Johnny Depp has exquisite taste in islands. Maybe it’s his pirate thing, I’m not sure but we are anchored right off his island and off one of its perfect little beaches. It is a small island, about three quarters of a mile long. It has no airstrip or helicopter pad, no multistory mansions. It hasn’t been carved up and dredged out to fit a big yacht. Its just simple and laid-back and is sitting in the most beautiful colored water I’ve seen yet. I thought the little house overlooking Adderly cut on Lee Stocking was my dream house, now I’m not sure. We’ve been hanging out anchored off this one for the last few days.
Since Little Hall Pond, Johnny’s island, isn’t up for exploring itself we’ve been checking out the neighboring islands. Actually, you can go ashore on any island in the Bahamas, even his, up to the high tide mark but we didn’t. We did enjoy the three little uninhabited islands nearby, Kai could run freely between them all on the shallow sandbar that connected them so he got in some good exploring of his own in. The island, and our anchorage, is just inside the southern boundaries of the Exuma Land and Sea Park. We’ve managed to miss the Park both the last time we were here in 2006 and on our way down this year. On our trip back in 2006 we turned around when we got to the northern boundary and due to weather we skipped past it this year in a mad dash to find cover. The Exuma Land and Sea Park is approximately 176 square miles and is made up of 15 major islands and numerous smaller ones. One of the big islands is Cambridge Cay,it has a large mooring field but we chose not to anchor there the first night we came up here thinking it would be crowded and instead went to see it by dinghy. There wasn’t a single boat there! That’s OK, we still like our spot better. We walked on the beaches and explored about. It’s pretty, pretty. The whole area was empty, not that we are complaining, we certainly like the secluded feeling we just were surprised. A happy surprise.
^^If I ever live on land again, I want this to be my front walkway!
^^I can’t get enough of the colors of the water. I don’t think it’s possible for me to tire of looking at them. I keep trying to capture them with the camera but I never do. The clearness, the reflections, the movement, all of it…it just doesn’t translate.
^^What I like the most about this little guy is that he definitely looks toothless, like an old man without his dentures, yet he is holding a toothbrush.
^^secluded-at least for this area
^^Cambridge mooring field completely empty
On the other side of Little Hall Pond is a “Sea Aquarium”. It looks just like you might envision, a stunning little coral reef swarming with bright tropical aquarium fishes. Next to the Sea Aquarium is a sunken airplane. The airplane itself was neat, but the coral next to it made a good snorkel too. We had three huge spotted eagle rays swim slowly under us and saw two big lobsters walking across the bottom of the reef, out in the open. Of all days, I forgot to put the memory card in the camera. Ugh. I did capture some good video when we went back the next day. I will have to wait until I get good (and free) wifi to post them. I promise I will, though.
On the topic of wifi, the picture above was taken during a semi-desperate attempt to find it. Keith is raising our hotspot up to the top of the mast while I sat at the base of the mast trying to get our email and weather downloads. Island Life, I guess. It worked. Not for posting to the blog or anything, but enough for weather. But….if you just read this then I have found good wifi again and this is the first of a few back logged posts. Thanks for being patient:)
Wright Away Sails Away 
I’m loving living vicariously through your blog posts. Wish we could have been out there this season, but your pictures are keeping me going 🙂