Category: Seychelles

Happy Birthday Stepanie!!!

Today was a better day than yesterday.  No crisises. 

We were up early, talking about the rest of our trip.  We feel like we have seen pretty much everything on Praslin and La Digue that we want to see.  We are somewhat disappointed because the anchorage in La Digue was terrible. Praslin doesn’t have many good anchorages and the island isn’t as accessible to things like restaurants and provisions by boat as some of the other places we have sailed.  Many places we have sailed have dinghy docks so we can easily get on the island and get to some conveniences. We considered sailing to Mahe, but it would be a rough 6 hour sail each way.  After much discussion and research we decided we will turn the boat in a couple of days early and get an apartment.  We booked an apartment in Seychelles capital Victoria starting October 19, so we will have three full days on Mahe before we leave a week from this coming Sunday for Madagascar.

Also while planning and researching we decided we wanted to go to Vallee de Mai today and have a private tour.  I found a tour guide who was available for an afternoon tour.  We decided to go ashore to organize a taxi to take us to Vallee de Mai.  We found a taxi driver in the parking lot of the little guest house close to the beach we’re moored off and arranged for him to come back in the afternoon to pick us up.  While we were ashore we stopped for a fruit juice and a diet coke at the little restaurant.  We returned to the boat, relaxed, had lunch and watched someone climbtake a boson’s chair ride to the top of the mast to string a new topping lift on a neighboring catamaran. Then we dinghied back to the beach to meet our taxi driver. (Please, someone, tell me how to make a graceful landing on a beach in a rising tide!)

On our way to the Vallee de Mai our taxi driver was telling us about his experience during the 2004 tsunami.  He said that all the water between Praslin and La Digue was sucked into the wave.  He said you could walk from Praslin to Curieuse.  He also told us that the tortoises somehow knew to go to higher ground.

We arrived at Vallee de Mai and met our guide, Medina, and her 9 year old daughter, Ciara. 

Vallee de Mai is a well preserved palm forest and one of two UNESCO sites in the Seychelles.  It is home to the Coco de Mer which is endemic to Praslin and produces the largest seed and fruit in the plant kingdom.  The trees are either male or female and geikos or wind transfer the pollen from the male plants catkin, which produces pollen for 10 years, to the female plant’s flowers which only bloom for 36 hours.  The fruit takes 6-7 years to mature and weighs 30-60 pounds. It has quite a yonic shape.  The seed can take up to 2 years to germinate and the tree typically matures in 20 to 30 years.  

The tree generally grows from 75 to 140 ft and lives for up to 250 years.  You can calculate the age by the rings from leaves on the outside of the trunk. 

The leaves are fan-shaped and channel water to the base of the tree. 

The tree also has a unique root system that makes it much more wind resistant than other palms. 

It is called Coco de Mer because early explorers saw the nuts in the water and thought they originated in the water.  Only later when they came ashore did they find the true source of said nuts. 

In addition to telling us about the other flora and fauna in the reserve we asked Medina about the Praslin situation in general.  She said that, not surprisingly, the pandemic had been very hard on the Seychellois economy and now the government was trying to diversify.  She also said the Covid vaccine was readily available and that the government paid for the shots. 

Medina was a wonderful guide and her daughter was delightful.  We really enjoyed ourselves with them.

Our taxi driver was waiting for us when we exited the park.  We stopped at the bank for cash on the way back to the boat.  Because there is no dinghy dock we have to beach the dinghy.  Coming into the beach isn’t too bad, but getting the dinghy back in the water and starting the engine while the waves are coming in is difficult.  Unfortunately in the process of trying to hold the boat while Rick started the engine my camera got wet.  As of right now it’s sitting in a bag of rice and I’m hoping that it will dry out and return to life, but I’m not overly optimistic.  It may mean I’m using my phone for pictures for the rest of the trip which isn’t great because it doesn’t have much of a zoom.  Oh well.  (Please tell me how to gracefully launch a dinghy in a falling tide!!!)

We had a chicken dinner on the boat and a quiet evening. 

It was a day . . . .

We had a very quiet and calm night.  During the previous evening we keep commenting to each other about the lack of rocking and rolling.  Rick kept saying this is the way it’s supposed to be. 

We were up early and pulled the anchor by 7.  We had been told at the chart briefing that we needed to be at the Aride Island, the bird sanctuary island, by 9AM.  The island was only 5 miles away, but we figured we’d get there early and have breakfast while we waited for someone to pick us up and take us to the island  We motored over there and arrived around 8.  The anchorage was unprotected, which we knew going in, and was quite rough.  I was up at the anchor and Rick was back at the wheel.  We have headphones so we can communicate while anchoring. 

The anchor was down and we were waiting to make sure we were stuck.  The boat was being bounced around by the wind and the waves.  There was particular strong “bounce” that vibrated through the boat.  I said “what was that?” and Rick replied “it was a wave”.  Several minutes later (I am still up front and Rick is at the wheel), he saids “Oh my God, the back of the dinghy fell off and the motor is in the water”.

I returned to the back of the boat and found that to be the case.  The dinghy has two inflated sides and a hard crossbar or slat across the back where the motor resides, normally.  The slat was folded into the water and the motor, luckily, was still attached but completely submerged.  You can imagine there were some explicatives flying.  We believe that the dinghy got caught under the swim platform.  A wave must have slammed the boat onto the back of the dinghy and the crossbar broke free from the sides and was only attached to the dinghy by the floor of the dinghy. Here are some pictures to explain the various boat terms

Ok what to do now?  Here’s what the dinghy looked like

For those of you wondering, we couldn’t just tow the dinghy as it was because it wouldn’t make it.  Our first act was to get the swim platform partially up to avoid damaging the swim platform or further damaging the dinghy.  Next we were able to get a rope through one of the handles on the back side of the dinghy.  This was not easy because the swim platform was angled up and the boat and the dinghy were bouncing around in rough seas with the motor dangling in the water.  We were able to secure the dinghy parallel to the back of the boat.  At this point we considered getting into the dinghy to thread a rope through a loop of rope that was attached to the motor bracket. We decided this plan was too dangerous because the back of the boat could again slam down and hit the head of the person in the dinghy.  Plan B, call the base and ask for help.  We got hold of the base and they told us we were too far away and we needed to just lift the 50 pound motor, which was submered, onto the boat.  Easy to say from the office. When Plan B fails and there’s no Plan C, return to Plan A. 

