November 8, 2008 – La Digue & Praslin, Seychelles

As we sailed into the group of islands on a sunny morning the water was very clear and the most beautiful blue and turquoise color I’ve ever seen. You could see the bottom 50 feet down. The morning we were anchored off the island of La Digue, the 4th largest inhabited island in the 115 island country and it has some of the world’s best beaches. It is famous for being the location of many fashion photo shots with the soft white sand, huge granite boulder and beautiful waters. There are wagons pulled by oxen for touring around and the vanilla bean is a local product.

Our mission this morning was a snorkeling excursion on Coco Beach. We took the tender to the main dock and transferred to a catamaran capable of carrying 50 passengers but only 25 were put on each one. We took 25 minutes getting to the island which consisted of piles of large granite boulders and one small beach which was about the size of a normal bedroom. About 50 yards from the beach was a small outcropping of boulders with no beach and the reef stretched between the 2 islands. We snorkeled from the boat and the water was spectacular. Although the reef is mostly dead from a 1998 tsunami the fish were incredible. The variety, colors and quantity of the fish was amazing and it was the best snorkeling I’ve ever seen as far as viewing fish. The water ranged in depth from about 40 feet to 1 foot and the fish were everywhere. There were hundreds of sea urchins and an occasional sea turtle and ray. The water was so clear you could see for long distances. After about 90 minutes of snorkeling we all returned to the boat for a 90 minute cruise around several nearby uninhabited islands. One of the catamaran crew played guitar and sang, we saw dozens of dolphins frolicking around the boat, flying fish “flew” out of the boat’s way and the scenery was magnificent. The boat’s crew had 3 fishing lines trolling behind and they caught a mackerel and a dogfish. We returned to the dock to a long line waiting for the last tenders. It was going to take at least 3 tenders to clear the line so we wandered around the village a bit. La Digue was quaint and it reminded us of the Bahamas in the 1950’s. When we returned to the ship, Captain John was on the tender dock helping guests make the treacherous step from the tender. He is the most involved Captain I’ve ever sailed with.

We were greeted with champagne and cold cloths as we stepped aboard and during lunch the ship about a mile or two to anchor off Praslin Island. Praslin is the 2nd largest island of the country and is home to the famous coco-de-mer, the world’s largest nut. It’s a highly forested island with narrow paved roads barely wide enough for busses to pass. We took the shuttle bus to Cote d’Or Beach which is a resort area. We were let off at a beach restaurant where we were offered fruit drinks and we first wandered around to a few of the shops and then walked the beach. The beach was a long expanse of very fine grained white sand and crystal clear water with a lot of trees among the resort bungalows. It was quite scenic and enjoyable to explore. The last tenders returned after sunset and we set sail for Mombasa, Kenya and we’ll have 2 days at sea getting there. After dinner we tried a few hands of blackjack and opted to have an early night.