Crooked Island

What an awesome evening sail!  We left at 10pm last night and motor-sailed for about 1 hour to get out of the Clarencetown channel safely.  We sailed straight thru the night and started the motor again about 2 hours before we arrived at our next anchor point in Crooked Island.  Now that’s the way to travel … less than 3 hours engine use for a 10.5 hour trip and that includes maneuvering two unknown channels.  The sailing was so great, we could have gone farther but we really wanted to visit this area. 

The Acklin/Crooked island area is called an archipelago.  There are actually three islands (Long Cay – not Long Island where we just came from, but also known as Fortune Cay, - is kind of together with Crooked) that form a triangle around an atoll with the open side being a barrier reef.  The Bight of Acklin is the shallow waters that form the massive lagoon between the islands and the reef.  On the charts, it looks like this amazing place that should have everything we’re looking for from our cruising experience (clear and warm waters, good fishing/snorkeling, privacy, etc).  Surprisingly, it was a little anti-climatic. 

We anchored for a few hours just inside the “Bight” … rested, had a nice meal and recovered from the night of travel with no sleep.  By about 1pm, we were ready to head further onto the Bight.  The trip to the other side was about 20 miles.  We arrived in the Spring Point area (Camel Point) by 5pm and anchored relatively close to shore, quickly relaxing in the peaceful anchorage.  There was not another boat in sight.  The coastline was mostly undeveloped and we were alone!