Top Ten: The Seldom-Visited South — Acklins Island Group and Hogsty Reef

The Bahamas is a nation made up of over 700 islands and cays (plus roughly 2,000 more rocks and islets), stretching some 700 miles, and it sits just 50 miles off the coast of Florida. Because of this the Bahamas is usually one of the first places new cruisers visit, and its vastness makes it necessary to break it up into different areas when talking about the country. I love the Bahamas, and because of that we’re going to go visit it again this month for my top ten list — and this time we’re going to the seldom visited southern part of the Bahamas, specifically the Acklins Island group and Hogsty Reef.

10. Landrail Plantation

The Acklins Island Group is a triangle-shaped shallow sound surrounded by thin land broken up into three main islands, with Crooked Island in the northwest. Landrail Point is the easiest access onto Crooked Island for boaters, and the plantation that used to be here has some limited ruins that are still available to explore.

9. Pompey Bay

Acklins Island makes up the entire eastern side of the Acklins Island Group, and in the middle on the sound side is Pompey Bay. Here you can find the ruins of an Anglican church, the Spring Point Hangout (a giant tree where various sea trash items have been hung as decorations), and cotton bushes giving a glimpse into the colonial past, when cotton plantations had early success before a blight wiped them out.

8. Pittstown Point Landings

Back on Crooked Island at Landrail Point is Pittstown, which nowadays is a small resort, but in the bar you can find the room that once housed the very first post office in the Bahamas. The reality is unless you knew the history of the post office, the room itself would look like any room in the back of a bar or at a resort. With that said, it’s still cool to see this piece of history, and the small resort is nice to hang out on with a cocktail in your hand.

7. French Wells

The western side of the island group is composed of Crooked Island, and below it is Long Island. Between the two islands there is a boat channel into the shallow water sound. The very southern tip of Crooked Island, next to the channel, is a somewhat famous anchorage and freshwater well called French Wells, where past mariners would fill their water tanks. The well itself is nothing beautiful, but you will find rocks that have been carved by past boaters and placed next to the well as a monument to their visit. Also, I spent a couple of enjoyable days anchored here with the beautiful green water in the channel and the impressively quick shallow water on either side.

6. Castle Island Lighthouse

At the very southern tip of the island group, and just off Acklins Island itself, you will find Castle Island. Here, with no one else in sight, I found a tall white lighthouse. It was an adventure climbing up, since the salt air had partly corroded the metal staircase. From the top I had an amazing view of the surrounding seas, and I anchored Guiding Light near a shipwreck, making for an impressive photo.

5. Marine Farm Battery

Back on Crooked Island there is an old British gun emplacement I visited by kayaking across Turtle Sound, doing a bit of hiking, and finally exploring until I found it. Once there, I found the clear indication of the battery wall and five to six cannons with the armory markings still visible on them. It was a very cool archaeological find of a spot most people don’t even know exists.

4. Long Cay

As I said earlier, the west side of the island group is Long Cay, which is the least populated of the three islands. Back in history, though, this was the most populated island. I found exploring the small village to be very cool. It almost felt like you were exploring a ghost town, since the population has dropped so dramatically from its peak. My two favorite sites were the large church, where the population at this time only needs a third of the space and therefore only maintains that amount of the church, with the rest in a bit of a ruined state; and the octagonal jail. Inside were several cells with the hallway connecting each one.

3. Bird Rock Lighthouse

Off the northwest corner of Crooked Island is Bird Rock Island, with the Bird Rock Lighthouse, which became one of my favorite lighthouses I’ve ever visited. What I loved about this lighthouse is that around the tall lighthouse, the keeper’s quarters were built in a circular building surrounding the lighthouse. I’ve never seen this before and found it very cool. The view from the top was amazing, as you see the deep water and the reefs, and then to the southeast the land and shallow waters of the island group.

2. Hogsty Reef

The last two entries are for the only atoll in the Bahamas, and it sits roughly 30 miles southeast of the Acklins Island Group. Hogsty Reef is 3 x 5 miles in size and is only accessible from the entrance on the western end. Inside the atoll are beautiful coral heads, and the barrier reef is cool to explore as the depth goes from over a mile deep to one foot almost instantly. There are two small islands on the reef, and the northwest one has a former day marker and a new beacon. The entire island can be walked in about five minutes, but I enjoyed several hours hanging out on the beach, checking out the navigational aids, and relaxing in the surrounding water. We were lucky we had very calm weather and were able to spend two nights here, because you do not want to visit if the winds are much over 10 knots.

1. Shipwrecks at Hogsty Reef

Due to the abrupt nature of the water depth, it has been estimated that over 600 shipwrecks have happened at Hogsty Reef. Most of them slide off the reef and into the deep water, but there are three that are still able to be visited. The first is a World War II liberty ship. The ships were mass produced to transport goods and troops during the war. This one was named Richmond P. Hobson, and it wrecked in 1963. Nowadays the metal hulk is collapsing in on itself, but it’s still an amazing sight. My friend that I visited Hogsty Reef with still laughs, because I dove off the giant anchor chain into 8 ft of water. The second shipwreck is newer and smaller. It’s the Lady Eagle, and it looks like an inter-island freighter with its back ramp dropped, so you can get aboard quite easily, where you will find — of all things — a forklift. The third wreck I found was off the small island in about 10 ft of water. It’s even smaller than the Lady Eagle, but it was still fun to snorkel around.

Shane McClellan has written for ALL AT SEA since 2016.