The passage to the Crooked/Acklin Islands took 3 days of light air sailing with a spinnaker. On the 3rd day the wind died completely so we motored the last 17 miles. Our first stop was Long Cay and we visited the village of Albert Town. In the days of sail and coal fired steam ships Albert Town was a bustling little town which was a trans shipment point for mixed cargos, refueling in the days of steam and crew additions for trans Atantic ships requiring additional crew for Central America and Caribbean ports of call. Today there are 35 people living there and it is a struggle to rebuild the once prominent church. Cathy couldn't get the plastic pink flamingos for my birthday so she had to settle for hundreds of the live ones; I`m not really that old. We moved on across the Bight of the Aklins and visted Spring Point, Snug Corner and Jamacia Cay. Not to be outdone I was hoping to get fireworks for the Cathy's birthday. The man above provided a spectacular light show with 3 hours of thunder and lightning at 4:00 am.
The Aklins have been loosing young people to Nassau for years so the population is in decay like all the out islands. What is lacking in modern convienences is more than made up by the friendlessness of the people. We hope to come back next year for a longer stay and tour more of both Crooked and Aklins Islands. On March 26th we had to start working our way north with a 48 mile run to Clarence Town on the eastern side of long Island where weèll wait for the next weather window to go to Rum Cay, Conception and Cat Island.