It's been a busy last few days with some moving on our part. We spent a couple of days at Anse Lazio as expected and the six of us(Morning Glory, Night Fly and ourselves did the hike over to the bus stop just across from the Lazio. It wasn't far but it sure was a ton of up hill and down hill hiking to get there and back. With a life that revolves around a 45 foot boat, hiking a mile or two up and down hills is out of the ordinary for us(Tracy and myself). The bus ride around the island was great getting an advanced look at some of the anchoring spots Praslin has to offer. Some good and some really bad(swell wise). We saw all the shoreline had to offer and then grabbed another bus back after stopping at a food wagon for lunch. Once back, we all visited the "Honest Bar" where there is plenty of beer and soft drinks to drink and basket to put your money in. No bartender required though the actual owner stopped by and all of us had a nice chat with him. Nice guy.
In the morning, Night Fly and Morning Glory took off on another hike while we took off to go back to Mahe Island. Jamie on Totem was available to help out with some sail repairs we needed and we found that two of our four water tanks were empty. We carry about 260 gallons of water but with two of our tanks empty, we felt the need to head back to get them filled. When I installed out water maker back in 2009, I failed to set it up so the water would go into all four tanks. I set it up to go into the two forward tanks figuring gravity would even out the water in all the tanks. Apparently, not so. The two forward tanks are about 4/5s full. So we pulled up the anchor at Anse Lazio on Tuesday and made it to Beau Vallon(04 36.235S:55 25.694E) by about middle afternoon after another great sail. The winds were darn close to perfect for the trip. Just about right on the portside beam with swells about the same. We moved along at a good 7+ knots most of the trip. We got up early yesterday and headed for Port Victoria(04 37.456S:55 27.511E) getting in before noon and got Puff in the water and started ferrying water jugs from shore. At 17.5 gallons per trip, we had some water to move. Each of the tanks that were empty hold just about 75 gallons so that over four trips per tanks plus we wanted an extra load so we could do laundry. Between trip two and three, we stopped for lunch at the Seychelles Yacht Club(where the dingy dock is located). Once our stomaches were full, we started in on the water getting done just about 1700. In the past, when we'd been anchored out of the harbor, we could't have done it in a day but this time, we anchored in the Yacht Club bay making it much simpler to get the water. More trips to the hour. The draw back to the Yacht Harbor is that anchor holding stinks. Most boats drag while in there and we have avoided it since getting here. Now that we needed so much water, there wasn't much choice and since we had planned to get the sail worked on(taking it off the boom and into the dinghy then into the upstairs at the yacht club), anchoring where we had was not an option.
Jamie from Totem(experience sail maker and repairist) came over to take a look at our main sail. When Totem arrived about a month ago, the group he was with(a couple other boats) had made the trip in record time getting from Chagos to Mahe in less than 6 days(distance of about 1100 miles). Going that fast can reek havoc on sails and rigging so we loaned him our sewing machine so the boats that needed repairing could get the job done. Jamie is who we got our new Genoa sail back in Langkawi from. He took a look and we made some plans to get the sail off and into the yacht club. I took Puff in and talked with the office about using up stairs. It was a no go as the space was already booked for other events for the next two days. We could use it at night but that was not going to happen. We scraped the fix and will do it later. Meanwhile, with that job not going to happen, while Tracy secured everything in the boat, I headed off for SEYCMI, the company that fixed our DuoGen. I never paid them for the repair when I picked it up last week. Now it was time to settle up. I took along our invoice for the replacement Stator Plate the tech had broken(bargaining tool). First, they had no idea who I was, then they couldn't find our invoice. Once they finally found it, I had a nice discussion with the General Manager about the cost of replacing the Stator Plate. Our bill was for $1800R and the plate came to close to $3,000R. I explained what had happened and in the end, we simply called it even and off I went to Immigration to get our passports back as we had applied for another extension. A simple in and out in about 15 minutes. With our passports in my backpack, I headed back for Zephyr and we pulled up the anchor and headed out again there being no reason to stay in the harbor since we were not going to fix the mainsail for a few days. We set off for Anse A La Mouche again stopping for the night at Port Launay(04 39.080S:55 23.777E)an indentation in the island on the west side about 8 miles north of Mouche. A big resort is on the hill side about the cove so there are plenty of sunburned people on the beach as well as out on paddle boards and Hobie cats. It's preparing to sprinkle so we've closed all the hatches and put up the side panels on the cockpit. It will be the first test of the silicon caulk we put on about a week ago. We'll see it it keeps the place dry. The cove itself is quite pretty with tall hills and a nice sandy beach Much better looking than Port Victoria. Oh, another reason we left Port Victoria is that there have been some boats getting robbed in the anchorage. On one boat they didn't get much but took that boats dinghy to another were they got off with a computer and other equipment. Now, everyone is locking up their boats and making sure there is darn little left on deck to be a magnet for thieves. Out here, it's a disadvantage having a "cat" as they are much easier to get on board than a mono hull. We have much higher sides making it tough to get on board. We just heard that another catamaran got robbed last night farther down the coast just off the Eden Island Marina. Two men came on board and forced their way inside and accosted the owners. The wife got hit on the head during the fight which ended when the owner pulled a knife and the men jumped over board taking a "tablet" with them(now worthless). With the pirate threat in this area over the last few years, this is the first time cruisers have actually come back to the Seychelles in quite some time. Now with this rash of thefts, it couple really put a halt to others coming in the future. There have been more problems here in the last month than any where we have been. Not a good sign.
As for todays picture, it's Port Launay just before the storm hits it. The white behind the beach is the rain. "White Outs" are common here and not because of snow but so much rain.