A piece of advice we received from Kelly Girl before we left is that from this point on, all gifts will be homemade. We took this heart and on Valentine’s Day exchanged homemade cards. There is something extra sweet about making a gift for someone.
We also treated ourselves to a change of scenery and sailed to White Point, a short distance away from Black Point on Great Guana Cay. There we no homes or restaurants, and only two other boats anchored here. For the next three days we pretty much had the beach to ourselves. What do you do when you have a beach to yourself? You search for seashells, stack rocks, and take in the beautiful turquoise water and wonder how this is your life.
On February 18th, we sailed a little bit further to a place a called Oven Rock. It’s named after a rock structure on the beach that looks like a giant stone oven. We had read that on shore, there is a trail that leads to a cave, that leads to underwater caves. After lunch we head to shore hopeful that someone will point us in the right direction. Instead, we meet two guys, Bob and Tom, who were hoping we would know where it was. We wandered around with them following foot prints and what looked like trails until a couple emerged from the trees and pointed us in the right direction.
After a short hike, we arrive at the mouth of the cave. It was the kind of cave you walk into then walk down into. When you walk to the bottom and look to your right, you see a round pool of turquoise water and immediately wonder what might be swimming in there.
Bob didn’t seem to hesitate, he put on his snorkel gear and waded right in. Even though he didn’t get eaten by the cave monster I construed in my mind, it took Tom and someone’s dog getting in before I decided to step in the water. Blake then went in a smidge deeper after me, mainly so we could say to ourselves that we did it. We got in the cave water! Bravery is relative though because Bob and Tom returned the next day with scuba gear and explored the cave. They did not see any sea life, including no underwater cave monsters.
After that burst of courage, we decided to dinghy to Farmer’s Cay, a small vibrant community just south of Great Guana Cay. When you arrive, you see a row of businesses, ranging from turtle excursions to hair braiding and straw markets. One of my favorite things in the communities we have visited are the wooden posts with directional arrows and names of all the businesses.
We walked all the way around the island along the road and ended up at J.R. Wood Carving Shop.
J.R had intricate carvings of figure heads, fish, owls, and parrots. I think he said that he used tamarind trees and a glaze finish that brought out the natural color of the wood. Woodcarving is not his only occupation. J.R. is about to retire from working a government job and he expressed a lot of excitement about that. He seemed to have a real passion for his woodwork and the fruit and plants that he grows in his yard. He uses the wood shavings as fertilizer for his plants. I remember that he had a vibrant guava tree and an aloe plant that he was very proud of. Other than sand and a few shells, we had not bought anything in the Bahamas in terms of a “souvenir” but J.R.’s passion compounded with his artistry led us to buy one of his carvings.
As we were paying, he took the piece we had chosen and carved his name and the year into the bottom.
We ended the day on the beach at Ty’s Sunset Bar & Grill where we met a couple, Mindy and Ron, who had been cruising together on their catamaran for about six years. It turns out Mindy and Ron were the couple that pointed us in the right direction at Oven Rock and they knew a couple from Waterford Harbor, who left to go cruising in 2017 on their boat, Vela. What a small world! We chatted on the beach with them for over an hour.
On February 19th, we sailed to Big Galliot Cay, our last hop before we sail on to George Town. We had the anchorage and the beach all to ourselves. We snorkeled, we fished, and hiked all before noon.
Of course we didn’t catch anything and we did not spot any lobster, though Blake was ready with his spear. Shortly after we finished lunch, someone came by our boat. It was the person that had just dropped anchor. It turns out he caught a large wahoo that morning but it was more than he could eat and wanted to know if we would like some. When we accepted he brought us over three large bags of perfectly filleted, freshly caught wahoo. It was beyond generous. He said he doesn’t like to catch more fish than he can eat so it would help him greatly to share it so he can keep fishing.
He asked if Blake would be interested in spearfishing that afternoon, so the two of them went and came back with three lobsters. Blake caught the smaller one of the three but it would be a perfect complement to our wahoo dinner.
While spearfishing with Stephan, Blake learned that lobsters are picky about their real estate. They want a lobster hole with a “front door” and “back door” for easy retreat and that if you catch a lobster, there is a high probability that another lobster will have moved in to the vacant hole. The evening ended with baked orange ginger wahoo with grilled lobster tail.
With full bellies, we went to bed early so that we would be ready for our eight hour sail to Georgetown the next day.