Here at Black Point there are two ladies that the cruiser’s book raves about.

Lorraine’s Cafe and Ida’s Laundromat.

Lorraine offers wonderful food at her cafe and will rent you a golf cart to explore the island.

And Ida is known far and wide.
Best laundry in the Bahamas! The reviews go on and on about the laundry. Before we got here I asked Ed aren’t all laundromats the same?

Not really. This one has a dozen washers and dryers and carts on wheels so you can move your laundry around. Ida has a store next door with everything from boat plumbing supplies to detergent.

Free wifi finds cruisers of all types sitting outside on their devices while the clothes get clean.

And homemade carrot and banana cake every day. Ida announces what she will make the next day so you will be sure to come back.

She’s been here 12 years, added the coin operated showers last year. Oh and she will give you a haircut too!

Smart businesswomen. They know what cruisers need! Simple. Give us clean clothes, wifi, a shower and cheap local food and we’re good to go.

Well not completely. Zhivago at Scorpios gives us happier hour on Tuesday, Thursday and Friday. Two rum punches for $7.

Now we’re satisfied.

We made our way from Emerald Bay north, crossing at Rudders Cut over to the Banks side.

Before we made the cut, we practiced trolling for mahi or wahoo. No bites, gotta work on that.

We passed the cove and Musha Cay, owned by David Copperfield, where he has submerged a piano and mermaid to attract the fish.

Oh and you can rent his island if you like, magician or not.

We anchored at Little Farmers Cay, where the name came from I don’t know since there are no farms here.

It has a population of 55, all descendants of a freed slave who bought the island from the British Crown.

The Browns and Nixons are the descendants and they are the only ones who can build on the island.

For such a small place, Little Farmers has a couple of nice restaurants/bars.
Terry and Ernestine run Ocean Cabin, where we had a good dinner and watched the Seahawks come from behind. Terry created the Five F’s Festival, the first Friday in February, where people come from all over for a regatta and party.

At Ty’s bar and grill, we met “Coach” or Corey, who runs the bar and is the techie for the island. His uncle is Ty, as everyone is related. Corey would like to move on to greener pastures but family is here.

Ties that bind. Pretty darn tight!

Well at least our car did.

We rented a car to go to Georgetown and run a couple of errands. Ed put the back seat down so we could minimize Ziggy-hair. We struggled to secure it and couldn’t see how to do that so I looked in the glove box for the manual.

It was in Japanese. At least I think so. The car was a Mazda with the steering wheel on the right, must have just come off the boat.

Ed figured out the seat and started her up. Then a Japanese chick speaks to us, not as alluring as the Australian GPS girl, but sweet and melodic.

Not sure what she was saying but she said it every time we stopped and started the car.

“Good job! You are a great driver.”
Or “Nice going, you have a nice touch.”
Or maybe it was “Ooh you turned me on, thank you.”

More likely “Fasten your seat belts now.”

We drove miss Mazda to the Fish Fry and had our grouper burgers from one of the local kiosks by the sea.

And got gas from an old lady who ran the gas tank by her house in Farmers Hill.

The highlight of the day was visiting Catch a Fire ( named after the Bob Marley song), a great little bar/restaurant on the west side waterfront. Tony the British proprietor bought all the unusual furniture at a Thai distress sale and shipped it here, so the place has an Asian feel.

He plans to add cottages to his property, saying the Exumas are getting ready to explode with more tourism. There’s a direct flight now from Toronto. And the Chinese are looking at flights here.

Maybe the Japanese should too. At least they would know what the cars are saying.

The stray dogs in the Bahamas are called “Potcakes” from the congealed mixture at the bottom of the peas and rice dish that they were typically fed. They are believed to have come here hundreds of years ago with early explorers and the loyalists escaping the United States.

Estimates are there are 10,000 or more wandering the islands. There has been a recent effort to get them adopted, spayed and neutered through a website in the Turks and Caicos.

Their lifespan is typically only 3-7 years because of lack of heart worm and other vaccines. However they look healthy and have hardy stomachs since they are fending for themselves.

There’s a pack of three Potcakes that trot by our boat at the marina each day. They seem to be enjoying themselves. Ziggy approached them to play but they turned up their noses and left.

She would fit right in but maybe her crazy eye scared them off.

That’s the note you see everyday on all the weather sites down here. The temperature doesn’t vary beyond the low 70s to low 80s every day. Humidity is low and there’s a pretty constant breeze.

Boring? Not for me!

We made our way back 15 miles north to Emerald Bay Marina to wait out the north winds til Sunday. On our way out of the Georgetown channel we hit an unexpected squall and the winds grew from 6 knots to over 20 knots in a matter of seconds.

Rain was pouring and visibility was poor so we made the decision to turn around and hang out in the harbor til the rain passed.

Twenty minutes later we were on our way. It was an uneventful, even sail up to Emerald Bay where we don’t have to worry if our anchor is holding.

We’ve had two nights of blowing wind and rain, with one calm night in between. They call them squalls here, they come quickly and sometimes unpredicted.

Sunday night got up to 30+ knots, on anchor I felt like we were on a rough sea. Ed didn’t sleep much at all. There were people up in the middle of the night with spotlights, like Ed, checking on their dinghies.

We heard on the radio the next day that one boat dragged and got their anchor hung up on another boat’s anchor line.

Last night was not quite as rough but we got a lot of rain. And some thunder and lightning brought Ziggy the wonder dog leaping into our bed.

A stray dinghy was beached behind us, he had broken free and made his way to shore. We saw the owner on nearby Corsair snorkel up there to bring the wayward child home.

Good news with all this rain our little rain catcher system was putting rainwater into our tanks. Free H2O!!

We are thankful for small favors.

