Bahamas Sailing - the Exumas - Stocking Island to Little Farmer's Cay

The boat is wonderful - huge cockpit area.

Lots of room for us all to be comfortable.

And a beautiful day for sailing!  The wind was the perfect speed (between 10 and 15 knots) for the day.

We navigated easily from the anchorage out into the Exuma Sound (with the help of the onboard chartplotter and Reid's Navionics program on his Ipad, of course!)


Reid and Duane navigating....

Immediately, the crew raised all the  sail and we were humming along at 8-9 knots!

Pulling out the foresail....

Ahhh, everything's great!

Beautiful sail!!

Karen and Sharon relaxing!!!  Kindles   Beer   Sunscreen

Laurie relaxing during the sail.

We had gotten some plantains at the grocery store.  I always love them when they're given to us as a side-dish at a Bahamian restaurant.  But, I'd never cooked them myself before.  We purchased some that were "black" already, knowing that they needed to ripen in order to be sweet.  So, while we were underway, I got busy experimenting.

Some butter in the fry-pan....

Peel, cut up, fry until golden.

A little salt sprinkled on.....these were gone in moments.  Wonderfully sweet/starchy, just like the restaurant variety!

Girls getting ready for lunch while underway.

Our original, loose plan was to sail to Rudder Cut Cay and anchor.  But the winds were from the west, meaning that the anchorage there might be uncomfortable because it's not protected from the west.  So, we decided to sail on north to Little Farmer's Cay.

Great decision - anchored in about 8 feet of water between Little Farmer's Cay and Great Guana Cay.


Laurie jumped in for a quick snorkel - look at that beautiful water!

Relaxing a bit....

We took the dinghy around to the other side of the small island to a beach bar we had read about - Ty's Sunset bar.  

Unfortunately, there was a sign on the door - they were closed!  They were down at Georgetown for the regatta!

We wandered around - Buddy found a refreshing beach shower....

And the ultimate fly-in restaurant.  There is a short runway behind the bar.....

Thwarted in our search for libations on shore, we went back around the tip of the island into the public dock area.

Up the hill, we found Ocean Cabin.  Terry (the proprietor) served us his special drinks....

Terry - he looks ill here, but he's actually quite a cheerful guy!

Ernestine, Terry's wife, said that she "wasn't cooking" today....so we were on our own for dinner tonight.

On the way to Ocean Cabin we had seen Ayden, AKA The Conch Man......at the public dock.  He makes a raw conch salad right there at the dock.  So, we ordered a couple of bowls and he volunteered to bring us some fresh-caught snapper. 

By the time we walked back from Ocean Cabin - Ayden was busy making our salad.

Fresh veggies and some "Bird Peppers"....these were hot little suckers!

Beware!

Cutting up the raw fresh conch.

Just scroll thru these photos -

He squeezed a "bitter orange" over the salad....

All done!

And he brought the snapper too.  We're all ready for dinner tonight now!

Back to the boat, with the help of a local fellow.  He introduced himself as Dick.....we told him that we also had a fellow named Dick back on the boat.  So we called him Dick #1....as we saw him several times.  He was very helpful.

Back to the boat in the anchorage.

Getting ready for dinner - fish sprinkled with Old Bay seasoning.....wrapped in foil and put on the grill!

Buddy making sure nothing burned!

Dinner's on!

Sharon made a yummy vinaigrette salad dressing - paired with saffron rice and we had a fabulous meal!

Yes, it was that good!!

Beautiful Sunset!

Good nite!!