Here's Johnny! Or at least his private Cay

And yes, as we feared we got beat up almost the entire way to Little Halls Pond Cay...aka, Johnny Depp Cay.  Bang, slam, bam...ugh.  Finally when we turned towards the east, we got a little break.  Why oh why do we do this to ourselves?  On the plus side, we spotted an Island Spirit on the way...we called to them and it turned out to be Youwarkee who we met in Oxford a couple of years ago.  They were on the way to Georgetown.  They were rocking in the waves in winds for sure but that didn't hold them back.  Anyway, we took the route up tight by Bells Cay (aka, Mega Rich Man Cay) and marveled at what we now call his Evil Lair...that's what it looked like, a mastermind's lair...remind me to tell you about his helicopter coming in and landing somewhere in the trees.  So around the corner and through the rock cuts we went and arrived on the west side of Jack Sparrow's private wonderland.  We found a spot literally right off one of his beaches and plopped it right down...we have no shame.  Then again, he wasn't there and we were not about to do anything rude or stupid like try to go ashore.  I read in our guide book that cruisers used to dump bags of garbage there...not out of hate or protest but just because they were d-bags.  Seriously?  What on earth would possess you to dump your bags of trash anywhere other than a trashcan, let alone on someone's private property. 

Another Island Spirit, Youwarkee.  That makes how many we've run into now?  Six?  Not bad considering there are only 30 something around:  Us, Island Khaya, Alley Cat, Exhale, About Time, Finding Balance, Youwarkee.

This big white building is some kind of giant garage...this seemed to be almost a work area or maybe workers area?  The houses were on the top of the hills of the Cay...of course.

Yacht anchored next to Pasture Cay...Jon read that they used to heard cattle there...get it cattle -- pasture?

That is the beach on the west side of Little Halls Pond Cay...no Johnny Depp but plenty of security cameras.

"The rocks" on the southern tip of the Cay...so far away at high tide, in the daylight, with calmer winds.

Ok anyway...Mark and I took a quick ride out to to a park location call the Aquarium because it was supposed to be a pretty spot for snorkeling.  Ummmm, OMG, it was unreal, we got in and the current was easy and the water had warm spots and there were little sergeant major fish EVERYWHERE around the dinghy.  I felt like they were saying in tiny little high pitched fish voices "hi! who are you? do you have snacks? hey, where are you going now?  we're coming too ok? oh wait, we'll stay here.  hi! who are you?..."  The water was crystal clear and deep but there was so much to see and so many coral (hard and soft) and fish and fish and coral and fish and coral and magnificence all around us.  Mark has video of it but even that is nothing compared to being there.  Along one side of the rocks was a wall down to the deeper water and there were fantastical coral running down the entire length.  I can only describe it as if someone had artistically created it--drained all the water out, placed each coral just so, added hundreds of fish in every color of the rainbow then added the most unreal color of blue water back in.  Well, I suppose depending on what you believe, that pretty much is what happened.  The only photo I have of it is a screen shot I made from the video and I'm thankful to have that!

On the way to the Sea Aquarium, that's the other side of Depp land...those white dots are giant tents he set up for guests of his wedding a couple weeks ago.  He also has some good looking coral heads very close to that beach.

Yeah I'm shameless but I made this from a screen shot of the video Mark took of our snorkel outing...see all our little swimming pals?

We got back to the boat and put out another anchor due to the current and pending winds...we also saw a larger boat run aground and the poor husband using his tender to try to pull off the sand while his wife had it reverse...and his three kids were running around with bumpers and watching the whole episode.  They finally got loose and found a comfortable anchorage at the northern part of the Cay.  For us, it ended up being a less than comfortable night because we had to watch the rocks that I pointed out above with the wind and current changes.  I kept an eye on things until midnight while watching Star Wars and The Empire Strikes Back.  Spoiler alert--Darth Vader is Lukes father!  Whaaaaaaat?! 

We were not staying there another day and planned to be up and away at high tide the next morning on the way to the mooring field at Cambridge.  Before that could happen, the guys had a hell of a time getting the two anchors up, what with all the current and those rocks...how is it that when you anchor in relative calm, rocks are plenty far away but then as soon as the current or wind picks up, they are RIGHT THERE and you are sure your chances of hitting them have gone up 10 fold.  Crazy.

After a lot of work, we were off and heading out towards Cambridge Cay via O'Briens Cut aka, an ocean cut.  Boy was that a trip...huge waves and strong current as is expected of inlets and cuts but still.  Then there we were, in the quiet calm peacefulness of the Cambridge Mooring field.  To be continued.