Crooked Island, Bahamian Outislands

Aaaah... Crooked Island. One of the most GORGEOUS places we visited in the entire country of the Bahamas, and one of our most favorite places on the planet Earth. Here's why.

Crooked Island is known to be one of the most remote of the beautiful and precarious outislands of the Bahamas. In late February, Wanderlust nestled into an anchorage around the French Wells, an even more isolated area of the already desolate Crooked Island. Although void of people, the French Wells offered a secluded, tropical utopia with excellent beaching, hiking, and endless coral for spearfishing. It is a real cruiser’s dream.

Crooked Island the kind of place we had daydreamed about finding when we made the decision to quit our jobs to go sailing. We wanted to find the unknown, less traveled, non-populated paradises... the places so remote, you couldn't even pay to stay in a resort there. The French Wells at Crooked Island was exactly that million dollar tropical island experience, that we achieved by nothing except the power of wind travel and some fearlessness.

We were proud, and in awe while sitting at the beach at Crooked Island, because we were two of a very small group of people on Earth to have seen the wonder of this far-off island paradise.

The crystal clear water at Crooked Island shone in a zillion shades of blue, and the super soft sandy beaches sometimes carried a pink hue from the rosy bedrock and red coral. The island’s beauty stood out among other islands we’d visited, and we'll remember that pink sand for years to come!

We sat with our butts in the pink sand, without speaking, with small smiles on our faces and gazed out at Mother Nature's grand creation.

Although beautiful, it was obvious that Hurricane Joaquin had left his destruction in Crooked Island, as in many of the other Bahamian Outislands. Ben and I had seen photos on travel blogs, and heard of the island-long beaches that lay on the French Wells side of Crooked Island. But we found instead huge bare overhangs of bedrock, dead mangled pine trees, wreckage debris, and boats washed ashore. Powerful wind had shifted the sand away from the beaches, leaving only a few small (but still wonderful) white, sandy inlets.

Joaquin had clearly left scars on Crooked Island, and the scene caused Ben and I to understand and revere the true power and danger of a storm like this one.

Large boulders of bedrock had broken and sunk into a small bay, which we guessed had been a beach before Joaquin, just a year ago.

Even though the island had been transformed, our time on Crooked Island was full of perfect weather, soft breezes, sunshine, and relaxation. Ben, Ruca and I spent day after day laying in the sun at our own personal slice of soft white beach, and going for long leisurely swims in the shallow clear water.

Ruca ran for hours in the sapphire shallows, chewed sandstone rocks and conch shells, chased crabs and hunted sting rays.

We kept an eye out for the notorious pink flamingos, who nest among the shallows by the mangrove creek in French Wells, but they steered clear of us. My guess is they don’t like rowdy boxer dogs!

Although we didn’t see any flamingos, we did see swarms of stunning orange and yellow butterflies swarming the beach! We could't tell if they brought the smell of flowers, or if the smell brought them...

Soaking up our own personal paradise, Ben, Ruca and I didn't see another soul for days... or was it weeks? We lost track of time at Crooked Island, doing beach yoga, taking photographs, spearfishing in the coral heads, hiking as far as we could, and fishing among the car-sized fallen boulders. We woke up without the alarm, ate a lazy breakfast together, then headed out to shore to find something wonderful to do each day. We didn't look at the clock, we didn't know the date, and we surely were in no hurry to leave.

We could have stayed on Crooked Island forever, but we were too curious about the rest of the Outislands and the new adventures that lay ahead of us. Soon our weather window arrived. We were both sad, and excited when it was time to catch some wind on our first ever night sail, towards the uninhibited Plana Cays of the Bahamian Outislands.

Thanks for reading,

Ben, Quinn and Ruca

#destinations #Bahamas