Exuma Bahamas Island Gems: Little Farmers Cay & Black Point
Here’s Our Sea Turtle video!
Farmers Cay + Sea Turtles = Proud locals, Abundant marine life,
Natural beauty, Delicious dining
If you look for this special little island on a map or chart, it’s officially called Little Farmer’s Cay, but it’s known locally as Farmers Cay. (no ‘Little’ and no apostrophe) From our visit there, we can say, there’s nothing little about the amount of natural beauty and local charm on this gem of an island in the Bahamas’ Exuma chain of islands. We also found the nearby settlement of Black Point a uniquely delightful and gorgeous place, not to be missed, as well.
After a somber departure from Cave Key (we hated leaving that little slice of heaven, more on Cave Cay in another post), we knew the calendar said we must head north, so it was on to Farmers Cay. We sailed on the ‘inside route’ west of the Exumas chain. It was a short distance so we had a relaxed start to the day and left late in the morning. We had waited for low tide to visit a large sand bar just northwest of Cave Cay. (more later on that MUST-SEE sand bar). Heading north after a day of fun on the water and sand, the sun was setting and we needed to get anchored at Farmers Cay, Exuma, Bahamas. We had sea turtles to visit! We found our intended anchorage was very rolly, so we continued to the East side anchorages. That area, near the town harbor, was calmer but had strong currents. It was located near Little Farmers Cay Yacht Club, where we had moored on a brief overnight stop before, but it was too rolly on this day to moor there. As we approached another anchorage, some folks on a sailboat anchored there began to frantically wave at us! We thought for sure we were about to run into a sand bar or other hazard! As we slowed and quickly began to reverse, they yelled “we have children!” Okay…ummm, not sure what they meant but Bridget yelled for them to hop on channel 16 to explain the reason for waving and yelling. They chatted with us and just explained that they were happy to see us. (?!) While it was nice of them, it sure did give us a scare, so we decided that their alarmist yelling might not make for being great anchorage neighbors…so we headed to an empty spot north, just near Oven Rock. We tucked in close to Great Guana Key/Oven Rock just after sunset. It was so nice to have a peaceful solitary spot, but within an hour, 6 other boats had anchored nearby, thus the hazard of finding a ‘nice anchorage’ in the Bahamas…you won’t be alone for long.
The next morning we took a short dinghy ride to the small but picturesque harbour at Farmers Cay. The water is beautiful and crystal clear, but the amazing attraction is the turtles in the shallow harbour. We carefully dinghied through the harbour to the beach and met up with Casell (be sure to ask for him, he was patient, kind to the turtles, and very knowledgeable). He works on the dock and he offered to be our “turtle guide.” It was truly a thrill swimming with the rays and sea turtles! Having the sea turtles come up and take conch meat right from your hand as you stood in four feet of unparalleled ‘Exuma blue’ water was a day we won’t soon forget! Casell explained that we had to hold carefully and tightly or they would take the whole conch at oncc & keep our fingers and arms tucked in too! (Make sure you check out our video of our time with the turtles here.) By the way, we have had friends say that the PHOTO quality of our videos looks like a pro camera, but it’s just our fun little SJ Cam + waterproof & action kit – we love it and it’s perfect for our needs!
After about an hour with the turtles, we hopped out of the water, secured the dinghy, and began exploring the island by foot. Farmers Cay is a small island with a population of about 50-70 with only a couple of roads (and a nice airstrip). While there are only a few roads there, we still managed to get lost while looking for a place to eat lunch! Ty’s Sunset wasn’t open yet, but the Ocean Cabin Restaurant & pub looked appealing, and was open and easy to find. We sat down at the bar had a COLD beer and asked about lunch. As we found at many smaller places in the Bahamas, there was no menu and you have to order well in advance. This is a bonus because you can order what is truly the freshest catch! We decided we would spend an hour there for the meal to be cooked and get the meal of the day, fresh local fish. The time gave us a chance to hear great jokes and stories from the owner of Ocean Cabin, Terry Bain. Terry is a bright, well-travelled, affable fellow, and a proud Bahamian as well. He was great fun to talk to, whether it’s about the history of the island or a funny story, he’s a wonderful host. The fish dinner, cooked by Terry’s wife, was simply fantastic, it was not fried but broiled to perfection with spices that made it amazing. Bridget even liked it and she is not a fan of fish!
