Back in the Seychelles Again

    We arrived back in the Seychelles after a long, 28 hour, flight. Dulles Airport near Washington DC to Doha in Qatar (14.5 hours), a 9 hour layover in the shopping mall like Doha airport and then 4.5 hours to Victoria, Mahe, Seychelles. Fortunately the flights weren't too full. Pretty beat after these flights, we are getting too old for these marathons.

    The picture above should be a beautiful, lush green mountain side overlooking Eden Island Marina where Georgia has been safely tucked away for the last two months. The reason it is just a white box is because while we were away someone broke into Georgia and stole my Canon Digital SLR with its two zoom lenses. There was minimal damage to the boat, but we both felt deeply cut by the loss of every liter bottle of the duty-free Bombay Sapphire Gin we had brought all the way from Langkawi, Malaysia. They got some US cash and some custom jewelry too. 

    The Seychelles has a major heroin problem. Per-capita it is said to be the highest in the world, close to 10% of the working population being users. That accounts for the high petty property crimes in the country. Surprisingly, unlike other countries such as the US, this hasn't brought along significant violent crime. The drugs come through the Middle East often originating in Afghanistan. Seychelles being both a destination for some of the shipments as well as a major transshipment port enroute to mainland Africa.

    The Seychelles police were quick to come down to the boat and take a report. They were very friendly and as thorough as is practical in this case. They actually visited the boat four times. Above they are taking a fingerprint off of a plastic panel that was broken by the culprits.

    We spent about a week getting the boat back together and installing the various gifts for the boat we brought back with us. Installed a new autopilot control head which is clearly a very practical thing to have. But the best thing we installed was new, self-closing toilet seat. Doesn't get more luxurious than that. 

Now we are out at Praslin Island doing a little shakedown to make sure everything works and enjoying one of the Seychelles most famous beaches, Anse Lazio. 

One of the reasons to come out to Praslin was to clean the boat bottom of the slime growing on it. I jumped in to start cleaning was greeted by about two dozen Remora fish. These have a sucker on the top and typically attach themselves to whales, sharks and Mantas.

Next up is to provision and prepare for our 2,000 mile passage from the Seychelles to South Africa. More on that next blog.

A bossy local all dressed up to share our dinner out

Paul 

 

Overcoming Range Anxiety

 

    I'm not sure if Range Anxiety is actually listed in the latest DSM as a genuine psychiatric disorder, but to any new owners of all electric vehicles it is definitely viscerally real. Just how far can you go on the last charge and how accurate is the mileage estimate on the car's display?

    After driving the entire US West Coast and then across the country from San Diego to North Carolina on the East Coast in a 2012 Tesla Model S, I can definitely say I've overcome range anxiety completely - I now have lots more time to deal with my other anxieties. Too bad we don't own the Tesla, it was only a delivery. 

We stopped at lots of Tesla Supperchargers along the way. You can see the saguaro cactus behind the supercharger posts here in Arizona.

Most of the Superchargers are in mall parking lots, hotels, truck stops, chain hotels or near fast food restaurants. This one was in a 1920s gas station and rest stop on the original Highway 66.

Driving through the California desert was way hot. The Tesla AC worked hard. This is a dash picture while charging in the dessert. In the bottom right you can see the outside temperature at 116*F (47*C). At these temperatures the Tesla AC has to run at full blast to cool the batteries while they're charging.

If you drive a Tesla and use the Superchargers you are automatically part of The Club. That means hanging at a Supercharger off the Interstate you are bound to take up a conversation with another Tesla traveler. "Where you from? How far are you going? What year is that one? Did you hear the latest thing Elon Tweeted? Great cars, have a good day"

The car behaved beautifully all the way across. It should be super reliable too as it only has 17 moving parts in its drive train. To say the least, I've drunk the Koolaid and am totally bought into the Tesla.

Best stops across country: 

Winslow, Arizona and Santa Fe,  New Mexico

Best t-shirt:

 Make Orwell 

Fiction Again

Now that we've made it to Winston-Salem, North Carolina,  with the Tesla intact, we are busy packing up and getting ready to fly back to the Seychelles. That's if we can successfully jump through all the Covid-induced hoops to get approved for entry. Then it'll be boat maintenance and a shake down before we can start our passage to South Africa.

Paul