April 30, 2018 – Black Point Settlement and Little Famers Cay via Compass Cay

April 30, 2018

COMPASS CAY AND COMPASS CAY MARINA

After leaving the Exuma Land and Sea Park, our next destination was what we thought would be a fancy marina with a nice restaurant, laundry facilities, and hot showers. Compass Key is described in the guide books as being a very beautiful and unique island criss-crossed with hiking trails to beaches, bubble pools, and other points of interest. We were willing to pay their premium dock rates to wash the boat, and take advantage of the laundry and shower scene, as well as maybe treat ourselves to a nice dinner. Indeed, the island was beautiful, the beaches straight out of a postcard, and the marina in very good repair. It was other than that, a bit of a disappointment.

The place has long ago sold out the cruising community to cater to the mega-yacht crowd and day-tripper excursions from Staniel Cay or Nassau. I admire what they have done with the place and the family that owns and runs it must be literally rolling in cash! The marina basin is cut into the rock with what was likely a natural basin of some kind. The little harbor is literally a coral reef aquarium, the highlight of which is the nurse shark feeding area. A special dock that gets submerged at high tide serves as the point of entry for scores of day trippers who are shuttled to the island to swim with the sharks. A dozen or so customers at a time stand in the waist-deep section of the lagoon as the head proprietor Tucker Rolle throws scraps of fish in the water and literally dozens and dozens of nurse sharks lazily swim around the people and feed. People pet the tame and well fed sharks and have some awesome pictures to bring home of them literally surrounded by sharks. At night the yachts and sport fishing boats turn on their underwater lights and feed the sharks some more. There was live coral in the lagoon and schools ofreef fish, sea turtles, and nurse sharks were everywhere.

Unfortunately for us however, small cruising sailboats are sort of an afterthought to this place. They no longer have showers or laundry. There dockage rate is obscene and the highest we have seen. They charge 50 cents a gallon for water and we desperately needed to rinse some salt off the boat at this point. The beers in their otherwise cool bar area were $7! Again the highest price we had seen anywhere (we drank our personal stash). When we got the bill the next morning, I felt violated and was in a bad mood for the rest of the day. We had plugged in to top off the batteries and charge our electronics and vacuum the boat. We probably used about $2 worth of electricity. Imagine my surprise when the bill included a flat rate charge of $50/day to hook up to power! I think this is the same rate they charge the yachts!

In a nutshell, we can sum up Compass Cay Marina with a fitting slogan for their next brochure; “Twice the price, none of the amenities.” We won’t be back. It was undoubtedly a very cool stop for cruisers at one time. That time is gone. It belongs to the wealthy crowd now. That surely includes the owners at this point too.

Next up was the Black Point Settlement. We were pretty over the touristy and yachty areas at this point so we bypassed the infamous Staniel Cay and its Thunderball Grotto to continue on to Black Point. This area was basically the opposite of that, so we were excited to be in the first cruiser-centric community we had seen in a while. Black Point is a large harbor with good wind protection from every direction except for westerlies. It also begins a stretch of islands which as a result of being further south are generally less overrun by the big yachts and more cruiser-centric.

Black Point is known for being very cruiser friendly and one of the last stops for provisions and “civilization” before the world famous Georgetown in the Southern Exumas. One of the highlights (which will demonstrate the realities of my new life) was Black Point’s laundromat. Clean sheets are a luxury these days and the Black Point Laundry may just be the nicest in all of the Bahamas! It is huge with all new machines, has a nice shaded gazebo and general store, fresh bread and snacks, and seems to be the hub of town. I can’t believe I just wrote a whole paragraph about a laundromat.

One of the first people I encountered on the island was a man named “Stick”. We introduced ourselves as we were walking from the dinghy dock into town. As we were wandering the Main Street on our first day there, we were poking our heads in each little grocery store and restaurant to see what was available. We went into the second little grocery and no one was manning the counter. Stick was walking by and asked if we needed help since his sister owned the store. Then we went to a little bar and Stick walked in and stepped behind the bar to serve us. The next day we went to do our laundry and it was Stick again working at the laundromat! I asked him if he had every job in town?! He laughed and seemed to agree. I henceforth dubbed “Stick” the Mayor of Black Point and proceeded to call him “Mister Mayor” every time I saw him afterwards. A few days later when we went to rent a golf cart, I went right to Stick for a recommendation. He made a phone call and said “stay here, I will go get it for you.” 15 minutes later, Stick pulled up with our golf cart.  This man was surely the hardest working man in the Exumas!

The main bar in town was called “Club Scorpio” complete with scorpion logo on the tinted windows. They had a great happy hour with 2-for-1 rum $6 punches that were the best rum punches I have had in the Bahamas; 2/3 of the glass was the local Ricardo light and dark rum (as good as Cruzan and only $9.50/bottle!) and then topped with a couple splashes of juice and a floater of Myers rum. One HH round was generally enough to catch a good buzz! Outside was the town domino table where there was a spirited ongoing domino tournament complete with a chalkboard scoreboard nailed to the nearby telephone pole. There was always a game going here day and night with lots of yelling and slamming down of dominoes and the strong odor of marijuana. Another famous bar/restaurant in the area is Loraine’s. Her daughter is apparently a Patriots fan! The main decorations in the bar area were all New England Patriots swag! I asked if she had gone to college in New England or something. She said, “No, I just like the Patriots.” I said, “Oh, so you just like a winner!”. That got some laughs and I had a new bar for the week!

