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