Voyage to Crooked and Acklins Islands

Justin with a big Mutton Snapper caught while trolling off of the Fish Cays near Acklins. 

Sailing southeast from Long Island, S/V Pandion made an easy passage of 30 nautical miles to Landrail Point Settlement on Crooked Island. This passage took us far off the beaten path, to a remote part of the Southern Bahamas that few cruising sailors ever experience.

Our plan was to rendezvous with Brenda's daughter Weber and her husband Justin at the small airstrip on Acklins Island, and spend a week together sailing, fishing and exploring these remote and pristine islands.

Arriving ahead of an approaching cold front, we checked our charts and headed for French Wells, one of the few anchorages in the area that provides protection from a passing front. There is an old abandoned freshwater well and the ruins of an old fort, along with an old cannon, near the site that French ships used over a century ago.

Cold front approaching Pandion, anchored in French Wells off Crooked Island.

In the early 1800's, Crooked Island and Long Cay served as a major port for large sailing ships. At that time, over 2,000 people lived in Albert Town on Long Cay. When steam powered vessels replaced sailing ships, Albert Town and the surrounding settlements that had flourished in the 1800's were abandoned. Today Long Cay is inhabited by less than 30 people.

After riding out gusting winds and rains from the front, we sailed Pandion around Long Cay and flew our big Code 0 across the Bight of Acklins, dropping anchor near Spring Point Settlement two days before the flight was scheduled to arrive. Taking our dinghy to shore on the morning that Weber and Justin were flying in, we met Dick, a fellow cruising sailor on a trimaran, who had also sailed in to pick up a passenger on the incoming flight.

Dick has been cruising these islands for nearly 20 years, and provided us with a wealth of valuable information. He also knew everyone in town, and within five minutes, we were offered a ride to the tiny airport by a local Bahamian. It turns out that the arrival of the weekly flight from Nassau is the big local event on the island, and everyone turns out just to watch the activity.

Dick's trimaran, sailing off the Fish Cays.
He helped fill us in with local knowledge based on 20 years of cruising around Acklins. 

Weber and Justin had a few adventures just getting there, and after we loaded up their gear, we set sail, heading west for Long Cay. Fishing was high on their bucket list, so we had planned a weeklong circuit of the islands that would give us plenty of opportunities for trolling and light tackle fishing.

Weber with a small Nassau grouper caught on light tackle.
All of our grouper were returned unharmed; the Bahamian fishery is over harvested.
 

We even caught a few Needlefish, fun on light tackle.

Snorkeling the shallow reefs off Long Cay, we observed large schools of juvenile reef fish circling around us. There were a few reef sharks cruising by, and we were attended by several large barracuda that were curious enough to follow along. Mangrove snapper were plentiful, but we were not able to bring any in that day.

The Fish Cays, located east of Long Cay and west of Acklins, proved to be aptly named. We spent several days fishing and snorkeling the reefs, and caught everything from Mutton Snapper and Blackfin Tuna, to Barracuda and Spanish Mackerel. Fresh grilled fish was on the menu each night.

Weber and Justin with Blackfin Tuna. Great on the grill!

Cleaning the day's catch.

Circling back to Acklins, we spent the last three days exploring remote beaches and islands. Jamaica Cay yielded signs of an old shipwreck; we found broken pottery that had been fired back in late 1800's. We found another shipwreck off the beach at Castle Island; the old freighter's hold was apparently at one time filled with shoes and clothing. That may help explain the unbelievable number of shoes washed up on the shoreline that Brenda and I came across while exploring the Ragged Islands (more on those adventures in our next post).

Weber and Justin about to launch a kayak expedition.

Shipwreck. Old Belizean freighter stranded off the beach at Castle Island.

The week with Weber and Justin went too fast. By week's end, we dropped anchor at Spring Point, and again we were offered a ride to the airport by a friendly local Bahamian. As the Bahama Air flight took off back to Nassau, Brenda and I turned to our next adventure: getting our visas extended.

When we arrived in the Bahamas back in December, the Bahamian Immigration Officer granted us a four month visa, requiring us to locate another officer in the Islands to extend our stay for another four months. This turned out to be a little tricky in Acklins: they only had one Administrator for the island complex of Crooked and Acklins, and he was in Nassau attending a conference.

No worries...we sailed back to Crooked Island and waited until he returned. Catching a ride with Rufus, the brother of the chef at the local restaurant, we met with the local Administrator, who promptly extended our passport visas. Along the way, we also learned about the heavy impact of Hurricane Joaquin on these islands back in 2015. The impact of the storm surge and high winds were so severe, that many of the islanders who evacuated to Nassau ahead of the storm, never returned.

Within a few weeks, we observed a very similar situation at Duncan Town in the Ragged Islands. More on that in our next post!