We also were invited in to the home of the former Superintendent of Police in Nassau. Mr. Brookie Wright has semi-retired to this area and was building a new home on his family property. He was hanging out in his front porch with some local characters and seemed to be mildly drunk and mildly offended that some other cruisers had taken a picture of him in front of a run down shack and had been audibly wondering why someone wouldn’t have nicer accommodations on such a prime piece of waterfront property. Well apparently that had been his mother’s house and she had become very old and just wanted to live out her remaining years in her home as it was. I don’t know why he gravitated to us as we greeted the group with a hearty “good morning!” As we walked by but he did. He motioned us over and in a slightly sad and reflective tone decided to tell us his story. He showed us his medals and uniform from his long and distinguished police career, as well as a DVD copy of the documentary about the infamous cocaine drug lords which he had helped prosecute back in the 70’s and 80’s. He seemed eager to share his story with us and talk about his family and his life. He was a very interesting character and I am not sure why he chose Celia and I to invite into his home but he had a lot of interesting stories to tell! Being in the Nassau police force for 30 years and rising to the equivalent of Chief will do that I guess! Just about everyone we met in Black Point was friendly and genuine. I was a big fan of our experience there and would certainly linger here if we found ourselves in that area again.

As we were running short on fresh vegetables and fruit, we were excited to learn that the Mail Boat would arrive the next day! For those that don’t know, the Mail Boat is basically the fleet of large ships that distributes most of the commerce throughout the islands of the Bahamas. Each large settlement or town has a “government dock” where official and commercial boats can land and usually include a dinghy dock for cruisers and small boats to access the towns. Mail Boats come around once a week but sometimes not that often so the arrival becomes somewhat of a local happening. All the local businesses are waiting to help unload and get their merchandise and supplies. The next day, there is an island-wide rush to get to the stores and get first pick of fresh veggies and other commodities. We got up early and beat most of the other cruisers in the harbor to shore to get our veggies! Again, this is our new reality; the only American style grocery store we have seen has been in Nassau. It basically catered to the yachts, tourists, cruisers, and more affluent Bahamians…and had the prices to match. I digress…

Our golf cart tour of the island was interesting but not quite as cool as we had hoped. Once we went a few miles in any direction, the paved roads ran out and the dirt roads became too rough and rocky for us to feel comfortable on the golf cart. We did find a couple of really cool beaches and what were purported to be blow hole formations on the east side of the island. One side of the island was where the dump was and on this day they were burning trash. Unfortunately the thick acrid smoke was choking out the road and we had to turn around. Boat Monkey had us make stops at the local Police Station (the local Constable could more often be found at the bar or the dominoes table than the Police Station) and the local clinic. I don’t know what he was doing or why, and I didn’t ask.

One thing we continue to notice is that there seems to be a lot of half finished real estate and marina developments everywhere. Some were obviously ravaged by past storms, but others seem to have been started and abandoned for no reason. A lot of half finished houses are just allowed to rot and spawl back into the earth. This area was no different in that regard although it looks like one really cool waterfront bar and restaurant was about to open for business. It seems an oddity that there are not more waterfront or beach bars throughout the Exumas. The cruisers, yachties, and tourists would certainly support a few more!

We were thankful for the warm welcome of the Black Point community, but after a couple of nights of the anchorage being super rolly and uncomfortable to the point where I had not slept well for a couple nights, it was time to think about moving on.

We had settled in for a few days and it is always an effort to get the boat back to sailing status and get moving again. We decided to move just 8 miles or so to the south so we could get going on our own pace and not have to be upping anchor at dawn for a long sail.

Little Farmers Cay was our next anchorage and is supposed to be a great area to explore. We were eager to keep moving south towards Georgetown and were only spending the one night however. I will however go out of my way to mention that we visited the one local restaurant/bar/marina that was in operation on the island and had a wonderful experience. For reasons I am not sure anyone can explain, it seems like the islands and regions in the Exumas ebb and flow in their popularity with visitors.

Little Farmers once supported 2 restaurants, a beach bar, a couple gift shops, and a small marina. Now just the marina/bar/restaurant were operating and seemed a little tired at that. The proprietor, Roosevelt was another warm and genuine man. I loved him and his wife as soon as we met them. There were about 4 boats in the anchorage and all day I think they had about 6 customers. Celia and I had the place to ourselves and ordered a couple orders of cracked conch and some beers. The wife went outside, took two large conch off a string she had in the water and prepared them perfectly right there on the spot. It was the best conch I have ever had from a restaurant. The building was a large space which at one time you could tell was a bustling and lively scene. There was an old tired pool table in the back room that was still level and had one serviceable cue. I kicked Celia’s butt at billiards and had another beer with Roosevelt before we called it a day and headed back to Eileen to get her and us ready for the next days sail. I would love to stop here again if the opportunity arises.

We have now been chilling in Georgetown for a couple of weeks. Before that we stopped at Lee Stocking Island, home to an abandoned Marine Lab. My next post will be following this one very soon to talk about those places. Georgetown is like summer camp for adult cruisers (and kids). We were lucky enough to catch the Family Islands Sail Regatta, and have hosted friends aboard, played days of beach volleyball (until I was injured), hiked, snorkeled, explored, saw a junkanoo band, and made new friends. Can’t wait to tell you all about it! Tune in next time for a more exciting post than this one! Until then, we love and miss all of our friends and family! We wish we could teleport you all around with us!

Much Love from Todd and Celia, Georgetown, Exumas, Bahamas

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