The Seychelles

THE SEYCHELLES

At about 6am Daniel and Jenna joined me on the wheel and we sat and chatted, spirits high with Victoria in sight. Dan and Jen were keen to meet up with Mano and Tito on board the Yacht Erias, whom we had met in Dar. Also in Victoria were Boris and Ester on board Sally Lightfoot.

I called Victoria Port control on Channel 16 and they gave me co-ordinates where I was to anchor and await customs and immigration. On completing the radio call, the official said, “May I take this opportunity to welcome you to the Seychelles and hope you enjoy your stay with us”. I almost choked on the microphone! This was a first and what a pleasant welcome!

We also phoned Bill and Sally and informed them on our timings and where we would be. They were going to meet us at the Yacht Club later that morning.

There was hardly a breath of wind as we motored towards our anchor point. We dropped anchor and gave Shayile a quick clean up whilst we waited for the officials to arrive. 

It took a while for the officials to arrive and we sweltered in the heat. Dan got quite frustrated as he was keen to get to shore. We did not blame him one bit as we were all just as frustrated and wanted terra firma!

Finally the officials arrived and we did the formalities. I have to mention the marked difference in attitude and professionalism of the Seychelles officials. Organised, smartly presented, polite and professional. Compared to the countries we had visited over the past 9 months in Africa, this was an absolute pleasure. Once on board they carried out their duties. There were no signs of corruption and “what have you got for me” attitudes. There were no grey areas with what money was to change hands. What a pleasure, and this was the first sign that we had left Africa and the corruption of their officials behind us.

Once completed and the officials had left, we motored in to the harbour and across to the Yacht Club. Seychelles Yacht Club is situated in the harbour, behind the Tuna fishing factory, tucked in a small cove. As we entered the Yacht Club, we saw, standing on the Quay, Bill and Sally. We all waved like crazy as we picked up an anchor buoy and prepared to go ashore. With the ducky down, we motored ashore. It was great to be on land and even better to be welcomed by Bill and Sally. There was much kissing, hugging, greetings and happiness to see our family and someone from home.  First thing to do was pull up chairs, buy a few cool drinks and do some catching up. This we did!

Victoria Yacht Club is rather a tired old club and certainly not there to provide a service to visiting yachts. The manager is an arrogant ex SA chap who seems to have found himself a pedestal of power at the club. I am amazed at the attitudes one continually encounters. From the most unbelievable, fascinating, down to earth people, to the “Seychelles Yacht Club manager” type person. I suppose it takes all kinds to make this beautiful world interesting!

 B, with her mom Sally, and Jenna -shortly after our arrival

With Bill and Sally on board Shayile, we immediately set about making plans for the next week or so.

As the next day was Sunday, we decided to hang around Mahe and check out the local scenes. Then on Monday or Tuesday we would head out to the islands. Unfortunately Bill and Sally still had to postpone their air tickets home by a week and this could only be confirmed on the Monday.

That Sunday we took a bus ride around Mahe, stopping for a swim and relax on a great little beach on the east of Mahe. During this time we caught up on all the news from home.

Mahe is a beautiful island. With a low lying coastal strip around the island, it soon rises up into the mountains. Up in the mountains the vegetation is green and lush with lots of natural vegetation and forest. The total population of Seychelles is some 80 000 people with the majority living on Mahe. Victoria, the capital, is small, but full of life. Although very organized, there certainly is “island fever” all over. Everything closes between 12 and 1pm each day and on Sunday nothing opens. Nothing!! Speaking to local business people there is a complaint about the lack of work ethic. Now if there is one place I can relate to “island fever” and “more is nog a dag”, (tomorrow is another day) it is here in the Seychelles! With stunning surroundings and plenty of time, they deserve it!!

Monday arrived and Bill and Sally finally got their air tickets postponed by a week. It was now time to head out and do some sight seeing, something we had not done for a very long time.

