Thursday treasures.

As we were enjoying a day sail just now, Miriam said “Life is pretty great. Life on SwimVacation is awesome”. 

Thank you, Miriam, that means a lot. 

She also made a comment about the Seychelles and treaure hunting. “Most people come here looking for treasure” she said. “We find it!”. She said this just moments after we finished watching a sea snake, a Banded Snake Eel, Myrichthys colubrinus, specifically, hunting for its breakfast deep in the sand, before returning for its home. I’ve never seen a sea snake before, and was thrilled the moment Myssie pointed it out.

Our swimmers are getting really good at spotting wildlife now. Caroline and I saw a spotted eagle ray (Indian Ocean edition), Aerobatus ocellatus, which looks like my fav from the Caribbean but with fewer, daintier spots. No photograph - it swam away too fast! Celine spotted two Picasso Triggerfish, Rhinecanthus aculeatus! So cool. Tara spotted a pair of Pin-striped Butterflyfish, Chaetodon trifasciatus. Beautiful, beautiful butterflies.

From left to right: the Pin-striped butterflyfish, an intertidal chiton (Mopalia muscosa), an unidentified sea bird, and of course our banded snake eel. Treasures!

Our morning swim was definitely equal parts workout and wildlife treasure hunting. It makes for lively conversation over second breakfast.

Miriam has been kicking off breakfasts with clever breakfast art all week!

A word about Lisa and all this food. Before every trip we say to her, cold breaky before 1st swim is fine. No need for more, as lunch is not long after the swim! For cold (first) breakfast, she makes some lovely fruit plate to put out among the assortments of cereals, granolas, breads and yogurts. This with a fresh brewed cuppa hits just right for the morning swim. Sometimes on our morning treasure hunts, err, swims, we stay in the water a while. We often climb out very hungry and on occasion a tiny bit chilled. Somehow she knows just when a second breaky, this time, a hot one, will fit the bill. This morning after treasure swimming, she made eggs to order. Everyone dug in. Lisa is loving us with food. She always does, and she’s elevated even her normal spectacular fare for this trip. 

A funny little behind the scenes sidebar about food on this trip: I wrote about how Lou Lou did her homework months in advance, worked with a local grocery store on Mahe, made selections, had them ship everything to us on Praslin. Quite a list and quite an operation. Some of the things she ordered didn’t come. A few things that came, she did not order. One of note is a 3.3 kilo salami. To be clear, that’s like 7 lbs. In these reference photos, one with my forearm and one with a full sized pineapple for scale, please note, we have already been eating from this salami for 5 days. So, that’s not even the whole salami.

She did not order 7 pounds of salami, but feels compelled to use it. All. Seven. Pounds. Of. Salami. The primary method of use seems to be feeding it to crew at every possible turn. I have eaten more salami in the last 5 days than I have in the entirety of my life.

Lou Lou, I love you. Please, I can’t eat any more salami.

Lisa (Lou Lou) is a treasure, as is every person on this crew. Alina is a fantastic guide who has a knack for swimming at the exact speed of her charges. She is patient and kind and very funny and helps in every aspect of work on this yacht, and is particularly supportive of me. Zack is a total prize who anticipates the needs of our guests and his fellow crew mates. He’s always filling my water bottle or cleaning my sunglasses when I don’t even know that I need either. He keeps our guests glasses filled and is there for them both in the water and on deck. He’s a pro deck hand who also washes dishes and cleans heads. And he has a great music playlist ready to go at all times. Richie is our skipper and Lou Lou’s other half. He is a pillar of calm, full of great stroies and a whole lot of knowledge. I’d trust him with my life and the lives of our guests anywhere, at anytime. If he says we can go there, we can. If he can’t put us somewhere, it can’t or shouldn’t be done.  He just took us out on a most lovely day sail. Combined with Lisa, they are the most capable team I have ever worked with. 

So it’s a great crew we have here. We are just all really full of salami.

It’s nappy time on board and we have a busy afternoon and evening ahead, so I hope everyone is making the most of their quiet time.

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Afternoon swim time! Alina took 5 ladies on a longish fastish swim along the beach while Marianne and I had a nice chill swim to a giant granite boulder and back. Marianne and I have known each other for a long time - probably 13 years of SwimVacation’s 14 - and we were due for a catch up. It was one of those ocean heart talks that can happen when someone is carrying a burden and needs to feel weightless for a time. I’m so grateful to the ocean for its power to shed from us that which we don’t need, and for carrying us when gravity is too much.

We have a lovely dinner ashore planned for tonight. Nicole from SeaSplash Self Catering - the gorgeous rental with the huge tub from our first two nights on island - is preparing a home cooked meal for all of us. We had a bumpy motor to the marina (don’t worry, the salami is fine), but we are all gussied up for a night off the yacht now. Tara rode the bow in her pretty dress the whole way here.

I love when our guests fully immerse into everything travel and the ocean makes available to us.

Love,

Heather