Category: Seychelles

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.

After almost 3 years of no travel, we are off again.  This time we are spending almost a month in the Seychelles, then we are going to Africa, specifically Madagascar, Rwanda, Kenya, and Zanzibar for about 3 1/2 weeks.

We left East Brookfield on Monday, September 26 and spent Monday night at the airport because our first flight is left at 8:20 on Tuesday morning.  Our wonderful neighbors, Randy and Karen, drove us to our hotel at Logan.  But first we had to stop at Santarpio’s Pizza.  

Everybody loved the pizza but we can’t recommend the house wine.  

After a lovely dinner, we checked in to our hotel and Rick went to the bar to make new friends. 

We were up early the next day because when we tried to check in with JetBlue (our first flight) they wanted our visa number but the Seychelles does not require a visa.  We tried to resolve the issue with customer service before we left with no joy.  It was no problem at the airport.  

After clearing airport security, we went to the lounge for breakfast and then proceeded to the gate where we discovered that our flight was about an hour late.  We didn’t have a long layover in NY so we were a little worried about making our connection.  In NY we had to change terminals which involved a 10 min walk and more importantly having to go back through security.  Luckily we made it in time and were the last 2 people to board.  

It was a long 12 hour  flight to Dubai and I didn’t think the movies were so great (but the food was pretty good for airline food).  Neither of us got any sleep. We landed at 7:30 in the morning, Dubai time. So although it was light we couldn’t really see the Dubai skyline as we landed. Mostly we saw desert and lots of sand.

The layover in Dubai was also quick as we immediately proceeded to our next flight.  Our initial impression was that the airport was no where as nice as Doha.   We both slept on the flight to the Seychelles since it was the middle of the night according to our body clocks. 

When we arrived on the island of Mahe in the Seychelles we learned that we didn’t need a visa, but we did need a travel authorization which we had could have applied for in advance had we known about it. Instead we spent about 20 mins and a bunch more money applying for it at the airport.  Because of this delay we were the last people to go through customs and when we got to baggage claim our suitcases were not there.  Then we had to wait another 15 minutes for the lady who handles missing bags to come so we could put a claim in.  We hope to get the suitcases either tomorrow or on Friday.  Luckily we have a few things in our backpacks.

We are spending the next 2 days on Praslin (pronounced pralin), the island where we pick up the boat, in an apartment. We will use this time to prepare for our sailing trip.  We took a taxi from the airport to the ferry.  Our taxi driver gave us a very brief history of the Seychelles.  It was first colonized by the French and then the British took it over (they drive on the right as a results of Britain’s influence).  She (our taxi driver) told us that today the Seychelles are independent but part of the commonwealth.  Queen Victoria visited in 1903 and named the capital Victoria.  Queen Elizabeth arrived by boat in 1972 to open the airport.  There are a strong smell of smoke in the air on our way to the ferry.  The landfill had caught on fire yesterday but it was almost out.  

We had to wait about one hour to board (below are a few pictures from the ferry waiting area) the ferry and then had to sanitize our hands and don our masks as we boarded.  The ride was about an hour and very rough.  Between extreme exhaustion and the rough ride I didn’t feel too well.  Rick slept most of the way.  

Once we arrived on Praslin, it was a 5 min walk to our apartment where we were met by Rahib who showed us our apartment.  

We relaxed for about an hour before walking up to the small market to get  water and a few other things.  Back in the apartment I got ready for bed and quickly fell into a deep sleep.  Rick was about an hour behind me.