LITTLE FARMERS CAY - MARCH 15TH, 2015
(23 57.7N 076 19.2W)
After a pleasant eight days in Emerald Bay and Georgetown it was time to head north again into the Exuma Cays. Our first stop would be Little Farmers Cay.
Little Farmers was settled by a woman named Christianna, a freed slave from Great Exuma. She moved to Farmers Cay with her two sons and a daughter, Michael Joseph Nixon and Adam and Eve Brown, who bought the island from the British Crown and willed it to their descendants as generation property. They farmed and fished. Michael married Susan from Cat Island while Adam married Mary from Moss Town, Exuma. Most of the 55 current residents are descended from those hardy ancestors, Michael’s thirteen children and Adam’s five.
Today the island’s beauty remains, with its sheltered Little Harbour and Big Harbour, nice beaches and exquisite aqua waters and coral gardens. The island now has town water, telephone, electricity, and other modern day conveniences. (taken from Explorer Chartbook)
We were able to obtain a mooring on the sheltered east side of Little Farmers Cay, shown here at the tip of the knife point.
Our first night brought us a calm sea and a beautiful post card sunset.
The next morning it was time to venture ashore and settle up with Terry Bain, the owner of the mooring. The tiny Little Harbour is very quaint and well sheltered. It is lined with small buildings and fishing boats.
The main town dock has a covered hut and a typical Bahamian craft market beside it.
The school kids were out there selling nice baskets, shells and t-shirts in an effort to raise funds for their school.
We were greeted with a huge smile by this guy named "KALIK" (which also happens to be the name of the local beer). He was also the local tour guide who wanted to show us a small fresh water stream. Kalik was very pleasant but really he only wanted you to take his picture.
The tide was very low so we just pulled the dinghy up to the beach at the end of the harbour. A huge cell tower dominates the skyline on this tiny island.
Once ashore there are the usual welcome signs as well as numerous direction sign posts.
The Islands biggest event is the Farmers Cay Festival, held on the weekend of the first Friday in February (5 Fs). Locals are joined by Bahamians from other islands as well as cruising visitors for food, music, dancing, various contests, and Bahamian C-Class racing. The All Age School Fair is the next to last Saturday in March and the Ocean Cabin Restaurant sponsors the Full Moon Beer Festival in July. So as you can see there is a lot going on here throughout the year.
Apparently there are two very famous residents on Little Farmers Cay. The first is Mr. Roosevelt Nixon who runs the Little Farmers Cay Yacht Club. He explained to me that he is the only person in
the western hemisphere that is named after two American presidents. The second is Mr. Terry Bain who I’ll describe a little more later on.
The Ocean Cabin Restaurant & Bar sits atop the small hill overlooking the harbour. It is owned and operated by Terry Bain and was to be our first stop.
The hours of operation sign describes the general laid back attitude of these islands.
This is the flag of Little Farmers Cay. How could you not purchase one after hearing and watching Terry as he stands proudly and bellowing out the national anthem with us. He had previously given us each a song sheet containing the words and he cranked up the music.
The view of the Little Harbour from Terry’s Bar is beautiful. From here you look over the quaint village and the small convenience store to the right.
Little Farmers Cay is a small oasis in the middle of the Exuma Cays. Very tropical and peaceful.
Isn’t this a beautiful setting ?
The mail boat wasn’t due in for another day or so and the shelves in the store were getting a little empty.
Here you can see Wind Warrior sitting on her mooring in this tranquil setting.
On day three of our stay Jon & Ron were in a hiking mood. Ron had seen a review on the show Distant Shores that showed them exploring a rather large inland cave and he was going to find it…. Somewhere.
Who else would know where this was besides Roosevelt Nixon so off they went. He explained that the cave was "over behind the hill on Guana Cay". Man, the whole place is full of hills! "Just look for the path with the footprints on it and follow it". We ran the length of the shore looking for this well trodden trail and low and behold on our second try we found this marker.
Yup, footprints and all, so off we went. Doesn’t look so well marked anymore.
After about a fifteen minute trek through the woods and a short climb up the hill, the trail divided and down to the right amongst the trees was an opening. This must be the place.
This was it alright. The opening was large enough to walk down inside.
The rock formations inside were beautifully crafted by nature over thousands of years.
The ceiling in the cave is approximately thirty to forty feet high and there was a small lake in the bottom.
From what we saw, an experienced cave diver could have a good dive in here. 
Time to head back to the boats as the next morning we would be heading north again up the western shore of Great Guana Cay to Pirate Beach on Big Majors Cay.
Jon & Joan had a great sail on their Hunter 41 "Jessie Gray".
Wind Warrior looked good from Jon’s boat as she sat at her anchorage.
After a couple days at Big Majors, Wind Warrior would be heading over to Staniel Cay Yacht Club to await the arrival of Ron’s sister Deb and her husband Bob. We had a wonderful time stopping at Little Farmers Cay and thanks to Mr. Roosevelt Nixon and Mr. Terry Bain for all the help and information they gave us. We’ll certainly make Little Farmers a stop again next year.
Continuing to enjoy our adventures on board Wind Warrior 1 in the Bahamas.
Ron & Jan
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