Seychelles Diving: Two worlds in one!
I wake up with a jolt. The boat is moving! I have a slight headache, remnant of some extra Jack last night. Then I remember we asked Skipper Alastair to start early so that we can see the sharks of Marianne South before breakfast ( and not be breakfast ourselves!. We have three guests on board, two of them avid diving photographers like ourselves and we have been on safari in the Seychelles for the last three days.
I get up and good wife Sue has already made tasty plunger coffee. A tasty muesli Rusk breaks the morning stomach pangs. Fortunately I have given up smoking else I think the aches would have been worse . Weather is calm despite the slight breeze of the previous days which caused some slight discomfort on mooring choice at night. Rowan our intrepid Dive Leader is already up on the fly bridge of the 42 ft Catamaran, Suzy-Q with Alastair. The boat is moving at about 8 knots on calm flat seas and no wind. Things are looking good.
“I hope we see some sharks today” says Rowan. “We will try a better drop-off if the current permits.” We both silently relish the thought of some exciting animal encounters especially for our guests.
This is the second time we have tried this site renowned for its schools of grey reef sharks. The previous time (about eight months earlier) we were restricted by bad weather and although we saw some white tip reef sharks (one sees one on most dives in the Seychelles) no Grey Reef Shark was spotted. Truth be known we also did not have the exact drop-off point. Unless you get it from someone by paying, bribing (or other means) one has to resort in the Seychelles to some exciting adventure discovery dives. Another option is to find another dive boat on the prospective site and watch their drop-off point carefully (assuming they know what they are doing). Marking the spot on the GPS then becomes a formality. (This is how e got Johnnies!) This however is a rare occurrence in the Seychelles (to find many boats on any site) especially on remote ones like Marianne South! This site is only really accessible from the sole dive operation on nearby La Dique island or by long range yacht.
I go down to the kit up area where our guests ( Andrew and Fernando) are now already kitting up while sipping some more of the aroma rich coffee. The sea is flat and everyone is now starting to look forward to the dive. Andrew and Sue busy fixing their cameras. Sue does not really care about Sharks as she has her macro lens on ( this is a religion!) but Andrew is busy fitting his new 14mm wide angle onto his new camera. As an equally avid macro man he gas asked me twice what lens to use. He also plans to shot some video as that is what this new toy ( %D Mark II) also does well. He shot some amazing footage yesterday at Ave Maria of the masses of sweepers and schools of patrolling golden pilot jacks (king fish or trevallies) . Sue is fast finding her feet with my 100m lens and shooting some “good ones” as well having shot previously mostly with a 60mm. Fernando and I finish our coffee. We did our gear last night already. In fact Andrew kept me awake last night ( or was I the culprit?) as we also solved some of the world’s great problems. Not sure about those solutions right now. This late night is really the cause of my slight headache which fortunately is now subsiding as it makes way for the growing excitement of the morning dive. Glad Rowan did most of the kitting up though!
About thirty minutes after departing Anse Petite, our wonderful anchorage off the island of La Dique , we arrive at Marianne South, the southerly point of the island Marianne. We are all ready and there is a silence of excitement. The viz she looks good and we can see the blue bottom in navy blue seas. Alastair and Rowan scout the site. We want to drop off as close to the southerly point. The depth gauge is showing that we are now around 20 meters and decreasing. We are about 50 metres from the land. The land mass is dramatic with beautiful shaped granitic rocks covered with lush green vegetation.
“Lets drop here” says Alastair and Rowan drops in first to gauge current. He quickly gives the all clear sign and we all drop in like flies. We have one non diving guest on board but she only watched with bemusement as at 80 she is not a diver although a strong swimmer.
We descend into the blue warm waters (temperature 28 degrees) and the photographers frantically get their cameras ready on the way down. The viz really is good and there is no current to speak of. Marianne South is actually very different to most other dive sites in the Seychelles as it is almost a wall dive. The 20 plus metres of granitic boulders are really dramatic and it “colours” up nicely when photographed, especially with some coral on it.
We see our first white tip and everyone is now fully alert and awake as we move along “right shoulder”. (In the Seychelles you only have two directions depending on current). We soon see some great schooling snappers, soldier fish and big eyes. We watch a small squadron of eagle rays glide past effortlessly and a turtle making his way up for air. Then suddenly out of nowhere he is there! A nice two metre grey reef shark appears out of nowhere. His mere presence immediately has the attention and cautious respect of all of us. Circling us a few times and coming a bit closer in to investigate we try our best to get a good shot. Suddenly it rears off as it loses interest. Unfortunately save for PID not great photos. (Wide angle shots require “virtual kissing the animal” and we were still about four meters away!)
