Farmers Cay to Black Point to Staniel Cay

Farmers Cay to Staniel Cay – 23 nautical miles sailed, 3 miles in dinghy, 200 metres snorkelled

By 9am we had traveled from Farmers Cay to Black Point on the calm and protected west side of the Exumas. There, the girls did laundry at Rockside, the best laundromat in the Bahamas, while I took our water jugs to the nearby beach and filled them up from the high pressure fire hose water tap. An American couple was there too filling up a few jugs, and as we were chatting a Bahamian in a white truck with some sort of government logo pulled over.

“What are you guys doing there?” he said.

“We’re getting water,” I replied.

“You can’t do that,” he said. “That’s not a public tap, you’re stealing.”

“Really? Do you know this water source is identified on all the boating apps? There are many cruisers who use it. Why is it even here if people aren’t meant to use it?”

“It should have a lock on it. You guys go ahead and fill up your jugs, but don’t use it again.”

“What about that free tap in the town centre that people use all the time to fill up jugs. We see locals and cruisers there constantly.”

“That’s stealing too.”

I hope he went back to his office, got a big thick lock, locked up the valve on the tap, then put comments on the free boating apps telling people it was not for public use, and asked the administrators to remove it from their applications. But I’m 99% sure that none of those things will happen.

Our buddies in Waddington were anchored near us, so I stopped and had a visit with Ben. Their plan to continue to Georgetown was thwarted by the high winds, so they had turned north instead, but sailed further than us, which provided time for the tidal currents to ease, and by the time they arrived here in Black Point the conditions through the cut were okay.

I went into Rockside to pick up the girls at 11:30 and Ben was just dropping off Kate to do their laundry, so we had a chat with her before returning to SeaLight, pulling anchor and continuing along our way. Two hours later we dropped the hook near Thunderball Grotto in Staniel Cay. Along the way Ana discovered that our friends from White Seal – Malakei and Mary – had returned to Staniel Cay from an unplanned trip back to Nassau. Ana had taken a largish ham out of the freezer for dinner so she asked them to join us.

At 4:30 I noticed the tidal current had slackened and low tide approached, so Stella and I went to the grotto for some snorkelling. Inside the cavern was great like before, but there were at least six other people there, which made it a bit cramped, so instead we swam through the island, popped out the east side, and snorkelled around the north side and back to where we anchored the dinghy. The coral was incredible and fish abundant. The coral here was bright blue and a penetrating orange colour, with fans of brilliant red. This was a strict no fishing zone, and the fishes seemed to know it as they gathered in large groups, picking away at the coral, unafraid of the large creatures with arms and legs swimming above and around them.

Malakei and Mary arrived at 6 for a round of sundowner drinks then a fantastic meal of oven roasted potatoes, sliced ham, coleslaw, and chocolate cupcakes and a delicious blueberry pound cake they brought over. We had a great chat and a lovely evening.