along the deep channel west of Hall's Pond Cay, and SW around the sandbar below the southern tip of that island. We cleared the bar and ran back to the NE towards the northern end of Ridge Cay. I don't think it was necessary for us to go to the SW as far as we did, but, since it was raining at that point, it was difficult to read the water. We passed immediately to the west (rock tossing distance) of the islands to the west of Ridge Cay, following the bank of that island with an immediate turn to the east along the south side of the island. The channel through here is pretty visible.





Along the west side of Little Hall's Pond we found two mooring balls that appear to belong to Exumas Land and Sea Park. We rounded the tip of Little Hall's Pond and looked, but could not locate, the sunken airplane along the reef there. We saw dinghy moorings at the Sea Aquarium, up next to the small cay that is north of O'Briens Cay. There is also a large boat mooring just inside O'Briens Cay.





We paralleled the coast of O'Briens Cay, passing to the east of the rocks laying halfway between Pasture Cay and O'Briens. We were headed to Cambridge Cay mooring field. We passed to the east of the small cay in the middle of the cut and ducked into the Cambridge Cay mooring field as a squall with dramatic winds was passing through. The mooring field was empty, and there were tiny white caps through the mooring field. We turned around and headed back to the serene mooring we'd seen behind Little Hall's Pond. This time I passed to the west of the island in the middle of the cut, and went around the south and then west end of Pasture Cay before turning NE and completed the circuitous route.





Little Hall's Pond aka Johnny Depp's Island, is private, with no trespassing signs along the beaches. The side nearest the moorings are rocks coming down into the water, making for great snorkeling along the rocky wall. There is a lot of current through here, so it is a slack tide adventure.





We went over and snorkeled the Sea Aquarium from the installed dinghy mooring. Although the current flies through here, snorkeling on the falling tide, the current hits the wall, and upwells into the corner, making a great area to snorkel behind that upwelling, out of the current. So the boat on the mooring is in strong current, and one boat width away you can be out of the current. There were tons of tropicals, several Nassau grouper, sergeant majors, angel fish, trigger fish, lobster, etc. Everything there looks like they are used to being fed, even though it would be against park rules to do so.