Back in the Bahamas

Little Farmers Cay Bahamas

As we wound our way through the reef into Elizabeth Harbor, toward Georgetown, we were shocked at the number of boats here. Last year Georgetown was quiet, all of the Bahama cruisers had already headed back north when we arrived in early May. This year, we arrived just after the Georgetown Family Regatta and the weather was rough so no one had left yet and there were about 250 boats anchored off of Stocking Island.

We anchored out away from the crowd and took the water taxi into Georgetown (it was too rough to get in the dinghy).

The feeling in the harbor was different this year. The VHF radio constantly crackled with the voices of cruisers and kids who new each other very well, having spent weeks or months anchored in the same spot. They were going about their daily business as if they lived in Georgetown. The boats at anchor this year were coastal sailors and trawlers, not the blue water boats in transit from the Caribbean back to the US that where here last year.

When the weather began to settle we headed out, ahead of the crowd, to sail the Exuma Cays.

Our first stop was Little Farmers Cay. Our passage through the narrow Farmers Cut was exciting. The seas in the sound were running 6 feet and the current was running out 3 knots against them. This creates larger waves that break and are very close together. We surfed our way in between the islands, then wandered around and grabbed one of the Ocean Cabin moorings.

Little Farmers Cay is what you would expect of a small Bahamian island village. There are a few small houses around the small harbor which house some 55 people, mostly fishermen and their families. There are just 18 children in the school here. When we got ashore we walked past most of the town peoples sitting under a tree playing a loud game of dominos. .We had talked with Terry the owner of the one restaurant on the island earlier and he told us that the cook was away at a funeral, but he could cook lobster if we wanted. Needless to say, we had a great lobster dinner that night. During dinner we talked with Terry, his daughter and one of his grandsons, who then sang the Little Farmers Cay song to us. After a Nassau liquor nightcap and a tour of the bar that Terry’s mother built in the 1960’s we headed back to Berkeley East shivering as the weather had gotten cool (in the low 70’s).