Category: 2022 Africa

We had another calm night in Baie Pasquiere.  This is the national park and we knew that we need to be out of there by 9:00 or else pay another fee for the day. So as Rick would say we were off the hook early.

 The day started out sunny but quickly became overcast and started to rain, but we left anyway. 

We decided to go back to La Digue because it has more facilities than Praslin. It has grocery stores and restaurants that are easily found ehwn we dinghy into town. So off we go, in the rain.  Again with the wind dead on our nose, we didn’t put up the sails. We just motored, headlong, throught the showerss. We were afraid that the anchorage would be untenable, but surprisingly it was OK, at least initially.  It had stopped raining and was just overcast. 

We sat on deck watching a neighboring catamaran trying to anchor.  Eventually they seemed settled, but something was clearly wrong, so we dinghied over to offer assistance.  Turned out they were from South Africa and their windlass (the motor that lowers and lifts the anchor) had jammed.  Rick offered to help, but we learned that they had called their charter company (a different one from ours) and thqt someone was on their way to help.  we noticed one of their creww was on the aft steps cleaning a large tuna (we guess it was about 30 pounds) that they had caught just hours prior to their arrival on La Digue.  They ended up giving us a beautiful tuna steak.  Thanks guys!

After putting the tuna in the refrigerator, we headed into town.  First we went to the bakery and got some bread.  Then we decided to go out for lunch.  We walked down the street, checking out the menus as we passed restaurants.  We ended up at a small hotel with a restaurant surrounded by a lovely garden.

We had a pizza and it was really good.  As Rick said better than we could get in East Brookfield.  Having filled up on pizza, we headed to the grocery store to a few provisions (no Randy we didn’t buy anymore overpriced cold cuts).  On our way back to the dinghy we stopped at the bank to get some cash.  We returned to the boat and relaxed below as it rained on and off.  We didn’t eat the tuna because we were still full from the pizza.  It will be delicious tomorrow.

Fingers crossed that it’s not too rocky and rolly tonight.

A couple of random thoughts, We are on a 52 ft boat (which can sleep up to 10). We had a 52 ft boat in Greece but there were six of us so we had help when sailing and anchoring. We were a little worried that the boat would be a lot for the two of us to handle, but we haven’t had any issues. The other thing is mostly Europeans seem to come to the Seychelles. Mostly we hear German being spoken. We have run into a few South Africans and a few folks from the Middle East and Israel, but no other Americans.

We had a great night’s sleep in the nice calm Baie Pasquiere.  We were one of only three boats in the bay. 

It was a leisurely morning of discussing and planning our next stops.  After lunch we headed over to Curieuse Island, which was right across from where we were anchored.  It was too far to dinghy so we pulled the anchor and moved the boat.  We reanchored, dinghied ashore, and beached the dinghy.

Curieuse Island is a national park.  Ron, a park ranger, told us a little about the island.

The Seychelles consists of 115 islands and Curieuse is the fifth largest, behind Mahe, Praslin, La Digue, and Silhouette. It was named Curieuse because the explorers who discovered the island were sailing in a boat named . . . (wait for it) . . . Curieuse or Curious in English.  For many years it was a leper colony. There was a large house near where we came ashore which had been the house of the doctor who took care of the lepers. Typically we could go in but it is closed now due to instability resulting from termite damage.

More recently the island was designated as a national park and a home for about 100 giant Seychelle tortoises.  It’s also one of two locations that you can find the Coco de Mer tree, which is the national symbol of The Seychelles.  Ron recommended we take the 1.7 km path to Baie de la Raie to see the tortoises.  It had some ups and downs and some boardwalks through the mangroves.  It was good gorilla trekking preparation for Rick.  Here are some pictures from the walk.

We got to the other bay and there were the tortoises.  I tried to pet one but he started to move towards me and almost stepped on my foot. I lifted his shell and slid my foot away. 

I found another smaller one, sat down and started to feed him (I don’t really know if it was a him or her) some of the surrounding mangrove leaves.  He ate the leaves but once I started petting him he wasn’t interested in the leaves anymore.  I spent about a half an hour rubbing his neck.  I wanted to bring him home, but then I’d definitely be over the luggage weight limit!

On the way back to the boat I was looking for the Coco de Mer trees.  The Coco de Mer tree produces the largest nut in the world.  It takes 5-10 years to mature and has a very interesting shape.  I didn’t see any of the nuts, but I think I saw the trees. 