We ran out of time and weren’t able to try Ty’s Sunset on the Beach, but so many locals and cruisers alike love it there, that we will for sure stop at Ty’s Sunset next time. We had to get ahead of some weather and had to move on the next day, to the settlement of Black Point, just a few hours north.
Black Point – Friendly Locals, Great Beach, Vacation Rentals, Cruisers Welcome!
We had heard so many great things about the settlement of Black Point, so we were anxious to check it out. Black Point is located on a large bay on Great Guana Cay, it has a population of 400-500, with nice roads and a useful airstrip. For boaters, the bay offers about 180 degrees of protection from the northeast-south, anything west is not protected. It was a short trip (about 2 hours, we took our time) to Black Point and we anchored with many other boats in nine feet of water. The was great holding in the soft sand, but that seems to be the norm in the Bahamas. The village of Black Point is a such a friendly place! The first time we took the dinghy into the beach, a really kind local gentleman went out of his way to tell us that the tide would go WAY out, leaving our dinghy high and dry (and leaving us to LIFT it back to the water, and it weighs a lot!), so needless to say, the kindness of that man saved us a lot of problems!
There are lots of rental cottages, many on the beach, some on high hills with views and easy access by boat or plane. If you need to get groceries, there are a few small stores and depending on the day, you can get most of what you’re looking for, even some fruits and veggies. (except ice cream, says Hal, sadly!)
Kayaking and paddle boarding:
The clear blue water in the harbor at Black Point is a calm spot for swimming to the lovely beach, for kayaking around, and for paddling boarding. Make sure you take the time to enjoy this on your stay at Black Point!
We found a few great restaurants, but mostly spent our time at Lorraine’s. Lorraine has just built her own GREAT new dock, for dinghies and large tour boats (try to time your meals BEFORE, or well after, they arrive!) Also, Lorraine’s mom bakes great homemade breads from her tiny kitchen, almost like a small bakery, that she runs out of her home, which is right next to the restaurant. Lorraine’s mom welcomes you in and is proud of her bread, which is famous in many parts of the world! Try all the varieties that she bakes, you won’t be disappointed! As far as the food at Lorraine’s, we especially enjoyed the fish & macaroni n’ cheese! Again, the fish was some of the best we’ve EVER had!
Walking around town is a must! Sweet, funny, and friendly children greeted us and we talked about school and life on the island. They are eager to make new friends and their polite yet curious nature represents their parents well. It was truly wonderful to watch them playing in the water, on the basketball courts, and on the docks, instead of walking around staring at a device screen!
Finally! At one point, during our week-long stay, a small store on the island had some ice cream and Hal got a pint of Rum Raisin! All they had was Rum Raisin, no other flavors…It seems this flavor is much more popular in the Bahamas than in the USA. Hal sat in the shade and watched SV Traveller anchored off in the distance as he savored his first ice cream in months!
For Cruisers:
Another nice feature we noted was that the city provides a drinking water spigot close to the beach for cruisers to fill their jerry cans. There is also a great laundry center and laundry-mat dinghy dock for cruisers. All in all, Black Point is a welcome respite, especially for the services it offers to boaters, and we highly recommend this place and its wonderful locals and its gorgeous water!
Sailing in the Bahamas – South toward Great Exuma Island
CLICK HERE to WATCH our VIDEO about this part of our travels.
