… renting a car on LI is a must, I think you get them from Fox, I can't remember his darn name, sorry, something like Aldon ? Anyway, he's also a stone crab fisherman, he can bring you a bushel if you want. Definitely rent the car for 24 hours, maybe even 2 days, get an early start, and try to cover the entire island, north to south. Don't try walking on the road on Long Island, because the locals will stop, insist you get in the car, then take you around to do all your errands & provisioning, and bring you back to the dinghy dock. If you are in need of boat parts, the chandlerys on LI are surprisingly quite good. I particularly like the south end, at Gordons, nothing here but you can visit amazing beaches by dirt roads, and see the Blue Hole. Make sure to stop at Max's over in Deadmans for a conch salad, maybe the best I have had, their secret is they put chopped apple in. If you get to the very south end, you will see this is a nice anchorage when going back & forth to C&A if the weather is right, beautiful, no one there. Clarence Town is a cool spot, great little Bakery, you will see a couple nice churches here and on the entire island for that matter. I think Dollar Harbour may be a bit of a push with your draft, not sure, but that is one of our favorite anchorages, you will certainly be limited in & out at mid tide or more, beautiful inside here though. Believe it or not, you can easily take the dinghy from here to Max's through the mangroves, a nice ride.

Everyone has their personal choice, but I don't much care for the northern half of the Jumentos, I call the top half the Jumentos and the bottom half the Raggeds. You will find a couple places in the southern islands that offer up all around protection, or at least you can move just a little and get that. I could easily spend a month between Johnson, Double Breasted, Hog, the small islands around here. You will find nice hiking trails on all these islands. Another favorite spot of ours is the anchorage at the very south end, Little Ragged, Coco Bay. Taking the dinghy from here to the airport and hiking to town is fun. You will have the place to yourself, and taking the dinghy to the very end and around the corner is cool, great snorkel spot, and if you like to hunt sea beans, all of these island on the ocean side are goldmines.

From there, don't be bashful and run on over to the south end of Acklins, down by Castle Rock but off the mainland south of Salina Point is gorgeous. If you're brave, climb the lighthouse. If you make this run and go around the very south end of Little Ragged, you will likely encounter choppy, confused seas as the Columbus Bank is quite shallow, with the fetch and swells coming in, try and avoid it if you can, but not a biggie. Alternatively, if you can get into the Harbour between Hog and Ragged from the Bank, and you should be able to at high tide, go this way to the Acklins as this will put you just on top of the Columbus Bank. Make sure if you do go over that Bank, and the Diana Bank, you have at least one line in the water, and watch for birds.

Cheers, John