We got back to our dinghy and rested for a few minutes.  We planned to return to the same anchorage as the previous night.  It is close to a resort called Raffles and Rick was hoping to go to dinner in one of their restaurants, so we called from Curieuse to see if we could get a reservation.  If we could, we would anchor closer to the resort, however we were told that the restaurants are for guests only. Too bad.  We returned to the boat and moved it back to where it was last night. 

It was a quiet evening of dinner on the boat. 

An interesting note, I asked Ron, the park ranger, if the Seychelles ever get hit with hurricanes or typhons.  He said no because the Seychelles are only about 4 degrees south of the equator and cyclones can’t form on the equator.  Islands further south, like Madagascar and Reunion Island, are vulnerable to cyclones. They impact the weather in the Seychelles, but not seriously.

Ron told us about the 2004 tsunami.  It took about 8 hours to get to The Seychelles after it hit Sri Lanka, so they had plenty of warning.  Still many people didn’t know what a tsunami was, so they weren’t sure what to do.  He was working at a resort at the time and people told him that the water on the beach was gone. At first he just told them it was low tide but then he went to look for himself and saw lots on fish flipping and flopping on the beach.  He saw the wave coming and ran. He was fine and only two people died in the Seychelles.  He said after the wave retreated the swimming pool was full of sea creatures. 

We spent the night anchored in La Digue.  We were anchored further out than the previous nights, hoping it would be calmer.  WRONG! It was worse.  Not only were we rocking and rolling but the water was slapping the back of the boat, making an awful racket and sending “shock waves” through the boat.  We also were not swinging into the wind which had Rick concerned.  I got very little sleep, while Rick did sleep, but fitfully. 

We hung out for a little while but agreed that we did not want to spend another night in La Digue.  It was overcast, would sprinkle intermittently, and we got one strong downpour. So, we headed back to Praslin.  It was a short trip so we just motored, no sails.  The first bay, Anse Gouvernmente we tried seemed like it had a rocky bottom and we didn’t want the anchor to get stuck on a rock, so we moved on to the next bay, Anse Volbert. 

We got anchored and had some lunch.  Then I promptly took a nap. 

After a sleep I felt somewhat better so we got ready to go snorkeling.  There was a small reef off the beach where we had anchored.  We dinghied to the shore and tied up to a tree.  We snorkeled for about an hour, Rick’s snorkel seemed to work fine.  I think he has his snorkeling mojo back.  I saw several barracudas and many of the same fish as I saw yesterday. 

We came back to the boat, showered and relaxed.  Spaghetti dinner on the boat.  We are expecting to sleep much better tonight because the bay is very well protected.

We had a good night except that it started pouring at about 2am so we had to get up and close the hatches. 

Our plan for the day was to go to Felicite Island which is has a private 5/6 star resort (I looked it up and bungalows start at about $3,500/night and go up to $15,000/night), snorkel, and return to La Digue.  It was a leisurely morning and we left for Felicite around 11.  It’s only about 3 miles so it didn’t take long.  For the short journeys it doesn’t make sense to put the sails up so we motored the whole way. 

We anchored close to the shore and the reef.  There were about 5 catamarans and several smaller boats already there.  Felicite is beautiful just like all the other islands. While we were there a helicopter came twice to drop off or pick people up from the resort.  Here are some pictures.    

We had some lunch and relaxed a little more.  We joked that our mothers would not approve if we went swimming right after eating lunch.  Eventually we donned our snorkel gear.  I left the boat first and swam to the reef.  At the reef, I found Rick but he seemed to have his own agenda so I swam off.  I saw lots of fish but I don’t know most of their names.  The sergeant majors were hanging around me, hoping for food.  I also saw a barracuda and a school of yellow and white striped fish.  The school probably contained 1,000 fish and then they were eating off the coral they looked a huge flock of butterflies.  I wished I had the GoPro with me.  I have a new snorkel/mask combo unit because my old snorkel leaked and I was having to stopped every couple of breaths to empty it.  This need one works so much better and it’s the first time I have really enjoyed snorkeling in a long time. I returned to the boat after snorkeling for about an hour.  Rick wasn’t on the boat and I couldn’t see him in the water but I wasn’t concerned because I thought he was just behind a boat.

While I was snorkeling I would popped my head up to look for Rick.  I saw him walking along the beach and I figured he was asking if we could have dinner there.  Shortly after I arrived at the boat I heard Rick’s voice on deck.  Apparently he got water in his snorkel, couldn’t clear it, was really afraid he might drown, so he headed to shore for help.  He didn’t think he could make it back to the boat so they brought him back in dinghy. Yikes!  He was happy to be back on the boat and says he’ll test out the equipment before snorkeling again.

