Unfortunately, the weather took a turn on us, and staying anchored at Hogsty Reef was no longer tenable. We packed up and sailed off, first for a night in the well protected harbor at Mayaguana, and then onward to one of our favorite destinations in the Bahamas, the uninhabited Plana Cays where we hope to spend a week or so.

We do however have some more photos of Hogsty Reef. At Northwest Cay, there is an unusual stone tower.

This was obviously a rather complex construction project for such a remote site. Built of cut stone blocks, and originally covered with ochre colored plaster. I have found no information about why it is there. It would hardly be tall enough to be much more visible than the island itself. There used to be a light on the island, but all that remains of it is a bit of its foundation sticking out of the sand.

On the north side of the cay is the remains of a wooden ship of significant size, mostly buried in the sand, one of the three wrecks visible above water. The reef has always been a serious hazard to navigation, even to quite recently. It does not project high enough to give a significant radar return, and it rises so quickly from the depths that sonar would give you only a few minutes of warning.

The small hill is covered with nesting sooty terns, and anything higher up has brown boobies perched on it. With this number of birds, the population of small fish in the shallow waters is quite limited!

The other two wrecks are steel hulled ships providing more roosting places for the brown boobies. They are on opposite sides of the reef about 3 miles apart. Aside from the two tiny cays, they are the only things above the water surface at high tide.

The one on the far side in this photo is quite a substantial ship. It is the SS Richmond P. Hobson, one of the Liberty class cargo ships built in American shipyards by the hundred during WWII. It met its end on Hogsty in 1963.

The nearer wreck is the Lady Eagle, an offshore supply vessel that was sailing under a Bahamian flag when she ran up on the reef. All I can find online is that she was built in 1967, and was likely one of the fleet of inter-island ships that are locally known as “mail boats.” I am not sure when she ran up on the reef.