The nice thing about being on this side of the International Dateline is that we get to celebrate our birthdays twice: once on the date of our birth and again the next day on the day of our birth. Being July 17th here in the Seychelles, it is Mary Margaret’s first of two birthday celebrations. Yea!!!!

Her birthday wish was to find a good snorkeling place so we weighed anchor after a delicious breakfast I made for her (French toast with bacon and real maple syrup) and after our Skype call with our son, David Paul, and his fiancée, Allison. The call itself was a great birthday present.

We first sailed over to St. Pierre Islet, which is in the channel between Praslin and Curieuse. These bare rocks are noted for their good snorkeling. There were a couple of mooring buoys there but we could not tie up to the buoy which was more protected from the wind and the seas. I could not lift up high enough the loop you are to tie up to in order to put our mooring line through. I would have had to drop the dinghy and motor to it as Mary Margaret eased Leu Cat’s bow up to the mooring ball. It was blowing up to 25 knots and the swells, even in the channel, would have made it a challenge. Thus, we decided to continue on. A short time later we spied some more rocks just outside what is called the Gold Coast along the southern third of Praslin. They looked inviting so we anchored outside of Anse Government, since we could not find a way around the rocks and shoals that would lead us into the more protected waters of that bay. We anchored in 15 feet of water in nice sand.

We lowered the dinghy and with our snorkeling gear made a beeline for the rocks. The wind and current were both very strong so we held on to the painter of the dinghy and brought it us as we snorkeled along the rocks. I will post pictures of what we saw but, again, the coral was patchy and the water was murky. However, Mary Margaret spotted a turtle and I was able to get real close to it and take its picture. It was not the least concerned about me as I got within a couple of feet of it and stayed there snapping its picture. That made the snorkeling trip worthwhile and was a great little present for the birthday girl. It made her day!

For dinner Mary Margaret made her great BBQ sauce and I slathered it on the baby back pork ribs that we had bought at ISPC. I had cooked the ribs in our solar oven for 5 hours and then put them on our grill to crisp them up to a golden brown and then applied the sauce, turning the ribs frequently to prevent the sauce from burning. They came out perfect and were a joy to eat.

Tomorrow we will head down to Digue Island. It is near the Coco Island Marine Park and is, in itself, a neat place to explore. They have no cars or trucks on the island and you can either ride bicycles or ox carts to explore it. How fun is that! We will get more information on the Marine Park because it appears you have to have paid for a ticket to go there. We shall see…