More Little Farmers Cay

Sunday dawned with brisk winds, and without CP (no weather reports from him on Sundays), the morning was spent waking up late (8:00) and enjoying a leisurely breakfast. Around lunch, the guys dinghyied down to Cave Rock Cay to get diesel ($5/gal) and gasoline ($5.50/gal), filling everyone’s jerry jugs. After their return and a nap, we motored our dinghy over to the nearby beach for a hike to the Exuma Sound side of the island. Guided by seasoned Farmers Cay cruisers on s/v Solitare, we hiked over sharp volcanic rock and through thickets of briars and mangroves to the expanse of the Sound.

Everyone was on a quest for sea glass, broken pieces of glass that have been polished smooth by the oceans ever constant waves. Not only did we find green, clear, and blue (rare) pieces but also some beautiful shells and fan coral. The highlight of the hunt was finding a “hamburger bean” (with help from the eagle eyes aboard “Solitare”). The “bean” is from a tree that grows on the Amazon river which drops it’s seeds into the river. They float out across the ocean, “bounce” off the coast of Africa, then ride ocean currents up to the Bahamian and Caribbean islands to be found by cruisers like us. The bean can be polished with fine grit sandpaper to create unique jewelry. We also found two “Columbus” beans, a seed from a similar tree carrying the legend that Columbus always sailed with one in his pocket.

Back on Kaleo, we made tacos with homemade tortillas for dinner. While Matt focused on rolling out wheat flour tortillas with a wine bottle as our rolling pin, I got to Skype with one of my dearest friends, Crystal, and with my parents and with Nana who was over at their house for dinner. We even took the laptop out into the cockpit for them to enjoy the sun setting over the island. Turns out, we may need an alternate recipe as the tortillas left something to be desired. They were about as thick as pancakes but they still tasted like tortillas and we figure that’s pretty good for our first attempt. After cleaning up the galley, we wrapped up the night with more family face time (thanks Skype!) with my godmother, Aunt Cherie and Uncle Ruel as well as Matt’s brother, Jeff, and our sister-in-law Mel.

It’s Monday afternoon now and we’ve just wrapped up a breakfast and internet party aboard “Kaleo”.  The crews of “Storyville”, “Anchor Management”, and “Pipe Muh Bligh” ventured over to catch up on all things digital as we set up a shared internet network with the free WiFi we were able to access with our booster from the yacht club. As of now, we have loose plans to go lobster hunting with Steve and for a hike later this afternoon and, assuming the weather shapes up as forecast, we’ll head toward George Town on Wednesday.

We’re looking forward to reuniting the the rest of the Navy as well as meeting new cruisers and local while there.