We set sail and headed out to the island of Praslin about 25 miles due north of Mahe. With no wind at all, we again motored all the way. The fishing lures went out and within no time, Bill was fighting a Frigate Tuna. He landed it and after a picture was taken, we released it. Unfortunately they are not good eating fish and no real need to keep them.

            Bill and his Frigate Tuna

Dan swinging on Shayile                   

Not 20 minutes later, we were into another Frigate Tuna, and then another, and another! Good fun, but we released them all. We did catch a Job Fish (Kaarkap) which we kept for the pan.

Unfortunately with all the fishing, we did not get to our destination that afternoon and as night fell, we were a few miles short of it. Fortunately Ryan on Yacht Sometime, whom we met in Madagascar, had given me a few co-ordinates on where to anchor and we finally dropped the anchor off a small beautiful beach on the NW side of Praslin. That night was a rocky and rolly night as we were exposed to the NW wind and swell. We could not remember the last time we had such a night at anchorage! Not that bad, but I was up quite a few times checking anchors, leeshore and anchor alarms.

Next morning, there in front of us was a paradise beach. We grabbed our kit, jumped in “Shayile Junior” and headed for the beach. It was a beauty and by far the best tropical beach we had been to so far. We swam, and Daniel and I went exploring and climbing over the huge bolder rocks on either side of the beach. The water was turquoise in colour; simply stunning! After a few hours on the beach, we then went back to Shayile and motored on up the coast to the next beach.

"Baby" Shayile on the beach, with "Big" Shayile anchored off 

Seychelles is an absolutely stunning destination and for anyone who needs a great tropical holiday, the Seychelles is a must! There are so many islands around Mahe and enough to keep us going for months!

Our cruising grounds were Praslin, La Dique and Curiesse. However scattered around these 3 islands are many smaller ones.

We cruised up around the NW tip of Praslin and headed across to the island of Curiesse. This island used to be a leper colony some 150 years ago and there is a quaint little museum which was well worth visiting. A certain doctor established the colony and lived there for years with his wife and daughter. The island is great but living with lepers for 4 years must have been quite something. A real Samaritan who gave his time and energy to the poor lepers. Apparently quite a character who enjoyed good humour; infact many locals laughed their heads off!

We anchored off Curiesse for the night and we were joined by many charter yachts seeking shelter from a possible NW blow. Curiesse offers excellent shelter and is a lovely bay. Across part of the bay is an old wall where, many years back, someone tried to set up a turtle breeding plant. They enclosed part of the bay and got busy with the turtle breeding project. Unfortunately it was not too successful and today one can still see what remains of the wall.

Shayile anchored off Praslin

Early next morning we motored down to St Pierre Island. This small island; not more than 100meters long is reputedly one of the most photographed scenes of the Seychelles with its huge bolder like rocks, eroded by water to form these impressive rock formations. Bill, Dan, Jens and I took our dive gear and went out to the island. We did a quick dive around, but we were really not that impressed. We then went ashore and explored the island with Dan having a ball climbing all over the rocks. On the water line rocks were these fish that live partially out of water, on the rocks. I think they are a type of rock skipper. Anyway Daniel and Jenna had great delight in trying to catch these fish.

St Pierre

After a few hours on St Pierre we went back to Shayile and then we motored on down to the island of La Dique.

La Dique has a small, quaint little harbour and we motored into it. Inside the harbour, anchoring was stern to and I had to quickly rig up some lines whilst we entered our mooring stern to. For our first ever stern to anchorage, it went off extremely well and soon we were safely moored up next to a Fontaine catamaran.

It was unbearably hot and certainly what felt like our hottest day to date. We wandered up the road through the small village checking out the shops and scenery. At lunch time we found ourselves at a little restaurant close to the harbour. Food was ordered and we all relaxed under a shaded gazebo enjoying many cool drinks and a fine meal.

