Serendipity

Crooked Islands

Sometimes life offers up a gift and it’s just serendipity. Today was one of those days. We are anchored at French Wells at Crooked Island and so far I’ve (Beth) felt a bit disappointed by our Crooked and Acklins experience. It is a beautiful place, but so far we’ve had a lot of long, bumpy dinghy rides and really not seen much. The exception being the Flamingos at Long Cay. We couldn’t get close to them, but Flamingos…in the wild. Pretty amazing. The beaches are pretty spectacular too.

Today we planned on a dinghy ride up the creek from French Wells into Turtle Sound. Just exploring and it’s a really beautiful ride. We are once again stunned by the devastation of Hurricane Joaquin in 2015. Vast fields of mangroves gone and piles of dead trees on lee shores.

Eventually we get to a small boat landing and find all kinds of activity. Big machinery repaving roads, flats boats tied up, and a woman and her friends dealing with a flat tire on her boat trailer. We get to chatting, (as this is the most people and action we’ve seen in 5 days). Turns out she’s been coming here for more than 30 years and here begins the magic of our day. We meet Lynne Finley and her friends and visitors, John and Rose. Lynne kindly invited us back to her home, “Island Time”, and gave us a great tour of the north part of the island as well as opening her home and heart to us. We were introduced to friends and neighbors and it really changed my whole perspective of the island. I’m grateful for her gift of openness and friendship and now I’m sorry I have to leave in a couple days. I’m glad I still have a little time and I can’t wait to come back. This is why we cruise.