Suddenly we realize we have to honour our deco times and some of us are running low on air after a dive where we touched 22metres. Slowly we ascend back into the blue until we reach our safety stop. A few friendly bat fish come close rand play. There is some interesting jelly fish for the macro guys in the water and a remora is seeking a host with one of us. After a fabulous 61 minutes we are back on Suzy-Q for breakfast, in time for Spanish omelets.
The above dive at Marianne is the second last dive on our three day safari. We have breakfast on the boat as we make our way back to base camp or Eden Island about 20 nautical miles away on Mahe the largest and principal island of the Seychelles. We reach Mahe in the early afternoon after a leisure trawling speed. We manage to hook some Job and Bonito for the braai later tonight.
Rowan calls the last dive of the Safari at the Eden island “house reef,” Johnny’s Rock., a real special reef.
The rock is serious of submerged boulders covered with beautiful stag and plate coral as well as some interesting soft coral. The site is is only about 20 minutes from Eden island off the Mahe coastline. The highest point of the boulder lurks only 5m below water level. There is significant fish live activity, a lovely pair of swim-throughs and a number of interesting cleaning stations. There is the usual resident reef shark, pair of huge Napoleon wrasse and buffalo parrot fish. Fish so large you really get a fright because of their last shadow! There is also a resident school of dolphin that patrols the area and has been encountered underwater. When we arrived earlier in the summer the whole reef was covered in millions of sweepers and bait fish dancing around the boulders. A huge school of golden kingfish was patrolling the area in hunt of nature’s bounty.
We have wasted a bit of time fishing along the way and it is quite overcast when we finally fall into the water (with giant stride and all) almost at 4 o clock. The viz is not so good as the previous week and it almost eerie dark. However arriving below a new sight greets us. All the reef is covered in “yellow flowers” as the turret coral have opened up, mixed with red thistle coral ,dark blue sea and silver dancing bait fish make for a spectacular vision.
It is quite clear that the sweepers masses have now been seriously depleted by the marauding golden trevallies. There is still a few million left however. The macro guys find some spectacular anemones and all with porcelain crab! The resident white tip scout s around as we approach the swim through. An eagle ray drifts past looking for food. This reef is something special as we enjoy the spectacle below us at the safety stop.
We finally ascend after 61 minutes. A great day of diving! I visited the Seychelles the first time in 1991. At that stage I was no diver (yet), but I can remember the good snorkeling and the lingering interest in the resort course being taught in the hotel swimming pool. However the sheer beauty of the islands ( paper white beaches, blue water rugged grey mountains and lush vegetation). I made a promise then that I will be back!
Nine years later I visited Mauritius and had to do a resort course as in the interim I had watched my wife and youngest son qualify as Padi open water divers. Me and the rest of the family duly did nine dives and then as they say the rest was history, the family got hooked1today everyone dives and we have two serious photographers in the family.
We eventually came back to Seychelles in 2007 for a holiday and then renewed our love affair by buying a place at Eden island and then also Suzy Q!, today the ultimate diving experience in the Seychelles.
Suzy is 42 ft Africat with tow IPS Volvo D6 engines. Three cabins and on board anything to keep you busy and satisfied from a TV to full dive gear and of course an ice machine. Suzy operates from the new Eden island marina the highly successful marina development in Seychelles that has been largely done by a South African developer.
Marianne Island
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jump to: navigation, search
Marianne Island is a small (238 acres) granitic island of the Seychelles. It is located 3.8 km ESE of Félecité Island. The island was a former coconut plantation, and on the western side of the island is a long beach. The southern tip of Marianne is known as a world-class diving location. The tallest peak on the island is Estel Hill at 130 meters.
Presently, Marianne Island is uninhabited but is routinely visited by tourists and boaters. For much of the 19th and 20th century, farming and copra production took place on Marianne. There was a former settlement called La Cour, and in 1940 the island had 60 inhabitants.
There are a few species of gecko on Marianne, including the La Digue day gecko (Phelsuma sundbergi ladiguensis) and Phelsuma astriata semicarinata. Reportedly, the rare Seychelles Paradise Flycatcher {Terpsiphone corvina) is occasionally spotted on the island.[1]. Also, it was once home to the extinct Seychelles Chestnut-sided White-eye.
[edit] References
Report on Marianne Island
^ [1] Nature Seychelles
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marianne_Island"
Categories: Islands of Seychelles
MAP and some pictures
The Seychelles are a group of 115 islands spread over a very large ocean mass. The Seychelles lie just south of the equator and although tropical are free of malaria and enjoy a high rainfall and a humid ambient 30 degrees C year round. The islands have two prevailing wind systems. The stronger SE monsoon blows May thru September and the milder NW Monsoon prevails November – February. In between these times there are fairly wind free times that makes for the best diving but diving is in fact possible year round.
