Seychelles
27 June 2002
Allen’s email
Greetings to all of you and we hope that you are enjoying the northern hemisphere summer. Winter is going on here but since it’s only four and a half degrees off the equator we don’t need gloves or long johns.
We arrived in Port Victoria, Mahe, Republic of Seychelles on the 25th of June. Our reception here was tremendous. We were boarded by the quarantine officer, customs, immigration, and coastguard. All were exceptionally good natured, professional, and efficient. Such a contrast to our experiences in India (Andaman Isl) and Sri Lanka.
We have just been here a day and have developed a real warm feeling for the place. The people are smiling and light hearted and helpful. The fruits and vegetables are really good (especially after three months of relative deprivation). Mahe Island is a dramatically high island with granite cliffs facing the sea. Much different from the atolls we’ve been hanging around recently. Mists cover the mountains and a slight fog slips off them and comes down to the little harbor in which we lie. Were about 20 minutes from the town center (Victoria) with its great fruit, vegetable, fish and, spice market. Yesterday we bought a big papaya and avocado and are enjoying them today. Also fresh cinnamon and nutmeg are some of the locally grown items. There’s a good bus system on the island so we’ll be traveling inland a bit here and are looking forward to that. It’s fairly expensive here with the exchange rate being 5 Rupees to the dollar but there is a thriving black market for US currency where we’re getting 10Rupees to the dollar. The black market business is conducted almost anywhere. We went to an optometrist, had a quiet conversation in his empty office, gave him 500 US cash and left with 5,000 Rupees. That cuts our costs in half and makes thing more reasonable. A beer on the waterfront now costs $1.30 instead $2.60. We’re looking forward to exploring the place and we’ll be doing that over the next few days and we’ll then set off in the boat again for a look at the rest of the Seychelles group.
We had an exciting sail here from the Chagos Archipelago. It’s a thousand miles and we had the Southeast Monsoon in full swing for the whole trip along with an equatorial current giving us another knot in the right direction. Winds were in the 20 to 25 knot range with large seas aft of the beam. Waves occasionally broke on the boat flooding the decks but nothing real dramatic happened. We had a good moon during the entire trip so visibility was great. It’s always such a joy to be on deck during good winds and a full moon. The water just hissing along the hull, the bow wave curling away and a frothy white wake trailing aft. We caught a yellow fin tuna and a barracuda along the way so we ate well.
We crossed on to the Seychelles bank just before dark on the seventh day. The water depth rises from 9000 ft to 60 ft in about 15 minutes of sailing. That’s a very steep underwater mountain. We crossed the bank, sailing all night under the full moon with a steady 15 knot breeze. It was beautiful. And the dramatic high cliff landfall that came with dawn was stunning. We knew we were going to like it here.
Our time in Chagos was a real Robinson Crusoe experience. We spent three months in the Peros Banhos Atoll. A very deep lagoon with some 15 islands surrounding it and all of that surrounded and protected by a huge barrier reef. The place is completely uninhabited, raw and wild. We caught fish lobster or crab every day for our food. Gathered coconuts and wild belimbie fruit and heart of palm also. We lived half the time in the water and began to sprout gills. The lagoon abounds with sharks, mostly the black tip reef shark. But also lots of nurse sharks and a few hammerheads. Manta rays, bat rays, eagle rays and stingrays are there in abundance and make great diving companions. The variety of fish life is astounding. So is the quantity. Schools of thousands of small tuna would feed in the lagoon, millions of baby fish were everywhere. Lots of birds to help with the eco balance. The area, being uninhabited and off limits to commercial fishing makes it especially rich. It’s also inaccessible to all but private yachts that want to make the trip to an otherwise empty part of the Indian Ocean.