Tracy’s back with part two from her charter in Seychelles. She shares some insight into chartering with newbies and shares some fun and scary antics from their encounters with turtles, white sandy beaches and urchins!

It certainly helps to charter with someone with experience but it should never stop you from booking this amazing type of adventure because adding a “skipper” to a charter booking is as normal as adding tonic to your gin!

In our case, both Colin and I have heaps of charter experience along with Colin’s Yacht-Master ticket and endless years and boating knowledge. Together we have sailed Brazil, Turkey, Greece, Caribbean and Seychelles to name a few, so we are super comfy hopping onto a charter boat, and we also both love to guide and look after ‘rookie’ crews turning them into hardcore “been-there-done-that-and-know-what-we-are-doing-now” crews.

Initial lessons involved how to drop, secure, check and lift the anchor - these are crucial skills for safety, peace of mind as well as preserving the environment. Our enthusiastic foredeck crew – Boerie, Policieman and the Farmer were pro’s in no time.

Next was working with the tender, davit hoists and painter lines (*the very important rope that secures the tender to the boat). Also crucial for safety, quick access to collect the ladies who have drifted way off the ‘stern’ on their lilo’s as well as for quick beach access to secure more beers and ice! Perhaps it was this that had our crew mastering these skills immediately.

Enough serious business – let's tell some stories.

The start in Seychelles usually always involves a crossing from Mahe to Praslin and La Dique and we had great conditions for this, with sails up and rods out, taking our time to meander across the approx. 20nm. We rounded the top of Cousin, Cuisine and Praslin islands to spend the first night at Anse Lazio. The swim stop at Anse Georgette was the perfect introduction to the crystal clear warm Seychelles water and brilliant white sand. We did come back here again many times during our 10 days.

In Anse Lazio, we found a couple of resident turtles, which naturally sent me into a frenzy of excitement. Launching the tender we silently glided close to shore to explore the turtle cove without disturbing them. Snorkelling here is always amazing and this time we came across strings of ‘salps’ – nicknamed “the jelly beans of the sea”. These look like millions of tiny jellyfish all stuck together to form long strings. Fascinating to see. The neighbourhood barracuda was as fascinated with us and a little scary having him swim alongside for some time, giving us the eyeball. The life underwater in Seychelles is always incredible and each bay and island has new and fascinating rock formations and creatures living there. We took along our ‘fish book’ which was very well used for reference every day but we eventually lost count on the number of species we encountered.

Along with the PILOT BOOK, these reference books should be included in your packing list. Our choice this time was Indian Ocean Reef Guide by Helmut Debelius. We did wish we had remembered to take along a waterproof camera so we could take pics of all the species spotted, but at the same time, this can be an unwanted distraction from the diving experience itself.

We notched-up loads of different rays, morays big and small, garden eels, lots of trevallies, needlefish, barracuda, a range of soldierfish, pipefish, trumpet fish ….. almost got stung by a lionfish who got a little too friendly, and landed plenty of fish while fishing (almost all released again) including a large wahoo. Fresh fish on the braai, ice-cold Seybrew beers, G&T’s and mind-blowing sunsets at the end of the day is par for the course on a charter.

One fun experience was HUGO (aka Colin), getting very up close and personal with giant sea urchins and impaling himself quite severely on his calf. Thankfully we knew that green papaya (pawpaw) is the remedy so our now highly efficient crew set off to shore in search of such a remedy. We all kind of scoffed at the idea but did it anyway – slice the skin and use the white milk to coat the infected area, for good measure we sliced thin slices of green flesh and packed it over the leg, strapping it up to keep it all in place. The inflamed painful area was miraculously like new in less than 24 hours. The papaya literally eating away the spines! Good information to know for sure.

Boerie and Policieman had the daily task of beer inventory and ice stock regulations. This is by far the most crucial role of the crew and while skipper Hugo plotted the daily adventures, they got to it and ensured no one went thirsty while simultaneously keeping us well amused with their banter.

Popping into La Dique is a must, not only replenish the beer and ice stocks but also to enjoy real island Pinã Coladas at the beach bar, cycle the island and visit the giant tortoises. We love this island, although I have to say we did prefer it back in the day when there were no cars, and only carts and bikes were allowed. The people are such fun and always helpful and it is a pleasure to spend time here. It really is impossible to describe just how beautiful the rock formations and beaches are. Our night at anchor just outside the harbour was our only unpleasant night, with bad weather, strong winds and waves. Colin and I taking turns to stand watch as we were fairly close to the reef. But all was good at sunrise and the night was quickly forgotten.

At this point our crew were now fluent in sailing terminology and knew that “the stern” was not a cross captain but the ‘back’ of the boat where the braai lives and a “hatch” was not what happens to a chicken but was their cabin window! So many laughs with this banter.

Another fascinating find were the swimmer crabs which we saw close to islands as well as far out in the middle of the ocean. Near Coco’s, there were so many crabs swimming around that the resident hawksbill turtles were in a feeding frenzy and fairly oblivious to our presence while we watched them in fascination.
Goodness, I could go on and on but let’s leave it there for now and save some for next time.

Suffice to say, the adventure is real each day and writing this makes me yearn to be back there.

Exploring Seychelles and fighting with Urchins

SOME OF OUR TRUSTED SUPPLIERS