Sailing in the Bahamas was turning out to be quite an adventure—an adventure in weather forecasts and patience, that is. Once we’d sailed from Bimini to Great Harbour Cay, we were on the lookout for a place to duck behind some upcoming gale force winds. We quickly realized that our trek to The Exumas, & Georgetown, Great Exuma would take longer than we’d thought. The late winter weather in the Bahamas this year was very unexpected, as it was in much of the U.S. as well. Due to high winds and squally weather from the west, we spent nearly a week at Great Harbor Cay. This was an unexpected blessing for us, as Great Harbour Cay (like most Bahamian Islands) is a beautiful, fascinating, and safe place for visitors to explore. While anchored there, we walked around a great deal of the island, visited the local marina, (which is a great escape from the winds and is also known as a great ‘hurricane hole’ for you sailors) and enjoyed some local BBQ. The marina staff and the few vendors there, were quite nice and we heard good things from others about the large BBQs that the marina hosts each week. We also took the dinghy around the island and walked on some really spectacular local beaches, but with the high winds and large waves, we didn’t take a chance on getting into the pounding waters. For the most part, we were confined to the boat since dinghy rides were quite a rocky and WET prospect. So, the lesson that we learned is, when it comes to sailing in the Bahamas, patience, flexibility, and curiosity are traits to be valued.
Once the weather broke we were excited to be able to continue south. We planned on a short trip to Great Stirrup Cay (aka Coco Cay) to see if the winds and waves were indeed dying down and would make for comfortable travel. We also knew we had to fuel up before leaving though and seeing the fuel dock from a dinghy ride a few days earlier, since we were still gaining skills and experience, we thought it would present a little bit of a challenge for us. It’s located inside a narrow (70+ feet) rock wall cut, so we took the dinghy in and studied the fuel dock’s location, along with the shallow spots near it, which are quite common everywhere in the Bahamas. (Hence the name BAHAMAS, which is derived from Spanish, ‘Baja Mar’ (short/shallow seas). As you can see in the video, we were so happy that we fueled up with no issues thanks to our reconnaissance mission and a great (& patient!) attendant at the fuel dock.
Leaving Great Harbor Cay after fueling up, we spent the night at anchor, as planned, at Great Stirrup Cay, AKA the ‘private island’ for many cruise lines. We spent a quiet night at this uninhabited place, surrounded by empty beaches with hundreds of empty lounge chairs and riderless jet-skis and concession stands that sit empty when there is no cruise ship nearby. It was slighty eery, (a bit like a village that’s been suddenly deserted), but mostly, it was tranquil and lovely and we enjoyed relaxing in our own lounge chairs on board Traveller.
From Great Stirrup Cay, we hauled up the anchor and left early for a long 4 or 5 hours sail in the open ocean, headed on our way south. After about 3 hours though, we decided to duck in and find a quiet anchorage for the night, because even though the high winds of the past days had mostly come to an end, the wind & waves still hadn’t settled down yet and were really pounding. It wasn’t awful but it really wasn’t a fun ride, so since we weren’t in a hurry to get ahead of any bad weather, we stopped in at the cut between Frozen Cay and Little Harbour Cay. We had plenty of daylight left to explore after anchoring (need a laugh? here’s a look at our early anchoring attempts at this spot!), so we went for a bumpy dinghy ride to a gorgeous swimming beach. It the first time with ALL 4 of us in the dinghy so it was kind of an experiment as well. Once at the little beach, we hopped off and jumped in for Skipper’s first Bahamas swim with big brother Pilot! (By the way, Pilot is an old hand at swimming in the Bahamas, he spent several weeks here last summer, more on that in an upcoming post.)
The next day, we left the anchorage at Frozen Cay/Little Harbor Cay and headed south toward Nassau. Just before anchoring at Rose Island, which is right next to Nassau, New Providence, and we saw the little cay where they filmed parts of GILLIGAN’s ISLAND. We then spent the night at anchor behind Rose Island. There were 3 other sailboats nearby and it was a quiet night with a solid hold to our anchor. At this point, we’ve become reliant on an anchor drag alarm app, called ANCHOR!. Hal highly recommends it, it also coordinates well with other charts/apps. We trust it to help us sleep, knowing we aren’t moving around! While there, we could see the lights of Nassau and the silhouette of the Atlantis resort off in the distance. We enjoyed their beauty without any of the headaches of ‘big city life’ and crowded marinas! Hal even had time (& energy!) to made some delicious bread, in our bread maker since we arrived earlier than planned!
