Ah – this is definitely what it’s all about
– and worth the rough ride earlier in the trip to get here!
We left Black Point this morning, and spent
a little while turning circles in the calm bay, while my captain “swung” the
compass. Lo and behold, that corrected our misbehaving chart plotter that had
been reading upside down for most of the trip so far.
Then, a gorgeous 2-hour passage under full
sail at 5 knots (mph approx.) with an 11 knot wind, took us to Little Farmer’s
Cay. This was the first time in the whole trip that we managed to sail all the
way from one point to another, and it was perfect!
This little 3.5 mile Cay is a tiny perfect
Bahamian paradise. En route, we flagged down a fishing boat on its way in, and
bought two lobster tails and two small tuna, which the fishermen filleted for
us on the spot. Then, after lunch and a “Bahama Mama” (rum and juice) on board,
we made our way to the town’s main dock, where we were welcomed by friendly
greetings from everyone. Only 85 people live here, and they’re all related! I
think they’re glad when strangers arrive, for a little variety J.
Right under the dock were such a variety of
sea creatures it felt like we were in an aquarium! There were sea turtles,
sting rays, a porcupine blowfish, many other varieties of small tropical fish,
and we even saw a small shark under our boat as well.
Then we walked around the charming village,
with its colourful pallet of little houses, two grocery stores (with no fresh
food, unfortunately, as the mail boat hadn’t arrived yet), flowering bougainvillea
everywhere and views of the ocean that seemed like they were painted there. The
woodworker up the road showed us around his shop, and the women in front of the
grocery shared some lobster they were snacking on with us. We had a great talk
with the owner of Ocean Cabin – a funky restaurant full of Island memorabilia,
and then dinghied back to our boat to watch the sun set and the almost full
moon rise.
Freshly caught fish, asparagus and yams for
dinner ended an amazing day …
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