So I donned a life jacket and got in the dinghy while Rick sat on the swim platform and held the dinghy out with his feet.  Laying on my stomach I was able to get a spare rope through the rope loop (which was in the water) on the motor bracket and tie it off.  I quickly got back on the swim platform.  Next job move the dinghy to the side of the boat so we could use the block attached to the bimini.  Again not an easy task but we accomplished it. 

From there we used the block and the winch to raise the motor.  But then it was clear that the weight of the motor was going to damage the bimini frame so we lowered the motor back into the water and attached the block to a stanchion.  Rick was at the winch and I was able to drag the motor onto the swim platform.  VICTORY!!!

We ended up putting the motor into one of the compartments in the cockpit and moved the dinghy back to its normal position behind the boat (with the swim platform up!)

To add insult to injury, there wasn’t any other boat at Aride when we left around 10 so we think that there might not have been island tours that day. Ouch!

We motored back to the base where we anchored.  Here’s a picture of the base from where we were anchored

.They brought us a new dinghy and motor and took the old ones away. 

We are hopeful that they do not charge us for dinghy or the motor.  Rick is pretty sure that the dinghy can be repaired and that the motor will start once it dries out. We sat at anchor for a little while just taking a few deep breaths.  As we always say, something will happen, and hopefully that’s the only something of this trip.

We motored back to Anse Lazio where we relaxed and had a quiet evening.

We had a relatively calm night on La Digue.  Our plan today is to go to Grand Soeur to snorkel and return to La Digue for the night.  But before we left Rick thought of one more thing he wanted at the store so we dinghied into town.  First stop the bakery for some breakfast treats.  I got a chocolate croissant and Rick got a raisin rock cake, aka scone (In my opinion rock cake is a more accurate name.) We did our errands and returned to the boat.  Here is a picture of the boat.

We left La Digue around 10AM and motored to Grand Soeur, an island which we had been told had great snorkeling.  It was a relatively short distance so we motored.  There were other boats there and we watched them after we got ourselves anchored.  It appeared that there was a strong current running between Petite and Grand Sour because we saw a paddle boarder that couldn’t make it back to his boat and had to be towed back by the dinghy. We also watched a dinghy try to land on the island, but it was too rough and they turned around.  Finally while we could see clearly see the reef running along the shore. Nobody was snorkeling.  All these observations discouraged us from attempting to snorkel.  So, we had some lunch on the boat and enjoyed the scenery. 

We left there Grand Sour around 1PM and decided to head to a bay on Praslin instead of returning to a La Digue.  The harbor has relatively easy access to Aride Island which is a bird sanctuary. We okan to visuit it tomorrow.  It took us about 2 hours to motor to Anse Lazio, which is on the northern end of Praslin. Along the way we pass St Pierre island which is often photographed on Seychelles promotional literature.  We hope to be back because there’s supposed to be great snorkeling.  Here is a picture.

We arrived at Anse Lazio, a beautiful, well protected bay.  We are expecting a great nights sleep here. 

After anchoring we got into the dinghy to go ashore and explore a little.  We beached the dinghy and tied it to a tree.  We went to the local guest house for a drink.

 We returned to the boat to eat the other half of our tuna steak! It’s going to be an early morning because we have to be at Aride, seven miles away, at 9AM. 

Overall Anse Lazio is a great spot because we are not in the marine park so there is no charge, it’s well protected and we can get a taxi from here to go anywhere on the island.  We’ll definitely be back here tomorrow night. 

Here was today’s route

We had a relatively calm night and woke up to a sunny day.  With the good weather inviting us back up on deck, I looked for my visor and to my dismay I couldn’t find it.  We searched the boat and can only figure that it was on deck and during the course of the last several rainy days and it blew overboard.  Darn!

Our plan for today was to explore the northern end of La Digue. So we headed into town and retraced our steps from Saturday just to see if I left my visor somewhere on La Digue.  No luck.  We also stopped at all the gift stores to look for a new one and again no luck.  I have another hat with me so that will have to do. 

We stopped at the Italian restaurant (where we had pizza the other day) for a soda, then did a little food shopping.  We walked north around the island to see the sights.  It was about 2 miles each way.

Rick wanted to walk rather than bike because he thought it was better training for our gorilla trek.  Here are some pictures from our walk.

We stopped at a small resort for a light lunch and had this beautiful view. 

On the way back we saw a small electric cart and I asked the driver if he would give us a ride back to town.  There are no taxis in La Digue, everyone just rents bikes.  Unbeknownst to us he was driving a family back to town and they agreed we could join them.  They were from Reunion Island and didn’t speak much English. 

We got back to town in time to go to the SIM card store.  Somehow we have gone through 10GB of data in 12 days.  Fear not, we bought another 14 GB so the blog will live on!  Our errands done, we returned to the boat where we showered to cool off.  I think it will be another night of cold cuts because, although we had a light lunch, we’re not hungry for dinner. 

We had a very rocky and rolly night (it was so bad I took seasickness medicine) but we both slept!

As for our day they say a picture is worth 1000 words

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.