We showered and relaxed before leaving Felicite and returning to La Digue.  As we were leaving, I was lifting the anchor and it was clearly stuck on a rock or a piece of coral.  I tried several times and was I was panicking that we were stuck, the boat drifted forward which must have dislodged the anchor.  Phew!

The trip back was quick and uneventful.  However we had more anchor problems when trying to anchor at La Digue.  The anchor was upside down in the anchor channel, which has happened before and was never a problem, but this time the anchor swivel was wedged into the anchor channel and it wouldn’t drop. I tried the boat hook and couldn’t unwedge it.  Rick came up and shook the chain and prodded it with the boat hook and it came lose.  Then we anchored easily. The anchorage is quite crowded tonight. There are probably 18 boats here.

It’s been a long day.  We are ready for a quiet uneventful evening.  We had a beautiful sunset and dinner on the boat. 

We had a rough night.  The wind was switching from SE to S and the swells were coming from the south so for awhile last night the boat was rocking so much so that it woke us up.  Eventually we were able to get back to sleep.  We are not in an ideal location.  Typically sailboats moor in La Digue’s inner harbor however they are rebuilding the retaining wall so we have to be in the outer harbor which is less protected and more susceptable to swells. 

We had planned to sail to a private island, anchor off and do some snorkeling but it was quite windy so we opted for plan B.  After a hardy breakfast, around noon, we headed into the island and rented bikes.  Here’s a picture of Rick with his bike. 

We road down to an old coconut plantation, only about 2 miles away.  La Digue’s main industry used to be coconut oil but the world has largely moved away from coconut oil to palm oil so the planation is no longer active. 

We arrived at the planation, paid the fee to get in and continued on our bikes.  Rick was thirsty so we stopped for a coke at the snack bar. Refreshed, we biked on to the tortoise enclosure which contained a huge, huge stone in addition to about 25 tortoises.  The sign said they were up to 100 years old and said they eat a wide variety of grasses, leaves, and fruits.  It also said we shouldn’t scratch their shells because it was painful for them and can lead to illness.  There were people in the pen, feeding and petting the animals so I got in too.  The tortoises really liked being petted on their necks and heads and would stretch their necks out to be pet. Once the petting started they didn’t move.  It was very endearing.

Then we rode on to Anse Source D’Argent which is supposed to the most beautiful beach in the Seychelles.  It lived up to its reputation.  There were huge boulders which looked sort of like The Baths at Virgin Gorda, BVIs. A long path lead to the water, then back around some boulders and back to the beach.  The sand was very soft and fine.  It was really beautiful.  Rick sat and absorbed the beauty and I walked the entire path.  We had planned to snorkel but decided the reef was too rough, so we sat and enjoyed the scenery.  Here are some pictures. 

We could have stayed forever but felt like we needed to get back to the boat.  On the way back we stopped at the snack bar and Rick had a coconut while I explored a little.

Here are a couple of additional pictures from the plantation. 

On our way back to the boat we stopped at the grocery store and bought the expensive cold cuts.  We returned to the boat and relaxed. 

We spent the night at the base because by the time we were ready to leave it was too late.  Rick was up early and checked the wind.  It was directly behind us and would be pushing us forward as we tried to raise the anchor.  So we waited for the staff to arrive and help take the boat off the dock.  Finally we are on the water.  We had to back out of the lagoon we were in and that was a little difficult but Rick managed it just fine.  Then we motored to La Digue.  Here are picture from our sail.

La Digue is said to be the most beautiful island in the Seychelles or at least the most photographed.  It is never overrun by tourist because of the lack of accommodations.  The island itself is only 3.5 miles long and 2 miles wide.  It has a population of about 3,000 people. 

It only took us an hour to travel there.  We didn’t put the sails up because we were headed right into the wind.  We arrived and anchored off the island.

Our next chore was to get the dinghy motor off the rail on the back of the boat and onto the dingy.  It was located in an inconvenient spot, heavy (50 lbs) and awkward shape.  Luckily Rick had brought a block (pulley).  We rigged it up to bear the weight as we moved it off the rail and onto the swim platform.  From there we got it attached to the back of the dinghy.  We were quite pleased with ourselves for our ingenuity. 

Now we were ready to go to shore.  We dinghied into the inner harbor and with the help of some locals we found the dinghy dock.  Then we walked around the very small town of La Passe.  It has a very nice vibe. The main road consists of pavers and everyone is riding bikes.  Here are some pictures. 