Mahe is the main and biggest island with Victoria the capital. The population of Seychelles is around 90 000 with most people living on Mahe, Praslin and La Dique but with the majority on Mahe. Mahe lie only 4 degrees south of the equator and the weather is highly tropical with harsh sunshine, high ambient temperatures of around 30 degrees and very humid (one has to get used to this). If you are diver this is much less of a problem as we spend so much time at 28 degrees our bodies hardly know better. Rainfall annually approach three metres and the rain showers are both torrid (almost like a “leibeurt”) but moist welcome as they cool matters down as well. The best time f here is April-May or October/November, although trust me it is still very nice in December as well.
The Seychelles broadly consist of the inner islands situated on a large underwater granitic plateau that is no deeper than 50m. At the so called drop-off where the depth plunges to thousands of metres there are the first of the outer islands that are all in fact coral atolls. These islands are all varying distances away from the capital Victoria and beg for further exploration. At the moment we restrict ourselves to the inner islands. Apparently here are some stunning wall dives at Des Roches, Alphonse and of course Aldabra, but that surely must be the subject of later discoveries.
Diving the Seychelles offer great bounty. There are masses of fish and underwater life despite significant bleaching following the 1998 El Nino. The good news is that the coral is recovering nicely. The fish life is still prolific and many interesting species abound.
In my (limited) view the reefs are not in such bad shape and appears to have improved over he last few years although there are certainly less turtles. (Turtles have been a delicacy in the Seychelles for decades, although this is now officially banned)
The viz is generally good and one can dive year round in warm water (27-30 degrees), only requiring a “shorty”. There are many sites and a good variety of fish, reef and macro photography. There are species that you do not see in other places in such great numbers as here.
1. Eagle rays; battalions; 90% site chance
2. Many white tip reef sharks: 70% probability
3. Buffalo parrot fish: 75%
4. Napoleons: 60%
Seychelles has a whale shark season from September through November. There is a website that covers this at www. seychelles-whale-sharks.blogspot.com/
I wake up with a jolt. The boat is moving! I have a slight headache, remnant of some extra Jack last night. Then I remember we asked Skipper Alastair to start early so that we can see the sharks of Marianne South before breakfast ( and not be breakfast ourselves!. We have three guests on board, two of them avid diving photographers like ourselves and we have been on safari in the Seychelles for the last three days.
I get up and good wife Sue has already made tasty plunger coffee. A tasty muesli Rusk breaks the morning stomach pangs. Fortunately I have given up smoking else I think the aches would have been worse . Weather is calm despite the slight breeze of the previous days which caused some slight discomfort on mooring choice at night. Rowan our intrepid Dive Leader is already up on the fly bridge of the 42 ft Catamaran, Suzy-Q with Alastair. The boat is moving at about 8 knots on calm flat seas and no wind. Things are looking good.
“I hope we see some sharks today” says Rowan. “We will try a better drop-off if the current permits.” We both silently relish the thought of some exciting animal encounters especially for our guests.
This is the second time we have tried this site renowned for its schools of grey reef sharks. The previous time (about eight months earlier) we were restricted by bad weather and although we saw some white tip reef sharks (one sees one on most dives in the Seychelles) no Grey Reef Shark was spotted. Truth be known we also did not have the exact drop-off point. Unless you get it from someone by paying, bribing (or other means) one has to resort in the Seychelles to some exciting adventure discovery dives. Another option is to find another dive boat on the prospective site and watch their drop-off point carefully (assuming they know what they are doing). Marking the spot on the GPS then becomes a formality. (This is how e got Johnnies!) This however is a rare occurrence in the Seychelles (to find many boats on any site) especially on remote ones like Marianne South! This site is only really accessible from the sole dive operation on nearby La Dique island or by long range yacht.
I go down to the kit up area where our guests ( Andrew and Fernando) are now already kitting up while sipping some more of the aroma rich coffee. The sea is flat and everyone is now starting to look forward to the dive. Andrew and Sue busy fixing their cameras. Sue does not really care about Sharks as she has her macro lens on ( this is a religion!) but Andrew is busy fitting his new 14mm wide angle onto his new camera. As an equally avid macro man he gas asked me twice what lens to use. He also plans to shot some video as that is what this new toy ( %D Mark II) also does well. He shot some amazing footage yesterday at Ave Maria of the masses of sweepers and schools of patrolling golden pilot jacks (king fish or trevallies) . Sue is fast finding her feet with my 100m lens and shooting some “good ones” as well having shot previously mostly with a 60mm. Fernando and I finish our coffee. We did our gear last night already. In fact Andrew kept me awake last night ( or was I the culprit?) as we also solved some of the world’s great problems. Not sure about those solutions right now. This late night is really the cause of my slight headache which fortunately is now subsiding as it makes way for the growing excitement of the morning dive. Glad Rowan did most of the kitting up though!
