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Sailing The Seychelles in a Catamaran

20 November 2023 11 min

“Pass the bat!” is not something you often hear at the dinner table, unless, of course, you’re sailing in the Seychelles. Sunsail’s UK Marketing Manager found out as much and more besides on a voyage of discovery around this unique sailing holiday destination. Read on to find out more……

Mahé

As you soar over miles upon miles of blue sea, it is wonderful to look out of the small plane window and spot some tropical islands in the distance. The Seychelles really are in the middle of nowhere. Mahé airport is small and relaxed. There is definitely not the chaos of London. A quick nip in a taxi (10 mins), brings you to the immaculate Eden Island Marina. I learned from the Sunsail base manager that the Seychelles government pumps so much money into cleanliness that you don’t tend to find rubbish anywhere. The marina facilities were only built around two years ago and include everything from a supermarket and yacht services to a bank, and smoothie bars, and an eclectic mix of restaurants.

We were introduced to our boat for the trip, the brand new 404 called ‘Reve Dou II’ (translated as ‘Sweet Dreams 2’ from Creole). A spacious catamaran with four cabins, we quickly settled into our new abode. While half the crew caught up on sleep, the other half went out to source some food for the boat and the start of our adventures. As always, when visiting new places, I tend to go into a local food shop and choose a random selection of unidentifiable items. This time, the selection ranged from deep-fried jackfruit to coconut and banana cake.

We started our trip with lunch at Bravo! one of the local marina restaurants. The King fish steak and smoked fish in Creole marinade went down a treat. We then went off on a tour of the island. People often pass Mahé and head straight out to Praslin and La Digue, but they do have a fascinating history and are worth a visit. Our first stop was Victoria, the capital. It has a rather amazingly silver-painted version of Big Ben in the centre of one roundabout. We visited the famous fruit and veg markets. If you are after local spices, this is the place to buy them, and it includes the option to buy some of the more unusual items, such as cinnamon and lemon leaves. You can also buy fresh vanilla essence and coconut oil. The market is set in an old building, painted in a wonderfully eclectic mix of primary colours, and the colourful array of fruit and veg, makes for quite a photograph.

Heading up out of Victoria as we started to climb the mountainous ridge that acts as the spine to the island, we passed Belair Cemetery, where rumour has it that the Seychelles giant was buried. Dropping off the other side of the ridge, we passed the Indian tea factory, where the local Sey Tea is made.

Jeremy, our skipper, picked us up from Port Launay – a chilled-out sandy bay, with locals offering fresh coconut water decorated with hibiscus flowers. Apart from a discreet 5-star hotel and some hidden lodges, this bay is considered a nice, peaceful anchorage and worth a visit if you have time. Time definitely slows down here as the elders relax on the beach with youngsters floating around out on a wooden boat, fishing on the reef.

As the sun started to set, we sailed around to Beau Vallon. The beach stretches for miles and is perfect for long walks. Enroute there, we had our first glimpses of the dramatic tropical landscape of Mahé and the shoals of flying fish that that become the norm. The first sighting often takes you by surprise, as this hummingbird-like creature catapults away from your bow wave as you sail along in the evening light. That night, we went ashore to grab some local beer. Jeremy took us to a shack on the street where Didieu, a local fisherman, cooked us up an absolute storm. Street food at its best. I’m not sure how big Jeremy thought our stomachs were though, as he pre-ordered four emperor fish for us, each the size of a forearm and meaty, along with rice, local creole papaya salsa, and salad, all for only the equivalent of £10 each. We took the food back to the boat and sat out under the stars, listening to the flying foxes chattering away on land, eating our way through the delicious feast. After a long day, we were in bed by 9 pm.

Praslin

Up at six to welcome the sun rising, with clear blue skies and a gentle 10 knots of breeze, we sailed to Anse Lazio on the island of Praslin (considered one of the most beautiful beaches in the world), around 30 nautical miles from Mahé, passing some of the key areas to see Whale sharks and manta rays. We passed the amazing, privately owned Cousine, and its male equivalent, Cousin. The birdlife is staggering, with frigate birds circling on the thermals above the boats and white long-tailed tropic birds and sooty terns soaring past us. We had a really easy flat crossing and arrived earlier than predicted, at around 10 am. You can snorkel straight off the boat here, and the fish life is abundant. From bat fish welcoming us as we dropped anchor to blue-spotted ray, damselfish, surgeon fish, unicorn fish, and needle fish, there was something for everyone.