La Dique is full of bicycles and soon after lunch we hired a bike each, whilst Jenna hitched a ride with me. We then set off exploring the coastal road. Daniel was in his element riding a bike again. At first he was a bit unsteady, but within minutes he was away and loving every minute of it. It was his first time on a bicycle since we left home! (Sounds terrible, a 7 year old deprived of riding a bike!!!)

Cycling around La Dique

After exploring the coastal road, we went to a beach and spent the rest of the day swimming and relaxing on the beach. What a beautiful beach but in true yin yang fashion, there was a down side. SAND FLIES! B spotted them but unfortunately, Jen and Dan had spent a fair time in the sand. We got bitten all over. The buggers are really tiny and difficult to spot. Even when they bite, it is not easy to feel them. We all knew what we were in for. Days of wanting to scratch the skin off!

Back to Shayile and next morning we sailed around La Dique to the eastern side. Here there are 3 exquisite beaches. We anchored off and relaxed for the day. Daniel and I took the rubber duck and went ashore. There was quite a serious shore break and we had a great few hours body surfing. Daniel's confidence was really improving in the sea and he was starting to understand waves and how to tackle them. A great day of body surfing, and then some bolder climbing. (Dan’s favorite Seychelles sport)

Now this is great way to cruise. Exotic destination, beaches, a yacht and lots of time!!


Sally and Jenna enjoying the water and snorkelling

Next stop for the night was just off Praslin’s most popular beach. It was very close to St Pierre Island and we anchored in some 4 meters of water. Just next to us was another small island with a hotel on it. The hotel virtually took up the whole island but they had blended the architecture of the hotel into the natural vegetation and rocks on the island. Quite stunning. That afternoon B and I left Dan and Jen with Sally and Bill and we headed ashore. It was great to wander up the beach road with its restaurants, shops, night clubs and bars. After finding what we thought was a reasonable “local” restaurant for dinner, we went back to Shayile for a rub and scrub.

Later that evening, we all bailed into the dingy and went off to the restaurant for dinner. We managed to anchor the dingy about 15 meters from the restaurant, amongst some coconut trees.

A great evening was had together whilst we dined on some local dishes. Then back to the duck which was now high and dry from the outgoing tide. After dragging it back to the water we prepared to launch and head back to Shayile. As I was getting the kill switch back in, a big shore break wave rolled in and Bill landed in the sea upside down! We all hung on, got our composure together and tried again. By this time we were all in hysterics with the wine helping to make the dunking all the more funnier! Finally we motored slowly back to Shayile. Bill wet, camera amazingly dry, but we all had a great laugh at our surf launch and departure.

Like Baboo; Like Daniel!

Next morning we had a lazy start to the day before motoring out and on our way back to La Dique where we would spend the final night before heading back to Mahe. A breeze came up and soon we had the spinnaker up and enjoying a bit of sailing for a change. As the wind faded, we motored on to La Digue.

At La Digue, we anchored outside the harbour for the night and early the next morning we set off back to Victoria, Mahe.

In the Yacht Club at Victoria, Bill and Sally got the belongings together and soon it was time for them to head off to their hotel where they would spend the last night before flying out. 

Jenna & Dan - a typical school day!!





It was fantastic having Bill and Sally with us for some 10 days or so. Never enough with family but we all had a great time and the island cruising was fantastic. We said our goodbyes and Bill and Sally headed off to the comforts of a hotel for the night.

With Bill and Sally gone, we set about stocking Shayile for the next major leg. This was the crossing from the Seychelles to the islands of Chagos.

B:  Rob has covered all the days but I have to say it was great to see my Mom and Dad. They both looked so young and carefree and I think tropical island life really suits them both. Mom had told everyone she met that they were waiting for us to arrive on a yacht and we met plenty of vendors, shop assistants and air Seychelles staff who greeted me warmly and said How nice that we had finally arrived. Very funny, slightly embarrassing but great that Mom was so proud that she had to talk about us to everyone.

