February 3, 2010... Little Farmers Cay

After a few more days at Black Point, we decided it was time to move on south to Little Farmers Cay. It was hard to leave Black Point -- it really is a great little town. We did our laundry at Ida's, bought some more bread, kayaked some more (including doing sprints up and down the bay), and had a marvelous dinner at DeShaMon Restaurant (where we met Jeanne who lives in the castle - but that's another story). But we wanted to get a place to anchor in advance of the 5Fs (first Friday in February) festival and thought as the week went on, our choices would diminish. So off this morning we went. No wind to speak of, so we motorsailed the 10+ miles down Great Guana Cay. We tried to anchor 4 times on the west side of Little Farmers... no dice. The bottom was scoured and most of the sand on the rocks was gone. Even the Rocna got nowhere. So, we backtracked around to the southern end of Great Guana Cay and anchored on a beautiful white sand beach, a little over a mile from the dock at Little Farmers. There is noone else here, so we have privacy; everyone else is herded down by Little Farmers.
We dinghyed to town, and explored the island on foot. We were done in an hour -- it is really a tiny place -- only 60 residents. Some were cleaning their fish catch at the dock, so we were able to buy a couple of yellowtail snapper for dinner. Now the fun part. We had to clean the fish. Neither one of us had ever done this before -- so out comes the book which makes it all seem so easy. Well it wasn't. Trying to produce four filets from the two fish, we now understand why the locals call these pan fish and fry them up whole. We made a mess of it, and ended up with fish pieces too small to grill. So, John whipped up a terrific snapper saute, with onions, green peppers, garlic, and spices, served over rice. Like we knew what we were doing all along! Well, we'll keep trying. And we might try to find someone to teach us how to clean fish.

Great Guana Cay: +23° 59' 15.24", -76° 20' 5.10"