I even took my fins off at one point and just climbed up onto a deserted beach and sat looking back over our boat moored up. If you are looking for white sands, turquoise beaches, and overhanging palm trees, this is definitely somewhere you should visit. After snorkelling, we took the dinghy ashore and walked along the beach to a restaurant called Bonbon Plume, watching some young lemon sharks darting in and out of the waves. Do not fear; they are completely harmless. Bonbon Plume offered us the first sighting of giant tortoises. They are very docile creatures; they definitely tend to move at a slower pace. Sitting just off the beach in the shade of the tamarind trees (native to the Seychelles), we ate a selection of local dishes, from octopus salad to prawns and bananas with lentils, pilau rice, and a very fiery chilli sauce. Although I wouldn’t have naturally cooked prawns with bananas, I was pleasantly surprised and rather enjoyed the dish.

The afternoon took us to one of the two UNESCO sites found in the Seychelles – the Vallee de Mai – a forest with six types of palm and home to the very rare and famous Coco de Mer. Discovered by Marianne North in the 1960s, the Coco de Mer fruit rocketed to fame when its medicinal properties were discovered. The trees can only be found on the islands of Praslin and Curieuse and you cannot sell the fruit unless you have a licence from the government. It is one of the few trees that has a male and female variety. Males tend to grow to 30m and females roughly 24m. At the end of the tour, you can get a photo with a Coco de Mer (the national symbol) and find out just how heavy they actually are!

From Vallee de Mai, we were picked up from Cote d’Or and headed to Curieuse Island, a stone’s throw away from Praslin. At 100 rupees each, you can land on the island and visit the sanctuary and the giant tortoises that wander around the island. In fact, there are twice as many giant tortoises in the Seychelles as there are people, with over 200,000 found on all the islands – a much bigger population than the Galapagos, the only other place on earth where they live. Jeremy told us some wonderful facts about them as we landed. Once upon a time, young girls were given tortoises at birth, keeping them as pets until the girl’s wedding day, when they were eaten at the wedding feast. Now they are protected, handed from one generation to the next, and kept in local gardens.

On arriving at the beach via dinghy, you could see the giant figures just strolling along the beach. The team of people that look after them is just wonderful and so interesting to listen to. The oldest tortoise on the island is 110 years old and was introduced as a baby when the population was revived. There are a few legendary tortoises in the pack, from one called Mike Tyson, because of his tendency to creep up on you from behind and bite you, to Captain Morgan, who only has three legs. I became particularly enamoured by one who loved having his neck rubbed and eating leaves out of my hand. For such a big, slow creature, he actually moved at quite a pace and ended up following me around.

As we got back on the dinghy, a baby grey reef shark came cruising past before we picked up anchor and sailed around to another anchorage on Praslin, and home to some interesting reef to snorkel on. We headed ashore for a drink in a local hotel, scattering ghost crabs on the beach, before going back to the boat to gaze at the stars.

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La Digue

My favourite thing to do on a sailing holiday is to wake up at the crack of dawn, jump off the boat, and go for a morning snorkel. On this particular morning, I was lucky to see a number of different rays, a rather large striped needlefish, and sea cucumbers in all shapes and sizes. I climbed back onto the boat, greeted by more batfish, and we set off for La Digue, eating breakfast enroute. It was a little grey on waking up, but after Emma’s excellent sundance on the bow, the rays of sunshine were soon breaking through the clouds. We had more flat seas and light breezes to push us on our way.

We arrived at La Digue and anchored just outside the marina, which you can go into for fresh water if need be. I was rather nostalgic on arrival, as the place reminded me hugely of the Pacific Islands, with only a population of 3k. There is a sense of true ‘island life’ where the world slows down and everyone enjoys the simpler daily pleasures in life. You can’t help but be sucked in as well. Our wonderful driver, Amir, took us off on an exploration of the island in his taxi, first visiting Anse (means beach in Creole) Fourmis, where green and leatherback turtles often come ashore to lay their eggs. The island is abundant with Takamaka trees, another natural Seychelles plant that the local rum is named after as well – also worth trying.

