To Farmers and Further South

The Five F’s Festival at Little Farmers Cay is a big draw for cruisers this year.  The weather is settled and anchoring in the lee of the islands will be safe and comfortable.  By Friday morning the majority of cruisers have arrived, and the boat count is somewhere around 130.  We anchor about a mile north along the western side of Great Guana Island and gaze southward at a sea of mast.  The Bahamian c-class sloops are congregating – some having been towed to the site while other are on the deck of the Captain C, a small freighter that makes runs from Nassau to the Exumas.  The first race is scheduled to begin at noon, but we are on Bahamian time so add an hour or two to that.  

While waiting for the races to start, these guys show up with a "portable " ice machine atop a runabout and powered by a generator.  They off-load many bags of ice for the bar and then sell the rest to bystanders. There's no denying the Bahamians come up with creative solutions to logistical problems.

 We congregate at Ty’s Sunset Bar and Grill which overlooks the sailing venue.  Beers are flowing and Bahamian music is blaring from an array of speakers. The breeze is lighter than we would like, so the boats generally have crews of 4 to 5, rather than packing them full of crew for ballast.  They are sporting their largest rigs and sails, and a few bodies are required out on the boards. 

Golden Girl flies by with style

The two races on Friday are considered practice races, but they are exciting to watch, nevertheless.  

Close maneuvers at the jibe mark

We bring beach chairs and an umbrella and enjoy relative comfort on an otherwise brutally hot day.  The boats head offshore and return, dodging the huge fleet of anchored boats and finishing right in front of the beach bar with much cheering from the crews and supporters onshore. Our favorite, Smashie from Blackpoint, is out in front and making an impressive showing. 

Smashie sails by, victorious after the first race

After the races, the libations and music continue, and at sunset a small junkanoo band arrives to entertain the crowds with energetic dancing and drumming. 

It is hard not to bounce with the beat when a Junkanoo drummer shows up

We return to our quiet anchorage exhausted.

After a morning walk into the settlement, we return to the race venue for the actual races. Huge trophies are on display and dignitaries arrive by plane, helicopter, and fast runabouts. Due to the heat, many of the cruisers choose to remain on their boats, but the beach scene is alive with spirited Bahamians.   

Homecoming is an important event in the settlement and visitors come all dressed  up for the events.

We watch the races but are sad to see that Smashie has broken her mast and will be eliminated from the competition. Three races morf into only two – “Bahamian Time” again.  By late afternoon the boats are all anchored and crews are ashore for the trophy presentation.  The National Anthem is sung, a prayer is given, and plenty of speeches are made by government officials. And, finally, the awards are presented along with cash prizes of over $1500.  

The proud crew from the winning boat with all their loot.

 It is truly a regatta unlike any other we have witnessed. Bahamians are very supportive of their sailboat racing as it is integral to the culture of the country.  We retreat to our boat for another quiet evening and stay an additional day to do some hiking on the nearby island.

Weather conditions are favorable for the forty mile sail south to George Town.  We go through Galliet Cut into the open waters of Exuma Sound.  Now we have no protection from the easterly trades, but conditions are calm, and we find ourselves motor sailing the entire way through the deep, crystal clear, sapphire colored waters.  The radio is full of successful fishing stories as nearby boats are having a field day catching large dolphin (mahi-mahi) in the open water. We easily negotiate Conch Cut despite an oncoming freighter and drop anchor off of Stocking Island, a mile away from George Town proper.  We are in the company of almost three hundred other cruisers anchored along several miles of shoreline. 

A small section of the anchorage off Stocking Island.  Our boat is anchored in the very back row in this picture

We have arrived back to relative civilization.  Our first stop in town is the Bahama Telephone Company office where we surrender all hope of making our current phone successfully work and purchase a Bahamian smart phone that easily tethers to our computer.  We hope we have finally solved our internet frustrations.  Next stop is the well stocked Exuma Market.  It may not be as glitzy as stateside groceries, but when the freighter comes in, it generally has most American products one might desire.  And we immerse ourselves in what George Town has to offer.  There is wonderful hiking and swimming on the ocean side of Stocking Island.  Miles of beaches beckon walkers with silky soft sand and rarely another person in sight.   

