July 2025
It was good to welcome Suz back onboard mid morning on the 1st, with the rest of the day spent catching up on each other’s adventures over the last month and provisioning. Dmitri joined at lunchtime on the 2nd and everyone went to the supermarket to buy the things he needed for his meals and to finish buying personal bits and pieces and they enjoying a great evening together onboard. On the 3rd, they left the dock for the sail up to Grand Bay during which Dmitri was at the helm having tuition from Shawn. They arrived at around 11am and after a cup of coffee, they went ashore to spend the afternoon at CoCoChill Bar/Restaurant ( almost Ally and Shawn’s “local” by now!) where they enjoyed lunch and a couple of drinks. It was very quiet in there so the chef challenged Suz to a game of pool which both of them, and Ally enjoyed while Shawn and Dmitri chatted over their beers. Thankfully, it was nowhere near as “messy” as their last visit with Wendy :-D!
On the 4th everyone was up and ready to take the anchor up at 07.35, with Ally teaching Suz what to do as unfortunately, she would be leaving Imagination for a while soon after arriving in the Seychelles. The intention that morning was to go to nearby Gabriel Island to give Dmitri more training in the windy, choppy conditions. It is a very popular destination for the many day boats, but that morning Ally and Shawn noticed there were none going out but couldn’t figure out why. They did manage to get there, but soon discovered why no dayboats were heading that way – due to the high winds ( up to 26kts) and waves increasing to 4 metres as the water got shallower, there was no way to get through the fringing reef to the anchorage, so they tacked and made their way back to Grand Bay where they relaxed for the remainder of the day and Dmitri prepared food for the freezer in preparation for the upcoming ocean crossing. The conditions still weren’t great for sail training on the 5th and so it was another day onboard before sailing back down to the Caudan Waterfront Basin in Port Louis on the 6th for their final night in Mauritius. They caught a tuna along the way but something else obviously fancied fish for lunch too as it came in without a tail! They arrived by 11am and Dmitri went to do his own exploration of the area while Ally, Suz and Shawn had lunch out and did some reprovisioning of fresh veg before returning to Imagination to start preparations for departure. At around 17.30, they all went out to enjoy a few drinks together before an early night. They were alongside the Customs dock by 08.20 on Monday 7th and all the necessary formalities were done by 10.15, so they were on their way at 10.30.
The first 36 hours were pretty choppy with a fair bit of cloud, intermittent rain and strong, gusty winds which led to an uncomfortable ride. The morning of the 9th though, was sunny and the gusts had died down a little. The swells remained large, however a change in wind direction made it a little more comfortable. By the 10th, conditions had improved massively and the calmer seas and long sunny spells lifted spirits. Early evening, the winds dropped further to between 10 and 12 knots and clouds that up until then had been associated with strong gusts, only increased the winds by a couple of knots for a minute or two. Just before 10pm, a reef was taken out of the mainsail, going from 3rd reef to 2nd reef, to try and improve the boat speed. Things slowed even further overnight with winds averaging 6 to 8 knots, slowing Imagination to around 4 knots an hour. On the bright side, everyone got plenty of rest with the much more settled and quieter ocean, and at 7am on the 12th the spinnaker went up. The scenario by mid afternoon appeared very contradictory – as well as some sunshine, there was lots of heavy cloud around, some dropping rain that never reached Imagination and the wind you would expect with that, just didn’t come and the spinnaker remained up with 8 knots of wind until it dropped even more to 4 knots just after 4pm. The spinnaker was taken down and an engine put on and that’s how it continued through the night. By 7am on the 13th, the winds had picked up enough to fly the spinnaker again and then a little later, the headsail was used and both the winds and sea conditions remained stable and consistent for the remainder of the sail. The final approach was made with the sails in the Goosewing ( or wing on wing) configuration and they arrived in the Victoria Quarantine anchorage, Mahé, Seychelles around lunchtime on the 14th July. Within the hour, a group of officials consisting of Public Health, Customs and Immigration were bought to Imagination on a Pilot Boat, an obligatory and expensive requirement. After the formalities were completed and they had all departed, the anchor was up again to move Imagination into the more protected anchorage at Eden Island. As it was already gone 3pm, the decision was made to remain onboard until the following morning when they visited the Port Authority and Customs to pay for and complete the clearance process before finding somewhere for a great local lunch and a beer.
A hire car was arranged for the 16th with part of the day taken up with organising a cruising permit with the SMSA ( Seychelles Maritime Safety Authority). After that, they drove much of the island of Mahé visiting various beaches, taking in beautiful vistas and enjoying time at a distillery.
On the 17th, Ally flew home to the UK on an early flight, leaving 3 weeks earlier than originally planned due to illness in the family. That same morning Shawn, Suz and Dmitri sailed across to La Digue, arriving by lunchtime and during the afternoon, they did a long, steep and hot hike up to a bar where they could enjoy some well deserved beverages while watching the sunset. The following day was a relaxed beach day and on the 19th Suz took herself off for some pampering at a spa while Shawn and Dmitri enjoyed some diving with a local guide before they sailed 4nm to the island of Praslin. The 20th was beach BBQ day with Shawn thrashing Suz and Dmitri in a game of Boule/bocce/patonque before they tucked into fresh tuna, burgers, homemade slaw and baked potatoes. While moving around to another anchorage on Praslin on the morning of the 21st, they saw a whale shark just 2 metres off the Starboard side as it briefly swam along the length of Imagination….Incredible. After lunch, Shawn and Dmitri went ashore to relax and explore while Suz remained onboard taking in the sun on the trampoline. It took 8 hours to sail back to Eden Island on the 22nd due to strong currents and wind direction and on the 23rd, they visited nearby St Anne Marine Park, anchoring between a couple of small islands. They went ashore and explored an abandoned, derelict resort and relaxed in the warm water with a drink, enjoying their last afternoon together. On returning to Eden Island on the 24th, the boat cleaning was done before both Dmitri and Suz departed for the last time to go to their respective hotels.
Shawn had a few days to himself during which time he did some maintenance and finalised the cleaning and setting Imagination up for the arrival of his sister, Jen and 4 of her children on the 28th. It was straight into provisioning before setting off on their adventures together.
