Cruise Port 1 Praslin, Seychelles
Greetings from Praslin!
Before I move on to the first port of call I want to back up to yesterday’s boarding.
After boarding we locate our stateroom. We are in Suite 829 on the starboard side, deck 8. This room is substantially larger than any normal veranda stateroom we have ever had! We have a walk-in closet, a bathtub AND shower (not combined), and a cabinet along the wall at the foot of the bed, and two cabinets (one on each side) between the bed and living room areas. We get about an extra 1 1/2 ft of width and about another 5 ft of length to the balcony door. That’s a significant improvement over our Oceania world Cruise cabin!
The ship is scheduled to leave Mahe’s Port Victoria at 10 PM.
At 10:30 PM we are still at dock. We don’t leave until close to 2 AM! How do I know? I am still wide awake. It’s a time zone thing I thought I had kicked.
Our first evening’s entertainment is poolside with a lovely round of singing by the ship’s entertainment staff. Ross, the short guy in the middle, is the Cruise Director, and an incredible singer in his own right! Six additional singers complete this ensemble. Eva, the woman in the very center, has a vocal quality that deserves Broadway! This is a great introduction to the quality of productions on this ship!
On April 11th the Sojourn anchors in Baie Ste Anne, Praslin, Seychelles, around 7 AM. The bay is already active with lots of boats coming in to take their tour groups out for the day!
Sojourn begins tender operations to take us ashore!
After lunch we decide to take a look around the port and stretch our legs. Since we get a late start this will be a short tour and even shorter post.
This interesting memorial to seafarers is there at the port. It recognizes the role of the sea in their lives and the love and respect they have for the sea and the loss of those who make a living working the sea.
Joy and I take a short walk around town, around a school playground and through a large roundabout in the center of town. Despite the traffic, town is rather sleepy and quaint!
A beach area opens on the shallows of the lagoon, and hosts a couple of makeshift fish cleaning stations. The fish smell is strong, but they do a good job of cleaning the area so it doesn’t smell disgusting!
You always need to keep your eyes open for the unusual – in this case a drawing on the gas tank door!
We don’t give ourselves a long time to wander. so we head back to the pier. Our tender ride home in coming in. These tenders are very different from the ones we’ve seen in the past. There is no deck for crew to walk so all line hookups are performed from the pier or the boat, using poles when necessary! The open windows look like solar panels looking for the sunlight!
We set sail away from Praslin, and say goodbye to the Seychelles!
We are on our way to Zanzibar, Tanzania!
This picture is on April 12th. The waters of the Somali Sea – the western Indian Ocean – are almost glass! It’s difficult to believe the water is so smooth!
One more sea day, then we are in Tanzania!
I promise the next post will be more interesting!
