Seychelles Log
Unfortunately my time in the Seychelles so far has been spent trying to find crew. Both of my crew
jumped ship (must have been a bad captain!). Actually one wanted to go to Africa and the other is
heading back to Italy to try and become a pilot. So maybe it was not totally my fault:) I promise less
floggings for the next crew.
The diving here is terrible I hate to say. The last big El Nino in the late 90s killed over 90 percent of the
corals so there is no such thing as a reef here. There are lots of rocks and fish, but no colorful corals.
The corals were so decimated that there are not enough left alive to even attempt a recovery over the
last 10 years! I sure wish folks would wake up and think about what global warming will do to the reefs.
This place is the perfect example of what will happen. I am glad and lucky to have the chance to see the
world now, because they predict that the world's reefs will be nearly gone in the next 50 years! I guess I
need to take more photos so we can show our kids what their world used to look like before we destroyed
it.
Oh well enough doom and gloom. This is a very beautiful place with dramatic granite mountains. There
are beaches with large granite boulders on them and lots of green jungle as a backdrop. The diving is
also granite boulders. Luckily the rocks provide some nice hiding places for juvenile fish so there are still
fish here even without corals. There are giant land tortoises like the galapagos and this is the only place
in the world for the Coco De Mar (double coconut). It is basically a piece of Africa that broke off and was
uninhabited for so long it had a chance to develop into a unique place just like the galapagos.
Now it has an exploding population, water rationing, a huge tuna fleet, and one really smelly large tuna
processing plant that loves to share the odor with the anchorage in NE winds. The people are happy
friendly folks that speak three languages (French, English, and the local Kreol). Their economy is in a
shambles and their currency is pretty much worthless outside of the country. Tourism is the major money
maker and they make all tourists pay for parks, hotels, diving, car rental, etc in foreign currency! Imagine
visiting the botanical gardens and being told to pay 5 US dollars to get in! They won't take local rupees
in their own country! This is all part of the government plan to get foreign money and prop up their
economy.
Some of the locals here are very friendly and believe in sharing everything. One boat found that out the
hard way when some locals stole their dingy in the middle of the night. The 25HP engine was gone, but
the dingy was found later slashed up and destroyed. This is apparently not that uncommon here in
Victoria. It is a small town so likely folks know who is doing it, but feel that we can donate to the cause I
guess. Apparently boats can be boarded at night as well by thieves, but I have not see this yet (luckily).
Hopefully I will find a couple of crew soon and get out to explore the nearby islands. I wonder what tuna
free air smells like?