A small portion of beach on the eastern shore of Stocking Island.  The sand is powdery soft and tinged with pink.

Burt jumps right into the volleyball scene while I take up basket weaving with the local silver palm fronds at the nearby picnic tables.  We have happy hours and dinners with friends we haven’t seen since last year.  Valentine’s Day takes us to the St. Frances Resort for a gourmet dinner, and then we head over to the deck at Chat and Chill, the nearby beach bar, for dancing under a full moon.  Sunday evening is Trivial Persuit at St. Frances, and we mange to take third place on our first evening there. The next day we have a Seven Seas Cruising Association picnic on the beach and two days later a Ladies’ Luncheon at St. Frances. There is much more going on but we need to have down time for chores and recuperation.  No wonder George Town is considered adult daycare for cruisers. We plan to stay for a few weeks until the itch to move gets the best of us.

Wandering Through the Exumas

Two days in Nassau fly by as we easily check in with customs and immigration, get our first sticker shock at the grocery store, and wrestle with communication problems at the Bahama Telephone Company.  Our current solution is to use an old cell phone with a Bahamian SIM card, but it is far from satisfactory as we can’t down load any files off the internet.  We have a fun dinner out with other cruising friends at the Poop Deck overlooking Nassau harbor. 

Before we know it we are skimming over the crystal clear waters of the banks on our way to Highbourne Cay in the northernmost Exumas.  We arrive in time to spend the afternoon at Highbourne Cay Resort.  This is an upscale marina catering mostly to large motor yachts with adjacent villas and a restaurant/bar overlooking the Exuma Banks.  It is pricy and exclusive, but we spring for drinks at the bar and soak in the gorgeous views.   

View of the beach from Highbourne's restaurant

On the way back to the dinghy we stop at the fish cleaning station along the docks where a sport fishing boat crew is cleaning the day’s catch.  Below, the water is teaming with large nurse sharks, snappers, rays, and a few black tipped reef sharks.  This crowd looks decidedly hungry and unfriendly, and we detour out of the way in the dinghy to give them good clearance.

Hungry critters after fish scraps

The weather forecast is benign for the foreseeable future, and we begin meandering down the chain to Shroud Cay at the north end of the Exuma Cays Land and Sea Park, the premier park in the national park system.  Here there is no fishing or collecting and access is controlled to preserve the pristine conditions.  We gather some other cruisers and dinghy down one of the mangrove creeks that bisect the interior of Shroud Cay to the ocean side and the site of Camp Driftwood, a hill above the sugar sand beach and perch for DEA agents in the 1980’s who were keeping tabs on a large drug operation originating from nearby Normans Cay.

Tidal creeks like this are prevalent at both Shroud and Hawksbill Cays

 We stay only long enough for a quick hike, short beach walk, and picnic lunch as once the tide starts to fall there won’t be enough water in the creek to make it back to our boat. 

The view from Camp Driftwood on Shroud Cay

A day later we wander a few miles further south to Hawksbill Cay. The western shore is comprised of rocky outcroppings interrupted by untouched crescent beaches. We spend two days exploring the entire coast of the island, including cuts at both the north and south ends leading out into Exuma Sound.  

Exploring the north end of Hawksbill Cay with its amazing variety of water colors

We celebrate sunsets each night with happy hours on the beach with other cruisers. And it is here that we see our first green flash sunset of this year’s Bahamas cruise. 

Happy hour sunset with Exuberant in the distance

Hawksbill is rarely visited, and it is a special gem that perhaps we should keep to ourselves.

Next stop is Warderick Wells, the headquarters of the park and probably the most visited portion.   

The always spectacular mooring field at Warderick Wells. Exuberant is the boat to the left.