About thirty minutes after departing Anse Petite, our wonderful anchorage off the island of La Dique , we arrive at Marianne South, the southerly point of the island Marianne. We are all ready and there is a silence of excitement. The viz she looks good and we can see the blue bottom in navy blue seas. Alastair and Rowan scout the site. We want to drop off as close to the southerly point. The depth gauge is showing that we are now around 20 meters and decreasing. We are about 50 metres from the land. The land mass is dramatic with beautiful shaped granitic rocks covered with lush green vegetation.
“Lets drop here” says Alastair and Rowan drops in first to gauge current. He quickly gives the all clear sign and we all drop in like flies. We have one non diving guest on board but she only watched with bemusement as at 80 she is not a diver although a strong swimmer.
We descend into the blue warm waters (temperature 28 degrees) and the photographers frantically get their cameras ready on the way down. The viz really is good and there is no current to speak of. Marianne South is actually very different to most other dive sites in the Seychelles as it is almost a wall dive. The 20 plus metres of granitic boulders are really dramatic and it “colours” up nicely when photographed, especially with some coral on it.
We see our first white tip and everyone is now fully alert and awake as we move along “right shoulder”. (In the Seychelles you only have two directions depending on current). We soon see some great schooling snappers, soldier fish and big eyes. We watch a small squadron of eagle rays glide past effortlessly and a turtle making his way up for air. Then suddenly out of nowhere he is there! A nice two metre grey reef shark appears out of nowhere. His mere presence immediately has the attention and cautious respect of all of us. Circling us a few times and coming a bit closer in to investigate we try our best to get a good shot. Suddenly it rears off as it loses interest. Unfortunately save for PID not great photos. (Wide angle shots require “virtual kissing the animal” and we were still about four meters away!)
Suddenly we realize we have to honour our deco times and some of us are running low on air after a dive where we touched 22metres. Slowly we ascend back into the blue until we reach our safety stop. A few friendly bat fish come close rand play. There is some interesting jelly fish for the macro guys in the water and a remora is seeking a host with one of us. After a fabulous 61 minutes we are back on Suzy-Q for breakfast, in time for Spanish omelets.
The above dive at Marianne is the second last dive on our three day safari. We have breakfast on the boat as we make our way back to base camp or Eden Island about 20 nautical miles away on Mahe the largest and principal island of the Seychelles. We reach Mahe in the early afternoon after a leisure trawling speed. We manage to hook some Job and Bonito for the braai later tonight.
Rowan calls the last dive of the Safari at the Eden island “house reef,” Johnny’s Rock., a real special reef.
The rock is serious of submerged boulders covered with beautiful stag and plate coral as well as some interesting soft coral. The site is is only about 20 minutes from Eden island off the Mahe coastline. The highest point of the boulder lurks only 5m below water level. There is significant fish live activity, a lovely pair of swim-throughs and a number of interesting cleaning stations. There is the usual resident reef shark, pair of huge Napoleon wrasse and buffalo parrot fish. Fish so large you really get a fright because of their last shadow! There is also a resident school of dolphin that patrols the area and has been encountered underwater. When we arrived earlier in the summer the whole reef was covered in millions of sweepers and bait fish dancing around the boulders. A huge school of golden kingfish was patrolling the area in hunt of nature’s bounty.
We have wasted a bit of time fishing along the way and it is quite overcast when we finally fall into the water (with giant stride and all) almost at 4 o clock. The viz is not so good as the previous week and it almost eerie dark. However arriving below a new sight greets us. All the reef is covered in “yellow flowers” as the turret coral have opened up, mixed with red thistle coral ,dark blue sea and silver dancing bait fish make for a spectacular vision.
It is quite clear that the sweepers masses have now been seriously depleted by the marauding golden trevallies. There is still a few million left however. The macro guys find some spectacular anemones and all with porcelain crab! The resident white tip scout s around as we approach the swim through. An eagle ray drifts past looking for food. This reef is something special as we enjoy the spectacle below us at the safety stop.