The next morning, we left the peace and quiet for what was supposed to be a smooth sailing day…with all the technology that exists now, we are still surprised (and humbled) when the weather forecast is NOT what was expected…We headed south from Nassau and were expecting calm seas and little wind & waves. Umm. This did NOT occur. Conditions were pretty awful and we even radioed other boats ahead of us, off in the distance, to see if they were getting the opposite weather of the forecast too. Yes, they all reported and concurred that conditions were ‘less than favorable’ and we gave some thought to turning back and waiting another day. We decided to try making a few adjustments to our course, our sail, and our speed and things were slightly more ‘tolerable.’
As the day wore on, thankfully, the waters & wind became steadily better as we started our final approach to a magical place called Warderick Wells, which is located inside the Exuma Cays Land & Sea Park.
Sailing in the Bahamas – ‘The Park’ & the Mooring Ball
We never like to arrive at any unknown place after dark, so we pushed ahead for about 8 hours, toward Warderick Wells. We radioed ahead to get a coveted mooring ball spot for the night, thank goodness we were able to book the last once available. At the end of a long travel day, we were pretty tired, and it was so helpful, knowing that there was a calm resting spot waiting for us ahead.
We found our mooring ball, (and didn’t run aground in some shallow water, thanks to HELPFUL waving by a moored neighbor with an easily understood “HEY! Don’t goTHAT way! Go THIS WAY” kind of a wave) and then, we hooked onto the mooring ball on the first try EVER! We quickly attached it to our boat and then we celebrated with a quick victory hug (whew!) and then traded places while Hal did the ‘heavy lifting’ part of connecting it to our mooring bridle.
We enjoyed a magnificent sunset there, the colors of the sky and the water were out of this world. At night, there was a carpet of stars in the sky, followed by manta rays and sea turtle swimming around our boat in the light of the moon and our underwater lights. We wanted to stay for a week or so to explore this place, but we really wanted to push ahead and get to Exuma while we had good sailing weather. We knew that we would see tons of natural beauty while sailing in the Bahamas, but we never expected to see an area so overflowing with majestic sea life! We made a plan to spend at LEAST a week exploring the ECLS park on the way home.
The next morning, we headed south for another 8 hour trek to Little Farmers Cay. When we called to book a mooring ball there for a night, they asked us if we wanted dinner and we said we didn’t think so, but that we would decide later and get back to them, (not fully understanding why they would ask us that during a mooring ball booking call). We went ahead and found, and hooked onto, our mooring ball like old pros! Once we were settled in & connected up, we relaxed a bit and noticed an incredibly delicious smell coming from the marina’s building/ owner’s house. Yes, we thought, YES, we will go have dinner there, it smells soooo incredible! Hal went to the marina office to pay for the mooring ball and asked about dinner, too. Sadly, he was told that since supplies are so limited here, and we didn’t order ahead, there was not enough food for us to order a dinner. (so it was then that we realized, THAT’S why they asked us about dinner earlier in the day!!) If only we’d known that ahead of time, yep, we made a rookie mistake that we don’t want you to make & miss out on a great dinner! After the dinner news, I reluctantly looked in the fridge and decided to put together a tuna salad sandwich dinner for us, and called it a night. (By the way, more later in another post about Little Farmers Cay, a MUST-SEE place!) We wanted to see more of Little Farmer’s Cay, but we also knew that we had a good weather to get south, so we were just here for a quick overnight on our way to George Town.
Next stop…
Next stop, on our Sailing in the Bahamas itinerary, Georgetown, Great Exuma! We left at sunrise the next morning and had a great weather day for the 6 or so hour trip to Great Exuma Island, specifically next to Goat Cay, (there are MANY Goat Cays, this is the one in Elizabeth Harbor.) We knew exactly where we wanted to anchor, in front a beach that we enjoyed while house-sitting in Exuma last summer! We took it slow through the shallow waters near the beach and settled into a peaceful waveless cove, in about 7 feet of water. Hal immediately jumped into the crystal clear, brilliant blue water to inspect the anchor, & we took the dogs for a swim on the beach. Later, we met up with friends we’d made last summer, and we were just so ecstatic to FINALLY be back in familiar and GORGEOUS Georgetown, Exuma, Bahamas territory!
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