We tried to go into Dollar Harbor which on the charts said there was enough water but we hit bottom going in and since the tide was now falling, decided to turn around and continue to the abandoned Diamond Crystal Salt works. We unwisely decided to wait until morning to launch the dingy and explore as the wind and waves were too rough to land in the morning. We continued south punching thru waves with the wind on our nose and once clear of the southern tip, turned southeast toward Crooked-Acklins-Long Cay, arriving at Long just at sunset.
Long Cay had 2,000 people living at Albert Town at the turn of the last century and at the time of the chart printing, was down to only 35 people. Most of the homes are now gone but all the streets are still there as is the ruins of the largest church south of Nassau, St. David and St. Augustine, part of what is remaining is still being used. We walked by the power station making electricity, past the BTC office/tower creating a cell signal, past the small reverse osmosis center making plenty of water but never saw a person, only 1 dog. The remains of the small school building damaged by the last 2 hurricanes ( and down to only 2 students we later found out) were still full of books, a few computers and a couple holes in the ceiling. Many other buildings looked in poor shape. The west facing beach was gone and the small jetty there was in poor shape so we headed back for the 2 mile walk to the east jetty where we left the dingy. Finally, we meet 3 men coming up in a truck who confirmed that the population was down to 12 people now, several employed by the government. We don’t think that Albert Town will exist much longer. On the way back to the boat, Amy spotted a flock of pink flamingos so we tried to take the dingy close for some pictures. We ran aground only half way there- it was very shallow, even for the dingy. Near the boat, we saw a nice beach, a large grove of coconut palms and picked the largest coconut we had seen.
The large bight (bay) formed by the 3 islands is surprisingly shallow and we had a few tacks to get farther east to Snug Corner, arriving well after dark. While our boat only needs 4 feet of water, we had to anchor a mile off the settlement as it was so shallow. Once we got to shore the next morning, the first vehicle going out way stopped to pick us up and dropped us at the small school (30 children) and said to go in and talk with the principal. Our driver turned out to be one of the 2 teachers and we had a nice discussion about the school. We did see about 12 people here, several relatively new cars went by including a nice 1 ton diesel pickup, picked a couple unripe papayas. The winds were to pick up and shift to the north so we moved SW to Delectable Bay, anchoring as close as we dared ( too close as we touched bottom several times during the night). The next morning, we realized most of the sane had been washed from the beach, leaving a rocky shore. We managed to get the dingy to shore, walked ½ mile to the road and headed south looking for Pompey Bay on this nice new wide road with no vehicles. A couple did pass going the opposite way and each stopped to check to see if we were OK. We stopped and talked with 3 older ladies weeding with machetes and finally a car stopped and took us right to the path leading to the ruins of a very large church, once having 3 turrets. The church was located just off the beach and at one time, must have been surrounded by many homes, now only a few stones were left. That evening a very large 6.5” “money moth” arrived and spent the night with us
We walked about a mile toward Morant Bay settlement (abandoned) but finally gave up after not seeing a person or car the whole time. A mile and a half back toward the boat, we got a ride and thought we would go see Spring Point settlement until the driver told us there was no town there so it was more walking back to the dingy. We were off the next morning back to Long Cay not having seen another boat the whole time.
We knew the trip back to Long Island was going to be rough as the winds had picked up out of the NNE, the weather report said waves 6-10 feet and Amy had already resigned to a very unhappy day. We were not happy about subjecting the boat to the stresses involved but the forecast was not getting better. We did get an update the next morning suggesting the winds would moderate mid day but they turned out to be double the forecast. We had water crashing all across our front windows and rolling back into the cockpit. Even when we rounded the southern tip of Long Island, we still had a rough time only making about 4 mph with both engines running. We got all the way to a sheltered bay at Turnbull ( formally the pineapple growing area of Long Island) and enjoyed a quiet evening. We had to wait for the high tide to get back thru the shallow so left late morning. The high tide was lower now due to the moon and we spent an hour just grazing the bottom of the shallow section with our keels and ever so happy to finally arrive back at Thompson Bay in the evening, 279 miles later.
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