Cotton Grows on Little Farmer's Cay

It always feel good to be back on Little Farmer's Cay. After anchoring north of White Land Beach we saw old friend Johnathan on his Gulfstar 50 Calypso enter the harbor. We radioed; they had caught a large fish and invited us to share it. Johnathan took the fish into Brenda's who identified it as a Bonita tuna and offered to cook it up for dinner. While Brenda was cooking, the crews of Calypso and White Pepper sat outside of Ali's bar for cocktails. Ali is Brenda's spouse. Nearby was a large shrub with fluffy white balls—wild cotton. This was a bit of shock to White Pepper from South Texas where cotton is plentiful but grows in long neat rows and never gets more than one year old. This cotton bush may have gone back to the loyalists days. Loyal southerns tried for several years after the American Revolution to grow cotton in the Bahamas. The planters are gone, but the seeds remain.

Calypso headed north. Jan and I spent the next evening with old friends, Earnestine and Terry Bain at his Ocean Cabin Inn. Terry is always interesting. He is getting more involved in Bahamian national politics and is opposing the Aga Khan's development of Bell Island inside of Exuma Park.

White Pepper had her first anchoring failure during this visit. We knew the anchorage was tight, and I had even shortened scope to keep her in deeper water. But about 1 am on the night of the full moon and spring tide when the current went slack, the Rocna 22 anchor had dragged about 30 feet. This small distance put us over some rocks that were 5 feet deep at very low water. Jan and I awoke with a crunch and a jar—a very horrible feeling. Luckily were were not hard aground and could motor off with just a couple more gut wrenching bumps. I reset the anchor out in the deeper water. There was fierce current but no more rocks. The take home lesion is that all plow type anchors (even the redoubtable Rocna) drag a bit as they settle into the sand. This just has to be allowed for.

Next stop--back to George Town to pick up the Briscoes. Kathy and Robert were flying in for a short visit. Up anchor before dawn and out the cut at slack water. Then we had a brisk 38 n. mile ride to George Town on a nice NE breeze. We arrived in time to see some of the annual Exuma Music and Heritage Festival that celebrates local musical talent. Regrettably we were too tired to make it all the way to the 2 am close and decided to turn in early.