Legend of Monkey Island easier saving and loading

Thanks for making Legend of Monkey Island! It's an amazing reinterpretation of the original and I've had a blast playing the first two chapters.
Is there any chance that saving and loading can be made more accessible? There aren't enough checkpoints, and getting back to Melee Island after loading takes way too much time (having to sail through the portal) - especially for people old enough to enjoy all the awesome references.

In the first chapter, I got stuck due to a bug (under a building, or something like that) and wasn't even aware of the checkpoint system so I just started over. For the next playthrough and the second chapter I scheduled a few hours to play it from start to finish. I posted about the game in a local adventure gamers group, and a friend commented that he decided to just stop playing since checkpoints were not frequent and due to having to sail through the portal every time.

Again, thanks for making such a great game.