Little Farmers Cay is located in the Central Exumas between Great Guana Cay (with the settlement of Black Point) and Cave Cay. 

Our first visit to Little Farmers was in May, 2013.  Our friends were staying in their sailboat at the Farmers Cay Yacht Club.  We were travelling south to George Town, on Great Exuma Island, and had stopped at Cave Cay.  We went by dinghy back north to Little Farmers to join them for lunch at the yacht club.  Farmers Cay Yacht Club is located at Lat / Lon: N 23° 57.860′ / W 076° 19.390′.  They monitor VHF channel 16.  You can reach them by phone at (242) 355-4017 or by email at yachtclub@atlantic.net.  Information on the internet says that they have 4 transient slips.  Below is a picture of their dock.

We met Mr. Roosevelt Nixon, the owner of the Little Farmer’s Yacht Club Restaurant and Bar.  Little Farmer’s Cay was settled by a woman named Chrissana, a freed slave from Great Exuma.  She moved to Farmers Cay with her two sons and a daughter, Michael Joseph Nixon and Adam and Eve Brown, who bought the island from the English Crown and willed it to their descendants as generation property.  Roosevelt said that he was one of the descendants.

The picture above was taken from the land side and doesn’t do this charming club justice.  On the water side, there is a picnic table on the sand with a tiki roof over it.  When you enter the club, you first go onto a covered porch.  At that same level, there is a lovely dining room which could seat around 40 people as well as a hand-carved wooden bar in the corner and a small area where a band could set up and play.  Up two steps was a game room with a pool table, some seating and another bar.  Behind this bar was the opening to the kitchen.   In the dining room, there was a picture of Roosevelt and his wife of more than 50 years, Shirley.  Roosevelt told us that his wife usually did the cooking, but she was on Eleuthera attending a funeral.  So for this weekend, he was the chief, cook, and bottle washer and he did a good job cooking lunch for the four of us.  After lunch, he closed up the club and loaded us into his pickup truck and took us on a tour of the island.  He took us by the school and clinic and told us about a resident wood carver (J. R. – Phone 355-4023). 

One of our stops was at the government dock where we talked to several fisherman and enjoyed watching children swimming in the shallows.  Since this picture was taken, they have made some improvements to this dock.

The original settlers on Little Farmers farmed and fished.  Michael married Susan from Cat Island while Adam wed Mary from Moss Town, Exuma.  Most of the current residents are descended from those hardy ancestors, Michael’s thirteen children and Adam’s five.  Other family names came into Little Farmers through Marriage:  Moxey, Smith, Ferguson, Maycock, Rolle, Deal, Ellis, Bain, and others, with many excellent captains and sailors among them.

The weather kept us at Cave longer than we had planned, so we decided to make another trip to Little Farmers several days later.  This time, we tied up at the government dock and walked over to Brenda’s Take Away and ordered some lunch.  She suggested we walk around while she cooked it.  We went into her store looking for bread, but there wasn’t any.  Next we saw Ali’s Tiki Bar, so we went in and got his last two cold Kaliks. 

 Then we walked up the hill, passed the Oasis Convenience Store.

Then, continued to the Ocean Cabin Bar and Restaurant. 

Here, we met Mr. Terry Bain.  He told us that he was a descendent of one of the original settlers, James Michael Nixon.  Just up the hill from the bar and restaurant was the oldest home on the island that had belonged to his grandparents. 

He told us that they were married over 70 years.  His grandfather died at age 99 and his grandmother passed away at age 102.  Terry sold us a Little Farmer’s Cay flag and gave us an information sheet about the island and the flag. 

Ocean Cabin is located at Lat / Lon: N 23° 57.550′ / W 076° 19.250′.  They monitor VHF channel 16.  You can reach Terry Bain by phone at (242-524-3744) or by email at inquiry@oceancbn.com.  They also have a website at www.oceancbn.com.  We didn’t get a chance to eat there, but we hear that they have very good food and we know that they have good drinks.

Terry Bain is also a contact person for information about the famous “5-Fs” which is an annual homecoming event for this tiny settlement in the Exumas, and a favorite for cruisers. The celebration includes Bahamian Class-C sloop races, great Bahamian food, and lots of games and activities for the whole family.

We did not go to the First Friday in February at Farmers Festival in 2013 on February 1, 2 and 3 because it was too windy for us to comfortably make the trip down from Compass Cay.  The annual Farmers Cay First Friday in February Festival was held on February 7th and 8^th in 2014.   On Saturday (2/8/14), we joined Barry, Janine and Natalie in the Sea Clef’s 32 foot Boston Whaler tender and headed south.   As we approached the area, we saw over 80 sailboat masts!   The picture below doesn’t even show half of them.

