@Fire Fist:
Yeah, I see it now. Even still, Luffy's island is huge compared to most of the Grand Line islands, and even Usopp's, which is fairly small, had another town on it, so it's probable there's one or two more towns than Windmill village there where Ace could've trudged around.
Never said it wouldn't be possible. I'm quite sure that there's more towns on Luffy's island.
By the way, that Huge island extending from South Blue to the Grand Line… how come no one's mentioned that? If there's really an island like that, that's an easy way into the Grand Line...
I've mentioned it back then when I've first shared this photos. Back then I expected Marine HQ to be on this island since it would rule out that anybody but those guys that can already pass the Calm Belt could use an easier route into the Grand Line. Apparantly I was wrong.
But anyways, how many sailors would really use such a route to get to the Grand Line? It's by far the largest island we've seen this half of the Grand Line. I mean Arabasta already struck as one of the larger islands on the Grand Line no matter which island on those maps Arabasta is supposed to be, it would still be tiny in comparison. So you can imagine how long a journey it would be to get from South Blue to the Grand Line that way. That's not to say nobody would do it but I doubt that sailors would really be into thise things.
There's also the possibility that the environment simply doesn't allow for an easy access to the Grand Line that way. Anyways, I hope to see it explained at some point. Oda isn't not the kind of guy to make such a sloppy mistake here.