Cruising the Indian Ocean with Ketoro - the Seychelles

by Rolf and Irene Fricke on 3 Mar 2010 Rolf and Irene Fricke are cruising the Indian Ocean in their 40ft Admiral Catamaran, Ketoro. Here they describe their experiences in visiting the Seychelles

The Seychelles ... steep-sided granite islands with fascinating runnels in the boulders peculiar to this island group... amazingly and surprisingly covered with dense luxuriant growth (what can support such robust plant-life as a growth medium in those rocks?)

They are fringed by reefs and hence in many cases inaccessible to yachts ... but when you get there, beautiful beaches of fine, soft, dense-packed white sand offering perfect photo opportunities for that ubiquitous “white sand, blue sky, boulder and shady tree” picture of the travelogues.

The shady trees are generally coconut palms or the local takamaka tree, wide-spreading, with big leaves and an

apparent love of sand and salt water!

The extended Seychelles group sits on a plateau only about 40m deep. Thus the seas from outside this plateau are accelerated onto the “bank”, providing potential for challenging waves and currents. Add to this the fact that with so many small islands interrupting the flow one finds odd patterns arising as the sea channeled round the top of an island meets that channeled round the bottom.

Then add the fact that the tall islands have impact on the wind patterns which also affect the wave movement… we mention all this to provide background for the news that we have experienced really odd swell/wave motion on many occasions, both while travelling between the islands and when on anchor.

The worst of this was in Port Launay (on Mahe Island)where we

recently found ourselves swinging wildly and erratically, no doubt affected by the tide, the general sea motion in the bay, and the wind which has the channel and two gaps between peaks to whistle through. At least we never became bored with our ever-changing view… and the anchor held well, although we were up several times nightly to check!

So here we are, 6 weeks into experiencing this heaven, having just completed a circuit to take a look at some different islands and beaches…. and still learning how to do things! So, for example, take “getting to the beach”. All of our experiences until recently were in calm seas where gaps in the reef were obvious and easily accessible, making it easy to get the dinghy or croc to a gentle grounding.

A magnificent quiet beach was found on Felicite Island where we anchored for two days. From the boat, we could see the reef and

the on-shore swell but it all looked manageable. Putting our kit and camera into a dry bag, we set off on the yellow inflatable canoe (the croc), paddling with great skill and rhythm towards the beach area, making adequate use of the swell to take us in smoothly.

Sounds good….? Well it started that way but ended with us being side-swiped by a wave from the back that tossed Irene out from her aft perch and she rolled in, bouncing on the reef rock (which fortunately, in this area, was smooth and not sharp coral) while Rolf managed to hold himself and the boat in check.

It was necessary for a calming snack and a foray into the coconut palms to plunder our next smoothie-bases.

The return journey was considered with some trepidation but we walked out over the rock confidently, Irene (in front) holding the nose of the trusty vessel into the waves as

Rolf stabilised from the rear. Take #2: Sounds good….? Well it started that way but ended up with Rolf stepping into (and almost disappearing down) a hole in the rock requiring Irene to gallantly power the croc out through the waves from her perch up forward this time… and waiting for Rolf to swim out to where she could hold the boat and not be pushed back to shore! Damage? Mainly dignity and pride on both counts.

Experiences under the water are always rewarding. Although the coral has been very disappointing in some areas (compared with some of the SA coral gardens at Sodwana, the Cape and Aliwal: here we have seen enormous tracts of dead, broken coral albeit with some small signs of recovery), we have also seen many areas where the coral is plentiful, healthy and handsome, although there is little in the way of the soft corals.

Just swimming off any rocky point takes one to an underwater world with unusual and spectacular topography and general

structure, often being a continuation of the boulders under water and hence the “runnels” in the boulders become crevasses decorated with picturesque coral in which the fish feed and flourish. Strangely, even in the dead-coral tracts the fish-life is absolutely awesome, resulting in our seeing new fish every time we venture into their world.

Every reef area has large numbers of a huge variety of fish type as well as offering rays, eels, white-tip reef sharks, a school of trumpet fish, giant bump-head parrotfish, sea stars, needle fish, turtles and many of the regular reef fish that grow very large in this environment which (as evidenced by the gunge that grows on the hulls of our boat) is extremely nutritious.

Snorkelling from Ketoro produced, as well as the usual lovely reef fish, a great sight of 8 spotted eagle rays flying in formation under us, many box-type jellyfish (scary) and a pair of hawksbill

turtles. The boat frequently invites a variety of fish seeking shade and food: the butterfly fish in common mooring areas have become accustomed to people and are very large and very bold and …. intimidating!! The photo below looks down on numerous boat-lovers in attendance. One area also has sucker fish (ramoras?) that latch onto the bottom of our hulls and feast on whatever is on offer; unfortunately these fish also strip off a layer of anti-foul paint from the hulls but look too scary so we do not dare get close to them to knock them off!!

To identify other snorkelling or dive spots, we investigate where the day trippers are taken; thus we found our way to Cocos Island, a tiny round boulder island which sees hordes of visitors paying dearly for the trip there. The snorkelling in much of the area is unusual in that the water is no more than a metre deep over stone and rock and the fish are all quite accustomed to the presence of people in their space.

Most of the tourists (we have seen mainly German, French and Italian in our time in the Seychelles) wade bare-foot over the rocks, to our horror: we saw a very sinister-looking stonefish (very poisonous) in those same rocks, not 2m from a barefoot visitor.

Of course, some of the fish species find their way to peoples’ plates. In our case we seem to be landing only Bonita (a type of tuna) so are becoming creative with our ways of presenting this fish and tolerant of the lack of fish variety in our diet. We have seldom put in a line and not caught anything: these waters are teeming with fish and we are grateful for this resource.

We were awe-struck to see a most magnificent sailfish at the end of our line some time ago; it gave a stunning display of tail-walking on the water before, happily, shaking off our lure and returning to the deep. We did not really want to land one of those magnificent creatures. Some flying fish throw themselves at us

and we find them looking (dead and) surprised on deck in the morning. They are bony and scrawny and not to be eaten but make for good viewing as they leave the water at the side of the boat and fly away, looking from behind like little biplanes, and fly often for a few hundred metres, curving and banking before re-entering the sea.

We return to the Wharf Marina near Eden Island and Victoria to enjoy flat seas for sleeping and working, shore power, shore water and the chance to see Mahe on land! Irene is taking the opportunity to return to South Africa for a visit and undertake a giant shopping spree for unobtainable or horribly expensive foodstuffs and pharmaceuticals …. in readiness for the next leg, to the uninhabited islands of Chagos!

Visit the Fricke's on their www.ketoro.blogspot.com!website