Like favorable southern winds today, although rain may hit us. We are starting back north, short trip to Emerald Bay Marina where we will wait for winds to change.

Bye to volleyball, chat ‘n chill and the best conch salad we’ve had. And new friends we hope to see down the road.

Its a national holiday in the Bahamas, commemorating the day when Bahamians took control of their own government by an elected majority.

It was January 10, 1967. And though they didn’t get complete independence as a commonwealth until July 10, 1973 (Independence Day), many consider this day just as important. It ranks up there also with Emancipation Day, (August 3, 1833), when slaves of African descent were freed and slave trade abolished.

The people here are proud of their heritage, what one columnist terms their “sustained struggle” over centuries to reach a place of freedom and self-government.

They have their social and economic challenges to be sure, but to a person we have found them welcoming, gracious and friendly. You can hitch a ride here with no worries.

We and our cruiser friends are lucky to be able to share this wonderful island paradise with our Bahamian neighbors.

Enjoy your day off and thanks for your hospitality!

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Every morning at 8 am you tune in your VHF radio to channel 72 for the Stocking Island Cruisers Net.

The moderator is Sue, who is on one of the boats here. She opens with the weather and wind report from Chris Parker, the local authority on weather for boaters.

Then she asks for info from local businesses. Boaters as well as local businesses chime in with recommendations for everything from dentistry to sail repair.

Then she opens the conversation for others to join in with “questions, suggestions or help needed.” The only rule is you have to say your boat name first to identify yourself.

People ask about where to take the propane tanks for refill, if anyone wants to share a rental car, help on motor or refrigeration issues, you name it.

One poor guy has been on the radio two days in a row asking if anyone has seen his kiteboarding sail, which apparently blew off his boat and landed somewhere, he thinks, a mile away on the Georgetown banks.

OK, We’ll be on the lookout.

Last item they do on the radio hour is buy, sell and giveaways. Dinghy motors, life jackets, harnesses, motor parts, etc.

Dragonfly was selling a dinghy motor. I thought it must have been an extra one. But we met him at volleyball beach yesterday where he rowed in.

We talked for a bit. His name is James, in his early 30s, he and his wife built their catamaran from a kit and came down from Massachusetts. They want to go down to the Virgin Islands.

He said proudly “we’ve got a thousand bucks in the bank.” Whoa I thought, you might need more than that?

Maybe not when you’re young and open to all the possibilities.

But you might want to get another dinghy motor.

They’re very creative here with names for the cays and anchorages. We’ve seen Cistern Cay, Little Cistern Cay, Little Bitty Cistern Cay (I’m not making this up), Hog Cay, Farmers Cay, Little Farmers Cay, Poor Betty Cay, on and on. Johnny Depp owns Little Bell Island. Heard there were pirates there.

And our Stocking Island anchorages include Monument Beach (under the monument on the hill) Hamburger Beach (where an old hamburger stand used to be), Volleyball Beach (where the volleyball nets are), Sand Dollar Beach and our current anchorage Honeymoon Beach. I guess the latter is because it’s a quiet little cove, romantic spot. We’re not honeymooners of course but they haven’t kicked us out yet.

Highlight of the morning was a visit from Rodney who runs the trash pickup/pump out boat. You hail him on VHF 18, that’s the channel to call The Pump Out Boat.

We are a captive market for pump out so he comes on Monday, Wednesday and Friday and will pump you out and take a trash bag for $15. A deal!

Then we walked the Monument Hill again today. Yesterday we did it with new friends nearby who are from Apex, who go by the names Joy to the world and Ivan the terrible. They are taking a year off to cruise.

Anyways they had a friend who led us to the top of the hill and then back down to the beach for what ended up being at least a three mile hike.

The osprey atop the monument in his nest was not too happy to see us. He swooped down low I guess to ward off that crazy blue-eyed dog of ours.

Ziggy was unfazed. She was off the leash and had a great time racing around the beach.

“I’m free, yippee,” she seemed to be saying. But only for awhile. Back to the boat for a nap.

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One of the big draws for cruisers here is Stocking Island. There are 200+ boats anchored here and several protected anchorages. And every afternoon many of them head over to the island by dinghy for fun and games.

There’s volleyball at 2 pm and checkers, dominos whenever you please. The volleyball players, like us, are not as young as they used to be, so the game is about drinking beer, trash talk and trying not to injure yourself making spike moves you can no longer make successfully.

Ed noticed that during the volleyball games, people not playing were sitting at the picnic tables chatting and watching. Making new friends, greeting old ones.

No one was on their phones!

I introduced myself to a woman with a masonboro.org shirt. She turned out to be a neighbor, lives 3 miles from me in Wilmington.

But the big draw is Chat ‘n Chill. Created and owned by KB (I don’t know his last name), they grill outside and make their own homemade hot sauce that he sells on the Internet. He also has a gift shop his wife runs, with your choice of t-shirts, caps, etc.

There are two resident cats, Lightning and Thunder, who didn’t give Ziggy the time of day. And Kendra and AJ run the bar.

We chatted with KB for awhile at the bar. He was college educated in the States and says the biggest need in the Bahamas is to improve their educational options. He preached education to his sons and that must have sunk in, one is a surgeon and the other a dentist in Nassau.

We talked about the history of the Bahamas, and KB shared his views on the islands. He told us the Bimini folks are mostly smugglers. I asked wasn’t that in the colonial days? He said no, they’re still into that.

He also said the biggest problem with some visitors here is their attitude and impatience. Why is my burger taking so long?

We agreed, what’s the hurry? They are grilling it outside so be patient! Get another beer from the cooler (it’s self-serve) and chill!

KB wants to open another place in Staniel Cay, whose restaurant has zero competition and terrible service.

We urged him to go for it! We can be chattin and chillin there too, my mon.