Last night I said "Watch out fish." Well, tonight it is fish for dinner, but fish we bought here on Little Farmers Cay.
After breakfast, we headed out with two reefs in the main, and rounded the point heading south into the breeze, but it has been dying all day, and we were able to pull out the full jib. In 15 kts, it set beautifully, so we are pleased with it. We only had a short ten mile sail to a point where we wanted to snorkel some corral. Because the electronic charts are off by anywhere from a few yards to a quarter mile (and we're never sure which), we did some old fashioned navigating using the paper charts in which we have more confidence. And with some GPS waypoints loaded into the handheld GPS, we set off in the dinghy (we had anchored Estelle as closely as we dared to the coral).
After we found the coral, and got geared up, I realized that we had left the spear back on Estelle. So the fish (and we saw lots, a few of which were big enough to go after) were safe for another day. We then set sail for Little Farmers Cay, about five miles south of us. In the dying winds, we started the engine and motored in the last few miles over increasingly shallow water. It is always an odd feeling to be two miles from land and have only a foot or two beneath the keel. The depth sounder alarm chirped most of the time. But we found a nice anchorage and dinghied ashore.
Little Farmers Cay has about 100 people, one small store, a bar (Ocean Cabin, and The Little Farmers Cay Yacht Club, which consists of a tumbling down wharf and a dilapidated building. Although the cruising guide says they sell gas and diesel, I decided to give it a pass. As we landed, there was a person cleaning fish on the dock, and when we asked him about buying fish, he directed us to a house where we bought six nice snapper for eight dollars. So, fish tonight! We then checked out the store, which had an excellent supply of Comet Cleaner, Tomato Ketchup, crackers but little else. We bought a package of crackers, and after a short walk around, back to the boat for dinner.
Little Farmers is home to the four F's regatta (Little Farmers First Friday in February Regatta) which we will miss, but is reported to be a big event. It is a neat community with an interesting history (and we have read various differing accounts of its history, but the common elements are that they are all descendants of one or two former slaves who landed there after abolition and either claimed or were given the land.
Tomorrow, depending on weather, we will either go to Lee Stocking Island, about 15 miles away, or to Georgetown, about 40 miles. Our preference is Lee Stocking Island, but we will only stop there if the weather forecast is good for the end of the week, as we don't want to get trapped there.