Nearly everyone traveling through the Exumas stops at Black Point because the people are friendly; there is a nice laundry, grocery store, a couple of restaurants, and a bar called Scorpio's. This is a "cruiser's hangout" and they have great happy hours. They also have a couple of televisions and we were able to watch MSU win the Rose Bowl game with some other sailors from Michigan who happened to be big Spartan fans.
We had been seeing signs around town encouraging visitors to come and see "The Garden of Eden." We really did not know what to expect, but felt like we had to check it out as it is the town's big attraction. As it turns out, the Garden of Eden is a collection of driftwood and rocks arranged in someone's yard. We walked around and took a few pictures, but did not get any other information as there did not seem to be anyone around.
After two nights in Black Point, it was on to Farmers Cay for a night. We seemed to be the only cruisers visiting Farmers Cay that day. We decided to stop by Ty's, a beach bar/restaurant we had enjoyed last year when we were there for Farmers First Friday in February Festival. This time we met the owner Ty and talked to him for awhile while we ate a delicious lunch of cracked conch. We would guess that he is about 40. He explained that he had grown up at Farmers Cay at a time when there was no electricity and little opportunity for locals. After primary school, he left the island and went to Nassau where he completed high school and also met a girl from Ottawa, Canada. He ended up moving to Ottawa to attend college and still lives there, traveling back and forth between Canada and the Bahamas. Although he lives in Canada, he clearly loves the Bahamas and wants to help develop opportunities in his home island.
One of the highlights of this part of the trip was our stop at Lee Stocking Island. We had been here last year, but didn't have much opportunity to explore the island. This year we made a point of doing some hiking. The above picture is the eastern shore, where the beach meets the Atlantic.
This photo is the western shore of the island where we anchored. These two photos were actually taken within minutes of each other from a high spot on the island and illustrate how traveling on the protected side of the islands is so pleasant and sailing on the ocean side can be challenging.
One of our favorite activities is walking the beaches and looking for shells and sea beans.
Sea beans are large seeds that fall off trees in Africa and are carried by the ocean currents to the beaches in the Bahamas. They can be sanded and polished and made in to necklaces. We found two on this day.
Sea beans are not the only things we find on the beaches. There is a tremendous amount of plastic debris that washes up. There is really no way for this stuff to be collected and cleaned up so it continues to pile up at the high water mark. The number of shoes and sandals that wash ashore is amazing. We have seen hundreds.
Who knows where all this stuff comes from, but it never goes away.
We left Lee Stocking on January 7th, and went through the Rat Cay Cut into the Atlantic. The wind was relatively light and we had a pleasant trip to Georgetown. We trolled fishing lines the whole way, but caught nothing. Very disappointing as we were counting on fresh Mahi Mahi for dinner.
We plan to stay in Georgetown until there is a period of settled weather that will allow us to head down to the Ragged Islands.
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Location:Georgetown, Great Exuma Isalnd
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