Right Hand Life: Crooked Rum

We departed from Great Inagua at 3:00 am, with the plan of covering 80 miles to anchor on the west side of Acklins Island. The first 10 hours of this leg were great with a beautiful sky and calm seas. However, the winds picked up and the seas grew quickly and it became clear that our original anchor location was not going to offer any protection from this unforecasted NW wind that was currently making big waves. We changed our destination, which added 24 miles to the trip, and headed for the east coast of Crooked Island.

We found enough protection to spend the night, but woke up to fairly big waves on our bow, because the winds had changed to come out of the east (as previously forecast). This strong easterly was predicted to be around for a few days so we had to move to a more protected location. We decided to try the west side of Crooked Island, but as soon as we cleared the point we were in a huge swell still running out of the NW…yikes…go back, go back!

I was at the helm, but while I had one hand on the wheel and one on the throttles, Keith stepped up to operate the transmission selectors. We timed our waves and agreed…not this wave, but after the next we go…spinning the wheel hard to starboard, I brought the throttles back long enough for Keith to put the starboard engine in reverse (with the port still in forward), and I quickly increased the throttles to spin the boat around. Our timing was perfect, and before the next wave could broadside us we were heading back whence we came.

We ended up backtracking to the west side of Acklins Island (where we had originally planned to hide from the blow), where we spent several days enjoying a wonderfully protected anchorage. Once the winds died down we headed back to the west side of Crooked to stage for the next leg to Rum Cay. We anchored off Landrail Point settlement where we joined 8 strangers there to celebrate a birthday (most from sailboats anchored nearby) to enjoy a wonderful dinner at Gibson’s restaurant.

We also had time to explore this incredible lighthouse located on Bird Rock at the NW corner of Crooked Island.

I could find very little history besides the year built, 1876. I do believe several interesting YouTube videos exist, but as I’ve mentioned before, I can’t watch them because I can’t download them, and I don’t want to attach a link to something I haven’t seen.

The circular building at the base of the lighthouse is not attached, and looks more like a donut slid over the lighthouse. There are also four separate buildings on the site.

In order to visit, Keith had to nose the Whaler up to a small sandy spot so I could jump off, but he stayed on the boat, as conditions were too rough to anchor. This lighthouse sits on a narrow strip of rock and sand, with the open waters of the Atlantic to the right in this picture.

The views are fantastic and the construction impressive!

I was surprised to see this lighthouse is constructed from brick, but if you look closely at the second picture you can see that the parge has been blasted away on the Atlantic side of the lighthouse.

The roof of the donut shaped building is slanted down toward the lighthouse, with pipes installed to collect the rainwater and store it in a cistern under the building.

The walkway between the lighthouse and the donut building is piled with the boards that were once the roof.

There were a total of 10 rooms in the base building. Two of the rooms looked like this with concrete floors and two openings to the cistern waters below. The other rooms had wood floors. You can see Keith out the window, waiting for me to explore.

There was no way to reach the top of the lighthouse…not for an old woman like me anyway…there were several steps missing.

This very fortified looking building was the latrine. I think it had a ladies side and a gents side.

Both sides also had accommodations for small people.

I’m guessing this might have been the kitchen. There was a chimney and another square structure that gave access to the cistern.

One building contained shelves for storage. This picture would make a good lead poisoning flyer.

Something is enjoying the view from the top of the lighthouse!

When I was ready to leave, Keith nosed in to get me, but before I could jump on the swell pushed to boat sideways. While I ran around to push the stern of the boat out, Keith was lifting the motor to make sure it didn’t dig into the sand. Once righted I pushed off yelling “go, go, go”…but I wasn’t actually in the boat yet, because I needed to make sure the next wave wasn’t going to push the boat up again. Once I saw he was making progress backward I dove over the rail. This left me with my head and shoulders in the boat, and the other 90% of my body weight hanging over the bow. I know the railing on the Whaler is intended to keep people in the boat, but it does just as good a job keeping you out! I managed to get myself inside and righted (not the most graceful of entrances). These are the times I am happy we don’t carry a GoPro video camera.

I might be getting too old for this…

With a bruised belly and sore ribs, we are off to Rum Cay…

Finally, Keith’s dream of catching a Mahi Mahi is realized… 42 inches of deliciousness!

The NW corner of Rum Cay is amazingly beautiful, and very isolated. We were here all alone.

At low tide the fans flap out of the water. If you look closely at this picture you can see patches of yellow, just under the surface, everywhere. These are coral heads covered with fans.