We finally ascend after 61 minutes. A great day of diving! I visited the Seychelles the first time in 1991. At that stage I was no diver (yet), but I can remember the good snorkeling and the lingering interest in the resort course being taught in the hotel swimming pool. However the sheer beauty of the islands ( paper white beaches, blue water rugged grey mountains and lush vegetation). I made a promise then that I will be back!
Nine years later I visited Mauritius and had to do a resort course as in the interim I had watched my wife and youngest son qualify as Padi open water divers. Me and the rest of the family duly did nine dives and then as they say the rest was history, the family got hooked1today everyone dives and we have two serious photographers in the family.
We eventually came back to Seychelles in 2007 for a holiday and then renewed our love affair by buying a place at Eden island and then also Suzy Q!, today the ultimate diving experience in the Seychelles.
Suzy is 42 ft Africat with tow IPS Volvo D6 engines. Three cabins and on board anything to keep you busy and satisfied from a TV to full dive gear and of course an ice machine. Suzy operates from the new Eden island marina the highly successful marina development in Seychelles that has been largely done by a South African developer.
Marianne Island
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jump to: navigation, search
Marianne Island is a small (238 acres) granitic island of the Seychelles. It is located 3.8 km ESE of Félecité Island. The island was a former coconut plantation, and on the western side of the island is a long beach. The southern tip of Marianne is known as a world-class diving location. The tallest peak on the island is Estel Hill at 130 meters.
Presently, Marianne Island is uninhabited but is routinely visited by tourists and boaters. For much of the 19th and 20th century, farming and copra production took place on Marianne. There was a former settlement called La Cour, and in 1940 the island had 60 inhabitants.
There are a few species of gecko on Marianne, including the La Digue day gecko (Phelsuma sundbergi ladiguensis) and Phelsuma astriata semicarinata. Reportedly, the rare Seychelles Paradise Flycatcher {Terpsiphone corvina) is occasionally spotted on the island.[1]. Also, it was once home to the extinct Seychelles Chestnut-sided White-eye.
[edit] References
Report on Marianne Island
^ [1] Nature Seychelles
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marianne_Island"
Categories: Islands of Seychelles
MAP and some pictures
The Seychelles are a group of 115 islands spread over a very large ocean mass. The Seychelles lie just south of the equator and although tropical are free of malaria and enjoy a high rainfall and a humid ambient 30 degrees C year round. The islands have two prevailing wind systems. The stronger SE monsoon blows May thru September and the milder NW Monsoon prevails November – February. In between these times there are fairly wind free times that makes for the best diving but diving is in fact possible year round.
Mahe is the main and biggest island with Victoria the capital. The population of Seychelles is around 90 000 with most people living on Mahe, Praslin and La Dique but with the majority on Mahe. Mahe lie only 4 degrees south of the equator and the weather is highly tropical with harsh sunshine, high ambient temperatures of around 30 degrees and very humid (one has to get used to this). If you are diver this is much less of a problem as we spend so much time at 28 degrees our bodies hardly know better. Rainfall annually approach three metres and the rain showers are both torrid (almost like a “leibeurt”) but moist welcome as they cool matters down as well. The best time f here is April-May or October/November, although trust me it is still very nice in December as well.
The Seychelles broadly consist of the inner islands situated on a large underwater granitic plateau that is no deeper than 50m. At the so called drop-off where the depth plunges to thousands of metres there are the first of the outer islands that are all in fact coral atolls. These islands are all varying distances away from the capital Victoria and beg for further exploration. At the moment we restrict ourselves to the inner islands. Apparently here are some stunning wall dives at Des Roches, Alphonse and of course Aldabra, but that surely must be the subject of later discoveries.
Diving the Seychelles offer great bounty. There are masses of fish and underwater life despite significant bleaching following the 1998 El Nino. The good news is that the coral is recovering nicely. The fish life is still prolific and many interesting species abound.
In my (limited) view the reefs are not in such bad shape and appears to have improved over he last few years although there are certainly less turtles. (Turtles have been a delicacy in the Seychelles for decades, although this is now officially banned)
The viz is generally good and one can dive year round in warm water (27-30 degrees), only requiring a “shorty”. There are many sites and a good variety of fish, reef and macro photography. There are species that you do not see in other places in such great numbers as here.
1. Eagle rays; battalions; 90% site chance
2. Many white tip reef sharks: 70% probability
3. Buffalo parrot fish: 75%
4. Napoleons: 60%
Seychelles has a whale shark season from September through November. There is a website that covers this at www. seychelles-whale-sharks.blogspot.com/
In fact I have seen these creatures as late as January and this last December I am aware of at least four sightings and two in January. Sightings usually take place all around Mahe.
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