Year 7 Day 195 Best Laid Plans Of Mice And Men
18 July 2014 | Anse Petite Cour, Praslin island, Seychelles
Dave/Sunny And Beautiful
One of the things that we have learned during our years of cruising is that the better cruisers and by that I mean those who minimize bad weather passages, poor anchorages, food or water shortages - basically, trouble in general - are those who plan well. However, we have also learned that plans are meant to be changed to reflect any updated information one may obtain.
Well, that is what happened to us this morning. We had every intent of sailing over to Le Digue Island this day but then I saw a picture of the tiny harbor with all the boats stacked in tight, toe rail to toe rail. The picture posted to this blog shows you what I mean. Ugh! While the picture looks very cute if you were just a day visitor, living on one of those boats means no privacy and loud talk and laughter as charters have fun dinners and drinks in their cockpits. Now all of that is only appropriate for them since they have paid so much money to be here and to have a good time. However, that is one of the reasons charters and cruisers typically don’t mix. While we love a good party, we put more value on our privacy and wish to have fun and parties on our terms, not on our neighbor’s terms.
After seeing that picture of the harbor, we talked and decided that visiting Le Digue could wait until our friends Portia and Steve come in mid-August. At that time we will also try diving at the Coco Island Marine Park.
We had decided to return to Anse Lazio for a day or two and then return to explore those areas of Mahe’ that are still waiting for us. However, as we sailed north along the eastern shore of Praslin Island Mary Margaret spied a lovely bay with some mooring balls. It was Anse Petite Cour and it was just too inviting to pass up. Thus, she guided us to a mooring ball which I tied up to. It is well protected here from the winds and the seas and there is a beautiful resort with a lovely small beach in front of us. It is La Reserve Hotel. It is nestled between large granite rocks that line the shore. The view from our mooring is spectacular! I will post some pictures above this blog.
I am glad we stopped here because we needed a place where I could remove the calcium deposits that had built up in the sewer hose that runs from our toilet to the waste tank. About every two to three years I need to remove that hose, beat it with a hammer to break up the scale and then remove it. It had appeared to have plugged up this morning.
Thus, on Mary Margaret’s second day of her birthday celebration, I got to spend the afternoon dealing with the fun a sewer hose presents to you. She was a great sport and actually rolled up her sleeves and helped me in removing and then reinstalling it. Now that is what I call a very special birthday present!!!
The trouble was, after we had reinstalled the hose, the line was still blocked as no water would pump through it. Ugh! I had misdiagnosed the problem. While the hose did need to be cleaned out, the blockage was not in the hose but in the thru-hull. By the time I discovered this it was 1800 and I was exhausted. Thus, we decided that I would dive on the thru-hull in the morning to pull the seaweed out or whatever was causing the blockage.
After a nice, long, hot shower I was human again and we had a simple but delicious hamburger dinner with salad, beets and string fries. Tomorrow, I will be taking Mary Margaret out to dinner at La Reserve as a belated birthday present.