The accessibility of cialis uk this medicine made them easier as they do not have to buy costly blue pills no more.
As we got a little closer to the crowded area, a small boat approached us and yelled something we did not understand.  Very soon after that, another boat came our way (which turned out to be the committee boat) and they told us to get out of the race course!  There was no way for us to know that we were in the race course because there were no markers set out.  Apparently, after the boats make a turn, the committee boat hauls up the marker and then speeds ahead of all of the racers and drops it somewhere in front of them for the next turn.  As best I could count, it looked like there were ten small boats participating in the race.  Shortly after we arrived the race ended, but there was a final race scheduled for later in the day.  We beached the Whaler and walked up to the pavilion to buy tickets for lunch and drinks. 

Rick and I shared a lunch of BBQ Ribs.  They were so big, he said that he thought they must be brontosaurus ribs.  But they were delicious.  We saw lots of people that we have met since being in the Bahamas, both locals and cruisers/sailors.  There were also a number of the tour boat operator’s from George Town in attendance with boat loads of tourists and locals.  One of the captains, Bob, from Sugarland Adventures, told us that his brother was participating in the race.  We watched most of the last race while enjoying the water near the boat.  The racers seem to just weave through the anchored boats.  And, it is apparently OK for people in dinghy’s or other small boats to run along nearby.   Just before the end of the last race, we loaded back up in the Whaler and went out just a little way from the beach where they had just dropped the blue float in the water to indicate the finish line.  So we stayed there to see the end of the race.

As soon as the last race was over we went around the north end of the island to go to the government dock.  As we passed the Little Farmer’s Cay Yacht Club, you couldn’t help but notice that one of the two freighters that go back and forth between Nassau and George Town, “The Captain C” was tied up at their dock.  When we passed it again later, they were loading up 4 of the racing boats.  We did not realize that the participants came from that far away.

On our way back to Compass Cay, we stopped at Great Guana Cay just across the waterway from Little Farmers.  Barry said that he had been told that there was a cavern here with a lake in it.  It was late in the afternoon, so I told the others to go on the hike without me.  We watched the sunset just after they returned to the boat and all of us saw the green flash!

The 5 F’s was held on February 6-7, 2015 on Little Farmer’s Cay.  For some reason, I thought that we had gone on Sunday last year; so, because it was very windy on Friday and Saturday, we planned to go down on Sunday.  We went south from Compass on Sea Clef’s tender with Captain Barry at the helm.  This year our group included:  Barry and Allison (Sea Clef); Rich and Karen (New Horizon); Rick and Me (On The Hook) and Gail (ATA Marie).  Much to my chagrin, the festival had actually been on Friday and Saturday, so we had the beach all to ourselves when we arrived. 

There were a few people at Ty’s Sunset Bar and Grill (http://www.tyssunsetbarandgrill.com ) which is between the airstrip and the beach where the races take place.  They invited us to come in for eats and drinks. 

It was actually nice to be able to enjoy the peace and quiet. 

When we were there last year, there were hundreds of people on this beach and in the grill. 

After eating lunch, six of us walked across the island to the government dock while Barry took the boat around.  When we walked by Ocean Cabin, we noticed that they seem to be restoring the oldest house.  It was yellow now, where it used to be blue/green.  Barry had worn a t-shirt that he bought at Ocean Cabin on one of his previous visits.  It said: 

Ocean Cabin Restaurant & Bar
Our Hours

MOST DAYS ABOUT 9 OR 10
OCCASIONALLY AS EARLY AS 7 BUT SOME DAYS AS LATE AS 12 OR 1
WE CLOSE ABOUT 5 OR 6
OR MAYBE ABOUT 4 OR 5
SOME DAYS OR AFTERNOONS
WE AREN’T HERE AT ALL
AND LATELY WE’VE BEEN HERE ABOUT ALL THE TIME,
EXCEPT WHEN WE’RE
SOMEPLACE ELSE…….
BUT WE MIGHT BE HERE THEN, TOO

As we were leaving the dock, J.R. Rolle (pictured below), a relative of the Compass Cay Rolle’s who we had met at the restaurant, asked if we could give a lady a ride to Staniel Cay. 

She had missed her flight from Little Farmers.  We said yes, but we didn’t go far until we stopped to do some exploring.  Across from Little Farmers Cay, on the southern end of Great Guana Cay there is a trail that leads to a cavern which is partially filled with water.  Last year, Rick, Barry, Janine and Natalie hiked up to it while I stayed in the boat.  I had told Barry that if we had time this year, I would try to make the hike with them.  So, we anchored around oven rock, then walked north up the beach until we found a cairn marking the beginning of the trail.  It was not too long a trail, but had some rocky areas and just a little bit of up and down.  Once we got there, we went for a swim.  Barry and Rick had brought flashlights with them and would shine the light into the clear water so that we could avoid some of the stalagmites on the bottom as we made our way walking and swimming around from one entrance into the water to another where we exited.  The picture below is actually one that Janine took last year.  I forgot to take my camera with me this year.

The water was cool and there were some bats hanging around, but we all enjoyed our adventure.  On the way back, we made a quick stop at the Staniel Cay Yacht Club to drop off our “hitch hiker” returning to Compass Cay just as the sun was setting. 

To sum it up, we have been on Little Farmers Cay in 2013, 2014, and 2015.  There are nice places to stay, good places to eat, and very friendly people.