3 Feb 2016, Wednesday: To Joe's Sound

     After breakfast we hauled anchor and drifted back to the barrier reef where we re-anchored to do some snorkeling.  Joe saw his first stingrays and we watched a small octopus changing all sorts of colors as he blended with his surroundings.  We also picked up a Queen”s Helmet Conch, really stunning coloring.

     Back at the Willie, we hauled anchor again to move 5 miles south to an inlet called Joe’s Sound.  Pictures can’t do justice to how narrow and jagged underwater ledge lined the entrance is, with a hairpin turn at the end.  We anchored outside the entrance and did a survey of the entrance with the dinghy.  Satisfied with the depths, we returned and hauled anchor again, then threaded our way into the Sound.  Of note, there is a ballast keel from a good sized sailboat laying on the edge of the channel, as if to say, “Go ahead, try it!”

Looking back (from the Sound) at the entrance to Joe's Sound.

You can see how shallow and narrow it is.  Good thing we only draw 3 1/2 feet!

    This sound, or harbor amounts to a submerged river surrounded by some very shallow and some exposed sand banks.  There were several boats anchored, four sail, one active cruiser, and one houseboat, and a sailboat and a fishing boat both aground.  We passed them all by and found a spot in the 100 foot wide channel where we set 2 anchors.  The wind was screaming across the sand flats, and continued to blow across the channel most of the night.

The sand flats of Joe's Sound.

     We had arrived just after lunch so we made another snorkel expedition to a ledge just outside the sound.  There we found many interesting rock formations, many mini deep pools and many areas with extensive rock overhangs.  Kathy and I had a large barracuda swim right between us,  and Joe saw his first Stingrays up close and personal.  Kathy saw a lobster, but we were unable to coax him out of his rock hide-away.

     Back at the boat we cleaned up and made a dinghy trip up the sound to complete our survey of the back passage around Galliot Cay. This time we brought money so we could patronize ”The Last Stop”.  Well let me tell you, the wind came on and with three adults in the fatty knees, she makes some spray. Poor Kathy caught most of the spray and soaked right thru her windbreaker.  But we persisted and made it over very shallow water much of the way, thru the same bridge we had ducked the day before and right to “The Last Stop” .  Great, closed!  Back into the fatty and thru the bridge a forth time, back over the shallows and to the Willie, just about at sunset.  Probably a good thing the bar was closed, otherwise we would have been coming home in the dark.

     We will definitely come back to Joe’s Sound sometime.