If you want to see the island in its true form, you should hire one of the many bikes. Locals will offer them to you left, right, and centre as you land on the jetty. Either that or an ox and cart. Amir took us up to the highest point on the island, reached by a road that I admit, is one of the steepest roads I have ever been on and probably feels even steeper if you’re on a bike (take lots of water) but the views over Praslin, Curieuse, and Felicity are worth it! This view point was followed by a trip to the wild Grand Anse beach, which has rolling waves crashing over the reef, backed by stunning boulder formations and thick vegetation. It is wonderfully wild and less touristy. There is also a great beach shack there that sells fresh fish, fresh off the BBQ, marinated in local spices, plantain chips and coconut water, and Sey lager.

One thing you notice is the number of giant tortoises strolling around, from hanging out in the tidy cemetery to standing in the middle of the road, causing temporary traffic jams, albeit one car and a few bikes. Another rather peculiar but funny site is all the chickens strolling around. It was never clear who exactly owned them, but they seemed happy enough, rooting through the dead leaves for grub. The island is a lot less populated than other islands, and you can really smell the forest undergrowth and hear the birds.

Amir was making us laugh throughout, including one about how there wasn’t a big enough choice of women on La Digue, plus everyone knew everything, so he located his wife on the mainland in Mahe and brought her back. A much safer option, apparently.

We dined at the Fish Trap – a relatively new addition to the island and considered one of the best restaurants in the islands. The décor is wonderfully alternative and very nautically themed. Starting with fish tartar in a passionfruit marinade, followed by a Creole seafood curry and homemade coconut ice cream, it had to be one of the best meals I’ve had in ages. So fresh and delicious. The waiters were also lovely. Though do bear in mind that you might not be able to move very rapidly after eating three courses!

Coconut farming used to be the main industry on the island until not so long ago. It was cantered around L’Union Estate coconut plantation, south of La Passe. These days, it is more of an attraction than a fully functioning coconut farm but offers visitors the chance to see the Old Plantation House, a colonial-era graveyard, and out of nowhere, a boatyard working with epoxy and fibreglass, hidden amongst all the vanilla vines and coconut palms. Not what you’re expecting when you’re learning about spices. They give you a lesson on how desiccated coconut and coconut oil are made using traditional methods. We learned that green coconuts are grown to make oils for cooking and cosmetics, and yellow coconuts are made for alcohol. It leads onto a thin beach where we watched young sharks chasing schools of fish in the shallows – again, not harmful, so do not worry.

The place also acts as the entrance to Anse Source d’Argent, which I personally thought was the best beach in the islands. My advice is to not stop at the first boulders but to wade around some boulders and keep heading along the beach, and you will find a much more deserted version. The backdrop is breath-taking, and albeit a little shallow in places, the swimming is protected behind the reef with lots of fish to see while snorkelling, including some of the biggest parrot fish I’ve ever seen. Someone was even getting married in a little gazebo that fit four people in it. We spent the rest of the afternoon here before having a lazy walk back into town and along the bustling yet very relaxed high street. You will notice the plethora of colours not only that the locals are wearing but also that the shop displays.

We collected a selection of chicken wings, coramunga fish, and veg along with BBQ coals and went back to the boat for the most idyllic sundowner as the BBQ started cooking away. More stargazing, eating, and drinking lemon leaf tea called for the most relaxing evening.

Return to Mahé

We had a really lazy morning, swimming, drinking tea, and generally relaxing before we set sail back to Mahe. The seas were flat as we broad reached back to the mainland, hitting around 7.5 knots. We put the lines down for a couple of hours and caught seven Bonita (a smaller member of the tuna family), releasing them back each time. It was a time for reflection, relaxation, and enjoying the sound of the sails as we eased along in 30 degrees.

More birdlife and shoals of flying fish also kept us occupied, and at one point we had a school of dolphins playing in our bow waves. I had bought yet another eclectic mix of local food for lunch, and we had another tapas-style tasting session, testing out rice balls with marinade, some interesting battered frankfurters, and some cheese and ham balls.

That evening, on arriving back at Eden Marina Island, we thought we would test out the local tradition that we had heard on the grapevine: ‘fruit bat curry’ and some breadfruit chips. Everyone we spoke to said the Marie Antoinette restaurant was the place to try out everything, so off we went. They give you a set menu for four people, so you can try an array of local dishes, from golden fruit chutney, fruit bat curry, and parrotfish to seafood dishes and aubergine. It was quite the feast. Would I try fruit bat curry again? Let’s just say it was an experience. Rather like a pigeon – a red meat and very fruity in taste. Our verdict: by far the best way to see these islands is by boat!

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