| N 23 31.9 W 75 46.5
Little Farmers Cay is a small island of 75 people. It was first settled by a freed slave who moved there with her two sons and daughter. She purchased it from the British crown for 15 pounds. We were shown a photocopy of the original deed by one of the locals. The island is owned in common by all descendants - no individual private property. Any one that marries a descendant does not share in the ownership but all their children do. If someone wants to build a house they just find some vacant spot and, if no one objects, they build. Rather interesting society on the island - everyone is related to everyone and the only businesses to speak of cater to the cruisers visiting the island.
We left Black Point the previous day and staged in a little bay south of White Point - amost beautiful beach with no one anywhere. We sailed down the banks from there the next afternoon and then, on the rising tide, motored across a rather shallow sand bar to go around the south end of the island. On the east side of the cay there are some moorings rented from Ocean Cabin that we tied on to. We were just across from the cut that leads out into Exuma Sound. The owner of Ocean Cabin is Terry Bane - quite an interesting character. We chatted awhile with him on topics of culture (he worked in Libya for several years as a "facilitator"), philosophy, and religion. His wife Ernestine cooked us a great chicken dinner that we enjoyed with several other cruisers.
The next day we walked all over the island meeting different folks and checking out the houses and beaches. As we came back to the dinghy we stopped and bought a nice snapper from a fisherman on the beach and got a Bahamian recipe from Big Sis at the little grocery store. Dinner on the boat was fabulous if I do say so myself.
That Saturday we went to the All School Picnic and met all the other locals and cruisers. We drank beer, ate barbeque and curry roti, and played games all day long. One of the locals asked if i wanted to play dominoes with the guys - I won the first game and then they killed me. It was fun though! There we met Oscar and his niece, a German guy that lives across the bay on Big Farmers and Steve and Cindy, also on Big Farmers. They were great to meet and talk with. Steve and Cindy had bought a bunch of beer and sold it to the folks as a benefit to the school. We also met a British guy Peter, his wife and Heinz, all on a catamaran going north. Peter brought his charts over and chatted about our way south. He had just come that way and shared some good info. At the end of the day someone had the great idea of an all womens footrace. The gals lined up on the asphalt and, on the signal started running. Karen took about three steps and then slipped on the gravel and took a big tumble. A picture of her battle scars are on the left. Poor Kari! I think her pride was hurt more than her body.
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