Tuesday 16 February 2016

February 12-13, 2016 Farmer's Cay part one


at anchor by the air strip on Little Farmer's Cay


a plane taking off


Joe hand sewing our bimini, that was damaged in the last wind storm


SnowBird leaving at 6:30 am for George Town


heading into town




the all grades school












main street


part one …

Feb 12, 2016

Little Farmer's Cay .. population is about 60 (we confirmed this with a local).  it is approx 3/4 mile long and has a 2,000 foot airstrip, marina (with no fuel), grocery store, restaurant, liquor store (a case of 24 beer, any brand is $72 ouch)
When Lagom, Snowbird and Modaki arrived on the west side of Little Farmer's Cay, the wind and waves where too much for any of us to go to shore, we didn't even visit each other for happy hour.

We started to prepare Modaki for the ocean passage, jack lines, making food, storing everything … I mentioned to Joe I was feeling not good about the last few days, things didn't sit well with me.
Neither of us slept well … Joe was up at 3 am and back to bed at 4, and I was up at 4 until the alarm at 5am.  
I mentioned to Joe that the timing is not right for us .. we spend 8 hours on the ocean to get to George Town and spend 2 weeks there, then look for the next weather window to do the same 8 hour passage north.
It didn't take much convincing with Joe, he was feeling the same way.
So we are not GOING.

We tried to contact Lagom and Snowbird at 5:30 and every 15 minutes after that, but they where busy getting ready to leave .. by 6:15 we got them as they where preparing to haul the anchor …
We are sorry that we did not make this decision the night before, but I think it had to brew a bit more in us.
We found out later from emails from Snowbird and Lagom, that it started out really nice of a sail, but then as always it got very spirited and they where surfing 9 - 9.5 knots down waves, and burying rails in the water. These boats are larger than us, one is a 36 ft and the other 42 ft. The entrance to George Town can be a challenge, but they both made it, thank goodness.

Modaki is the only boat left in the anchorage, so we headed to shore to find our way into town. The grocery store 20 ft by 20 ft had some bananas, frozen cheese and onions, but nothing else on our grocery list.

We visited J.R. Wood Carver, and bought a Wild Tamrind wood carving of a Bahamian Mama.  J.R. toured us his garden and back yard, everything he grows is editable or medical, and sent us on our way with fruits and herbs.
Then we went back to see Isriel, he is a descendant of the first settlers, a freed slave family, with last name Nixon and Brown.  He showed us around his property and let us pick pomegranate's, hot peppers and pigeon peas.  He even had us crack open almonds with a rusty hammer on an anvil.  He is such a character.  His sister is the lady at the grocery store we bought our veggies from …   
The police car came around a few times, and we are sure it is on it's last leg, it was chugging, puffing and squealing to even move at a slow pace.
There is no fuel on the island, it comes in once a week on the mail boat.

and the beer is really $72 for a case of 24 ..
I bought 6 bottles and it was $24

Modaki headed north into the wind to Black Point, where I spend a few hours at Lorraine's Cafe having a beer and posting some of the blog ..




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