We enjoyed a late lunch of barbeque then walked to the grocery store, stopping along the way to check out restaurant menus as we passed.  The grocery story was better than the Praslin store but still we couldn’t get cold cuts, at least not at a reasonable price.  With our grocery shopping done we headed back to the boat to shower and relax.  We skipped dinner because we had had a late lunch.

There were six other boats in the outer harbor with us.

Not much to report today,  The base was a hive of activity.  There were two more charters going out today and of course they had to finish up the briefings from yesterday.

We got our chart briefing this morning.  When we were planning this trip we expected that we would be spending a lot of time exploring islands. At the chart briefing we learned that we could not anchor overnight at many of the smaller islands.  Some are private, some just don’t have a good anchorage spot and some are too exposed to wind and waves. Instead it sounds like we will doing day trips to  visit these small islands to see beautiful beaches and enjoy some great snorkeling and then returning on one of the main islands to spend the night. 

Here is a map of the Seychelles. 

Just for reference we landed on Mahe, the main island and then took a ferry to Praslin, the location of the Dream Yacht Charter base.  After the chart briefing, we think we will spend roughly a week in La Digue, a week in Praslin, and a week in Mahe.  Expect to hear about a lot of snorkeling expeditions and maybe even some underwater pictures thanks to Randy’s GoPro. 

After the charter briefing we had the boat briefing.  There were a few issues which we got squared away by noon.  The biggest disappointment is that we don’t have a freezer. During our sailing trip in New Caledonia we had a freezer and bought food for the whole three week trip when provisioning before we left the base.  We won’t be doing that this time. 

During the boat briefing, Nile came by with 2 fresh jackfish which he cleaned on the dock.  We ended up giving one of the fish to the guy giving us our boat briefing because it was just too much food.  We expected to be able to freeze some of the fish but that’s not going to work. 

Rick spent that afternoon getting familiar with the electronics and making a plan for our departure to La Digue tomorrow morning. 

Rick made one of his one dish wonders, chicken with curry seasoning, roasted potatoes and roasted tomatoes. It was wonderful.

We get the boat today! 😁 We were awake early so we had a leisurely morning packing up.  As we were leaving the “apartment concierge guy” said good bye and told us that he had worked there for 6 years and we were only the third Americans to rent the apartment.  I guess it’s too far to travel for most Americans.

We left the apartment with our suitcases and brought them down to the base. It’s about a 5 minute walk.  Our boat was returning from its previous charter and needed to be cleaned before we could board.  We were supposed to be able to check in at 3:00 pm.

So we left our suitcases at the base and took a taxi to our favorite bakery, Jenny’s which serves breakfast and lunch. We hung around reading.  We wanted to go to the grocery store with imported food so we left Jenny’s at 12:30 and started walking there.  We were ambling along, stopping at benches in the shade to stay cool.  At one such bench I checked my phone to see how much further and realized that they closed at one o’clock.  Darn! I guess no imported food us today or tomorrow.

We called a taxi to take us back to the base.  Our taxi driver told us that the Seychelles are home to about 100,000 people, 6,000 on Praslin, 3,000 on La Digue, and the rest on Mahe, the main island.   It seems to be a mix of people, people from Africa, India, Mauritius, and a few Europeans.

Back at the base we hung around some more. While we were sitting around in the heat our food was delivered.  It had to sit outside because the boat was still not ready.  Finally at about 4:00 the boat was ready for us.  Luckily that staff helped us carry our food and suitcases aboard.  I unpacked while Rick familiarized himself with the boat.  There were 4 other charters starting the same day so we did not get our chart briefing or boat briefing before their quitting time.  

A gentleman name Nile was visiting the boats offering to deliver fresh fish in the morning. He wasn’t sure what type, maybe jackfish or barracuda. Apparently you can eat barracuda from these waters. In the Caribbean you’d get pretty sick.

We have a 52 ft Dufour named Vanga.  It has 5 cabins and 3 heads.  Here are pictures of the boat:

We were tired so we didn’t cook, we just has cheese and crackers for dinner.  

Sleep report (once we get over our jet lag I promise I will stop writing about our sleep) Rick has a pretty normal night but I was up most of the night and therefore slept until 10:45. In my defense it was 2:45am EST.

After getting a late start we started the day by going to charter base. Devina, the customer service manager, thought she might have a power cord for the PC so we wanted to check with her first.  Unfortunately no joy.  We decided to take the bus downtown instead of walking.  I always like to take public transit because it makes me feel very accomplished if it all works. Today it all worked so I’m feeling good.