Yachts are not all that comfortable, too many levels and little walkways with toe-stubbing potential but the Old Folks did me proud. Only one day when Mom leapt up to catch a photo of her two beloved grandkids did she lose it, spectacularly! She jumped up grabbed her camera and hauled herself up the skippers seat by holding onto the wheel. Sadly it moves and she keeled over backwards in slow motion, down three steps into the door well. Thank goodness she wasn’t too badly hurt, just another few bruises that are par for the course in sailing life. The worst injury could have come from the laughing that followed. Needless to say she missed the photo, but we did get a spectacular one of them waving to the dingy from Shayile with our spinnaker flying behind them, really great.

At anchor - La Dique & Praslin

 

Bill/ Baboo was great crew and as usual, game for anything as long as a siesta was compulsory, so he fitted right in. It was super to see my parents but it was such a messed up meeting, with all the repairs and delays and the fact that we were sort of in-transit that I think I wasn’t the best of company. I really hope that they will come and see us again when we have more time to plan and show them more of a cruising life-style, I mean we never even caught an edible fish! Maybe in Thailand we will have a chance to spend time ashore and cruising the islands, I really hope they will join us again!

Preparing for departure

I got stuck into the boat, getting water and diesel and preparing Shayile to sail, or motor, us across the Indian Ocean, a trip of some 1100 miles. (2000km’s) The trip would take us some 10 days.

Belinda went off and supplied Shayile with food; mostly fruit and vegetables and other necessary supplies. We then started to load it all and evenly distribute the weight around Shayile. I decided to take extra diesel and petrol for the outboard. We would be in Chagos for some 2 to 3 months, maybe longer and we needed the fuel. Once loaded, Shayile was just that; loaded!! 680 liters of water, 680 liters of diesel, and 100 liters of outboard petrol. We had food for 3 months and we were laden, to say the least.

B: Seychelles is not a place to shop. The goods are expensive and scarce. If you see it and want it, buy it now because it won’t be there tomorrow. Eggs arrive on a Wednesday and Nadine and I demolished the stocks. We took them back to our boats and flash boiled them for 2-3 seconds them rubbed Vaseline over them and then they would last for three months out of the fridge if turned over weekly, and they did! Veggies and fruit were so expensive that we only took large stocks of potatoes and onions. The potatoes were each lovingly wrapped in newspaper and hung in a hammock. Butternuts and onions were also hung and had to be turned weekly. Tomatoes were only for the very rich and huge carrots from New Zealand were great and long-lasting. We found a local guy who supplied us green papayas and long aubergines, spinach and passion fruits from his garden. He also brought piles of  golden apples’, strange hard green fruit like a green mango but crunchy and lemon zesty when green but sweet and slimy when ripe. They have a large prickly, stringy pip and unfortunately all ripened just as I worked out that they were great when grated into a salad and we had developed a taste for them. So they became chutney with some soft sticky prunes and onions and assorted spices, all this in the middle of the Indian Ocean!

Joining us on the crossing would be Peter on Belagear. For this crossing he would be alone. Dale and he had bit of a fall out and Dale decided to bail and head down to SA for some surfing. Peter was going solo, a brave call, but he was a competent sailor.

Also with us was Erias with Jean Ives, Nadine, and children Manu and Tito. Dan and Jen got on very well with Manu and Tito and they were a great foursome who played fantastically together. Although French, communication was not a problem and each day they could not wait to get together and play. We would all be sailing together on route to Chagos. It really was great to know that there was another yacht on the same voyage as you and in the vicinity. You never know what may happen out there and to have someone around, does offer a certain amount of security. Maybe a false sense of security some may say, but we were all happy with the company.

B and I did all the clearing out, which was an absolute pleasure. No running from building to building, office to office and fighting off bribery gestures. This was as it should be; clean and professional.

 

SHAYILE!

 

Sunday the 10^th April rolled in and it was time to leave the Seychelles for Chagos!!!!