Island hopping in the Seychelles
The Seychelles are an archipelago of granitic islands in the Indian Ocean, hundreds of miles east off the coast of Africa. The Seychelles are called the Galapagos if the Indian Ocean, as they are home to a large number of endemic plants and animals. The islands are also uniquely gorgeous, with tall granite mountains and seashell-like boulders sprinkled along the white sandy beaches.
In December of 2021, my friends Kris and Niko invited me to join them for a week of island hopping on a sailing catamaran in the Seychelles… and how could I say no? It sounds insanely luxurious, but the great thing about sailing with my Russian pals is that they fill the boat with friends, and everybody splits the cost (so it’s way more affordable than you’d imagine). After many sailing trips where I traveled alone from the USA to join Kris and Niko in the Mediterranean, I was finally able to convince my boyfriend Jason to join. Our hilarious and equally adventurous friend Kitao (who also happens to be an excellent cook) from Los Angeles jumped on board as well.
Getting to the Seychelles is quite the marathon of flying. We flew nonstop from Los Angeles to Istanbul, Turkey (12-ish hours), and then from Istanbul to the Seychelles’ capital city/island of Mahe (another 8 hours). Jason and I spent a week shaking off the jet-lag and exploring Mahe, before meeting up with the rest of the group to sail. In popular yachting destinations like Greece, Italy and Turkey; you can charter a yacht and sail short distances each day to marinas and ports where there is convenient access to restaurants, and shops to resupply… but that’s not the case in the Seychelles. Although the Seychelles are a popular tourist destination, there is not a whole lot of options for shopping or dining outside of the capital city or resorts. Our week at sea required almost all provisioning be done in one shopping trip before leaving Mahe—which was no easy feat for 9 people for a week.
With our Fountaine Pajot Lucia 40 catamaran “Lucinda” fully loaded with food, water, snacks, supplies, 6 Russians, and us 3 Americans, we departed Eden Island marina for the wilder islands in the Seychelles archipelago. After many days of stormy weather and rough seas on Mahe, the sea was completely calm. There wasn’t the slightest whiff of wind, so we made the 5-hour long ocean crossing using the boat’s motor, rather than sailing. The charter company had provided us with a fishing rod and trolling lure, which we dragged behind the boat in hopes of snagging dinners during the week.
Photos shot on film & DJI Mavic Pro drone
CURIEUSE ISLAND
We spent two nights anchored in a quiet bay at Curieuse island, which was my favorite island in the Seychelles. The island has very cool rocks, beautiful white sand beaches, and the island happens to be a tortoise reserve. On Curieuse, the tortoises roam freely, and you are allowed to walk right up to them and pet them if you so desire… so you can see why this island was my favorite. The weather during the week was SO HOT, which didn’t give us much energy to do very much except swim, snorkel, and lounge for hours on the beach in the shade.
COCO ISLAND
Tiny Coco island doesn’t have a protected bay where we could anchor overnight, so we made a day trip to explore the island. The sea was quite rough on the day we visited, so kayaking and traveling by dinghy to the island was a bit of an adventure. Once on the island, we scrambled around on the boulders to explore the island’s hidden beaches.
PRASLIN ISLAND
On Praslin island we visited Vallée de Mai Nature Reserve. The reserve is home to numerous plants, including the famous coco de mer tree that is native to Praslin. The coco de mer produces the world’s largest seed, which is a massive and oddly sexual looking double coconut.
LA DIGUE
La Digue is home to the Seychelles’ most famous, most photographed beach. We had planned to spend one night on La Digue, but unfortunately the tiny marina was already full when we arrived. Unable to spend the night, we instead anchored for a few hours and swam in the crystal clear water off of the boat, and I flew my drone to the island.
MOYENNE ISLAND NATIONAL PARK
On our way back to Mahe, we anchored at Moyenne Island for our last night. The plan was to snorkel and return to the boat, but I happened to see on Google Maps that Moyenne is the world’s smallest national park. Intrigued, I convinced Jason to kayak with me to shore to see what we could of the island with the hour of daylight left of the day. Once on the island, we hurriedly followed a path that took us past a tortoise nursery, remnants of an old chapel, a rock formation called Clamshell rock, and various vistas overlooking private beaches.