Once downtown we went to the telcom store and got the SIM for my phone.  Then we started checking the electronics stores.  Although the PC is about 3 years old, I think this model was recently introduced here so we didn’t have any luck at the first three or four places.  Eventually we stumbled into the office of an IT consultant. It turned out that the cord for his Ipad would work but it had a Seychelle three prong plug which wasn’t going to work on the boat.  Next problem to solve, find a converter which we tracked down pretty easily. 

Two problems solved it was time for some lunch so we went back to the bakery and got panninis.  At the bakery Rick talked to a friend of the owners who is a sailor. He gave Rick pointers on where to go and what to avoid.  We may meet up with him later in the trip. 

On the way back to the apartment we stopped at the market recommended by Devina and ordered food and supplies to be delivered to the boat tomorrow.  There are a few things to get tomorrow at the imported food store but in general we are feeling good about our progress. 

Here are pictures of the town etc.

We didn’t go out to dinner because other than the restaurant we went to last night there isn’t much inspiring.  I had my leftovers from last night and Rick had leftover panni.  I worked on the blog. Rick hung out on the deck and watched the Seychelle fruit bats.

Rick was up very early this morning (actually night ). The Seychelles are 8 hours ahead of Eastern Standard Time and some of our electronics show Seychelles time and some still shows Eastern Standard Time (don’r ask me why) so it can be very confusing. When Rick got up he thought it was 4:00 am (actually it was 4:00 pm in E Brookfield) but it was 2:00 Seychelle time. He figured it out when the sun didn’t rise at 6 and by then he couldn’t go back to sleep. So this is a long winded way of saying he didn’t sleep much. On the other hand I slept until 8am Seychelle time and woke up feeling much better.

Our apartement is very nice. We picked it because it’s close to the ferry dock and the Dream Yacht Charters base. It has a nice view of the water. Here are some pictures of our apartment.

Once we were up any ready to go we walked about 15 minutes to a bakery that Rick found. They drive on the wrong side of the road and some spots have sidewalks and some don’t so the walking can feel a little treacherous at times. At the bakery I had a wonderful chocolate croissant and a pineapple smoothie and Rick had a chicken curry pie which he said was quite good. We had a long conversation with the owner who is from the Seychelles but spent time in the UK and her husband is from Canada.

From there we continued walking into the very small town and to a grocery store that has some imported foods. Here are some pictures from our walk into town.

Everything including food is quite expensive here because it has to be shipped in. We checked out their offering but only bought a couple of limes and a diet coke. We are are still figuring out the provisioning. We want to have the food delivered to the boat on Saturday afternoon because we have be out of our apartment at 10 and can’t get on the boat until 3, and don’t want the stuff sitting out in the hot sun during that time, not to mention that we don’t have a car to get the stuff to the boat. Lots of logistics!

It was quite hot so we decided to return to the apartment. We stopped at the bank on the way back to get some Seychelles Rupees and at the local telcom store to check on getting a SIM card for my phone.

Sortly after we arrived at the apartment our suitcases were delivered, so we are happy to be reunited with our stuff! While unpacking I discovered that I had forgotten the power cord for my PC. We ended up spending a good chunk of the afternoon figuring out how to get a new cord. I couldn’t find an Amazon vendor who would ship to the Seychelles and we checked with our neighbor about send it, but that was going to cost at least $200. Rick was communicating with some local electronic suppliers but no one was optimistic. We will continue to work on this problem tomorrow.

Needing a break from headaches we decided to walk over to the Dream Yacht Charter office. We meet with the customer service manager who was very helpful. She told us where to provision and gave us some ideas about the cord. The boat is out on charter and doesn’t come back until Saturday so we didn’t get to see it.

That evening we walked to a restaurant that was about 1 mile away. As i mentioned sidewalks seem optional. Becase we are near the equator it gets dark here around 6:00. The walk was a little nerve racking but we had flashlights so it was fine. The place we went had two sides, one for take out and one for dine in. The prices were higher for the dine in and there were a lot more options. We were the only people dining in, but there were lots of locals coming for the take away. The food was very good.

A couple of random notes

1. They speak Creole here which seems to have a lot of French words, some of which i can understand. Most people speak some english, although it helps to speak very slowly.
2. . The weather is quite hot, especially in the sun. I’m guessing it’s in the mid to high eighties. So far it hasn’t rained but I’m sure that will change soon enough.