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Pirates Captured!
Oh Great...while watching FOX News on the evening of the 31st, before our arrival in the Seychelles, this announcement of a the US Navy capturing pirates in the Seychelles comes on.We’ll begin this episode by actually re-winding the clock back till the evening of March 31st, as we are sailing the Indian Ocean about 24 hours from Port Victoria in the Seychelles. We’re watching FOX News in our suite and an announcement comes on about the U.S. Navy capturing five ‘suspected’ pirates off the Seychelles Islands after gunfire exchange. HOLY SMOKES!
The guided missile destroyer USS Farragut fired on and sunk the pirate mother ship after it attacked an oil tanker off the coast of the Seychelles, and they reportedly captured 5 pirates. The Farragut is part of Combined Task Force 151, a multinational task force established to conduct anti-piracy operations in the Gulf of Aden. GO TEAM!
Well, it was the talk of the ship the next day…Happy April Fool’s Day! NOT! So, we arrived at Port Victoria (Mahe), Seychelles about 5:00pm on the 1st. Speaking about April Fool’s Day, unfortunately, last year on this day, we were departing our world cruise in Dubai because of the propulsion problems. Could we be cursed on this day?
After docking, we were able to go ashore and walk through town. We ended up sharing a bit of a cab
Terrific!
After pirates attacked an oil tanker off the coast of the Seychelles, the USS Farragut sunk the mother ship, disabled a skiff and captured five pirates. Megan Kelly breaks the story. ride later with Pat & Carrie for a short evening tour. We stopped in town at an ATM and got some local currency and checked-out the downtown…not much going on and no great restaurants, so we decided to go back and eat on the ship.
As the highest peaks of the submerged remnants of the super-continent Gondwanaland, Seychelles represents the most ancient mid-ocean islands in the world.
Seychelles, a young nation, can trace its first settlement back to 1770 when the islands were first settled by the French, and remained in French hands until the defeat of Napoleon at Waterloo. It was ceded to the British under the treaty of Paris in 1814.
Under the British, Seychelles grew to a population of 7,000 by 1825. Large plantations were established that produced coconut, food crops, cotton and sugar cane. During this time, Victoria became its capital, the exile of many troublemakers from the Empire, the devastation caused by the famous Avalanche of 1862 and the economic repercussions of the abolition of slavery.
Seychelles achieved independence from Britain in 1976 and became a republic within the commonwealth. Seychelles has maintained its multi-cultural roots, being a melting pot of
Early Evening Arrival
We are pulling into Port Victoria about 5:00pm. Remember those 3 boats together in the left side. different races, traditions and religions. Today, the population of the Seychelles is about 81,000. Victoria, one of the tiniest capitals in the world, has maintained its traditional architecture and reflects the country’s British past.
The Seychelles is a favorite destination of the high-class travel magazines and fashion shoots. It’s a fabulous place for luxury resorts and has some of the world’s best-preserved natural habitats. Many of its more than 115 coral and granite islands have never been settled by man…but some were notorious pirate hideouts. It’s also known as the Galapagos of the Indian Ocean.
Mahe, a fertile granite island, is the largest of the Seychelles islands, at 17 miles by 5 miles and is home to 90% of the country’s population. It is the hub for transfers to the other islands in the archipelago.
We awoke on the morning of the 2nd and were scheduled for two excursions today. Our first is Northern Highlights, which took us to the Botanical Gardens where we saw the giant Aldabran land tortoises, fruit bats, octopus trees, great flowers and double palms, better known as coco de mer. We then stopped for several great photo ops and on to a
Port Victoria Harbor
The view as we are preparing to dock. nice hotel on the beach where we had time to walk the beach in search of shells and sea glass, which we found. Annette and I split one drink of the Coco de Mer at the bar after our beach walk. We then returned to Victoria downtown for a brief guided walking tour.
Before we parted, we asked our guide what she had heard about the pirate attack, and if they may have come from Mahe. She said that they were not locals but that they were being detained in Victoria until being sent to the US. She was unaware of any pirates that lived locally, that they were Somalis. She did let us know that the three ships in the bay that were connected together were Iranian ships under arrest for 3 months for illegally fishing in their waters, and that the Red Cross had to deliver food to their boats.
We returned to the ship, had a quick lunch and prepared for this afternoons excursion, Coral Cruise to Cerf Island. It was a beautiful, sunny day as we embarked on one of two beautiful catamarans next to the ship and sailed off to Cerf Island where
The Pilot Boat
The pilot boat works with the captain on the wing bridge to get the ship docked. we were able to take turns and board a semi-submarine viewer, similar to the one at The Great Barrier Reef. We also had time to snorkel, which Doug took advantage of. It was great! We were also given, guess what…bread, so we could feed the fish. They boiled the water as usual! We were entertained with guitar and song by one of the catamaran’s crew on the way back to the dock. It was another unbelievable day!
This evening we were treated to a barbeque on the pool deck.
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