Charter advice for the Seychelles sept 2007

rwilson

rwilson

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Hi this is my first post on the forum. I own a RIB (sorry) and have about 400hrs experience with that, plus 1 month chartering on motor boats. Also, I have my Power boat L2, Pboat ICC, VHF and will be doing comp crew course (probably, but not too sure yet) and then my day skipper for sails very shortly.

I wonder if anyone knows if the area is difficult to sail and any other pitfalls or useful points I should look out for? Also would you say my sailing experience up to the job for bareback charter. I was looking to charter a max of 35ft as there will only be 2 crew inc me!

Finally, are there any good charter companies I should speak to?

All/any advice would be very much appreciated

regards richard
 
Haven't been there for a long time but Sunsail and a French company were chartering boats there.

If you stay in the main islands it's line of sight sailing, the charts are mainly accurate and you need to be able to judge depth/coral by the colour of the water. The out islands are a different proposition and I wouldn't recommend them to inexperienced people.

Check the monsoon seasons, it's windier in the southern monsoon. Avoid the monsoon changeover period (from south to north and vice versa), there's lots of rain and unstable winds.

The islands are extremely expensive, also you might have trouble finding a small boat. The area is beautiful with some of the best beaches and snorkelling I've ever seen.

One thought, the beginner's area for tropical sailing is the British Virgin Islands - smooth waters, less wind than down the chain. Might be worth looking at. Not cheap but cheaper than the Seychelles.
 
I went there on holiday in 2004 and could give you a bit of an idea about Mahe,cerf island,Praslin and la digue if you need it
Never boated on my own there only on resort boats etc
The Islands are granite outcrops in the middle of the ocean well it feels like it
I did get the feeling I was somewhere pretty remote
ah but the snorkelling was divine lots 7 ft reef sharks about
the fishing was brilliant 50 lb red snapper and a 4ft kingfish
Food was a bit limited due to its geography I guess if you dont like fish then dont go
Very beautiful the islands were about a 1-1.5 hour flight apart
so some pretty big distances
regards
 
Richard....
Not an area for the inexperienced. I took the family ( wife and early teenage daughter) to the Seychelles on our 2nd bareboat trip. Trip number one had been to the BVI and went extremely well.

We went with Sunsail to the Seychelles the following year and discovered a much tougher crusing environment than the BVI... No nice dinghy docks to come ashore at, instead had to negotiate surf and then drag a solid fibeglass dinghy far enough up the beach to be safe. Then come back from a meal and discover the tide had gone out and solid, heavy dinghy was now 50 yards from the sea... Supposedly sheltered anchorages that were untenable because the allegedly predictable weather patterns had conspired to cause big swells to come straight into the mooring field... 3 days of monsoon like conditions that had us trapped in La Digue harbour.... I could go on but I won't.

The best day of the two week trip was when we hired an air-conditioned car on the last day. It was the first time we were dry in 2 weeks and we also discovered that, unlike most sailing destinations, you could actually get to better beaches by car than by boat!
 
>negotiate surf

You're ringing bells now, I'd forgotten about that. We had southerly winds and were anchoring on the north of the islands but there was (I guess) a cyclone to the NE of us. The swell coming into the anchorages was impressive. We got very good at landing the dinghy in surf but not before getting dumped a few times.

One memorable night the swell was so bad that Jane wore her harness in bed, tied to a handhold. Funny how the memory blanks out the bad stuff.

We also found an uncharted rock and while we don't use the GPS for inshore navigation we did see some impressive differences between where we were and where the GPS said we were.
 
Thank you all for your input. I spoke to a guy at the boatshow on saturday who mentioned that it was not for the inexperienced and also commented about the swells and issues about coming a shore!! I may re think and go to the med or similar. The BVI i guess is a no go in september??
 
greece or balearix will be fab in september, warm water, no crowds and not shut down.

Southern france is nice but erm the wind is generally a bit rubbish - all the boats are powerboats, even the ones with sticks.
 
I think I have narrowed it down to sciliy or greece.......it will from part of my honeymoon. Itinerary will Lamu near kenya for 7 days, safari for 5 days then boat for 7 days, thats why I was originally looking at the seychelles. But on the basis of my experience med is better.
 
>greece or balearix will be fab in september

If my memory is right the first 2 weeks (at least) in September in the Balearics are peak rates. For some reason the Germans flood in. Should get a good deal in Greece though, after school hols.
 
[ QUOTE ]
..... Lamu near kenya for 7 days, ....

[/ QUOTE ]

That's Lamu IN Kenya, near Somalia! I hope you plan to fly in, the area is a little 'warm' at the moment!

Amazing place though, remarkably unchanged by the significantly increased tourism over the last few years. With the exception of some real tourist holes on nearby islands. I sailed into Peponi's this time last year.
 
Lamu near Kenya yes thats the one, hopefully should'nt be too much guns and ammo there. BUT i will be land based............have booked a week in sicily chartering a Dufour 36, so that should be good.

regards richard
 
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