But make no mistake, we are still in undeveloped territory.  For a fee we can get internet service, but it is very unreliable, a problem for Burt who is trying to do some work on a consulting job.  There is no phone service, grocery, or trash disposal anywhere in the forty mile long park.  We spend several delightful days here, dinghying around the cay, hiking along paths, and snorkeling at slack tide among the coral reefs.   

View atop a hill at Warderick Wells - the water of the banks is to the left, Exuma Sound to the right.

A curly tailed lizard poses along a hiking trail.

Another spectacular sunset at Warderick Wells

The overall beauty of the park entices cruisers to spend weeks here despite the lack of amenities, but Burt’s need for internet forces us to head out of the park.

The sign says it all - "Welcome to Staniel Cay". The resort cottages of the Staniel Cay Yacht Club are in the distance.

We stop at Staniel Cay and the nearby anchorage of Big Major’s Spot, home of the aggressive and sometimes biting, swimming pigs.  Once you’ve “done” the pigs, they are best avoided. It is a relief to get the stinky garbage off the boat, and by sheer luck we have arrived on the same day as the Captain C, the inter-island freighter that brings food (read fresh fruit and vegetables that we crave) every week or so to the Out Islands. We enjoy dinghying around the nearby cays and snorkeling the famous Thunderball Grotto where portions of several James Bond movies were filmed.  The grotto is filled with friendly fish that overwhelm you if you offer them bread crumbs. But, it is also filled with many tourists as it is only accessible at low tide slack.  I battle my way through the crowds of people and fish and emerge from the other end of this cave to explore the rarely visited eastern side of the small cay.  It is a garden of beautiful corals of every variety and color.  Late afternoon we stop by the Staniel Cay Yacht Club for a drink on the deck overlooking the busy marina filled with more large motor yachts – one even has a hot top on the foredeck that we consider the ultimate in decadence.

The internet is proving to still be unreliable at Staniel Cay, so we continue a few miles further south to the settlement of Blackpoint.   

Hiking along the Exuma Sound coast near Blackpoint

An impressive rainbow off the stern of Exuberant while anchored at Blackpoint.  We have had an unusual amount of rain this year resulting in rainbows (good) and mosquitoes (bad).

This is a favorite stop for cruisers as this small community of around 100 has gone out of their way to make it cruiser friendly.  We are nearing Super Bowl Sunday, and around 130 boats have dropped anchor here.  The community allows us to use their facilities at Ragatta Point to have a large happy hour/pot luck the first night we arrive, and a few of the locals also drop in, an indication of the nice relationship here between visitors and residents.  On Super Bowl night, the three local restaurants/bars host dinners and viewing parties.  We choose to go to Scorpios for the game as more of the locals tend to come here, and it adds a culturally diverse dimension to watching an American icon. The enthusiasm of the Bahamians is more riveting and entertaining than the game itself. The next day the large fleet of cruisers begins to head further south to Little Farmer’s Cay and the site of the Five F’s (First Friday in February Festival at Farmer’s Cay, the small ((around 70 residents)) settlement’s annual homecoming and sailing regatta). We choose to stay in Blackpoint for a few more days to enjoy the relative quiet before following the fleet to Farmers.  We avail ourselves of the services of Ida’s Rockside Laundry which is far more than a laundromat. 

With the Rockside Laundry in the background, the Bahamian C-class sloop Smashie bobs at anchor.  We helped with her initial launch when we visited Blackpoint two years ago.

One can dine on homemade carrot cake, shop in the gift shop and hardware store, take a shoreside, hot water shower, get a haircut (which Burt desperately needs) or hairbraiding in a chair outside overlooking the anchorage, rent a vacation room, have free access to higher speed and reliable internet, and, of course, do laundry in the cleanest and most well maintained facility in the Bahamas. Ida and her husband take entrepreneurship to new heights, and we leave them donated supplies for the local school and newly started preschool. We depart Blackpoint, provisioned with several loaves of Lorraine’s Mom’s homebaked coconut and wheat bread, best in the Bahamas, to join the hoards at Farmers.