Monday – April 7, 2025
Victoria, Seychelles
I have seen photos of places in the tropics where the camera captures colorful fish below the surface, a blue sky with white clouds and tropical plants above and multi-blue colored water in the middle. Seychelles is such a place but I wasn’t able to get the fish under the water (without ruining my phone).
We should have guessed looking at the sunrise that today was going to be gorgeous. The weather was warm, there was a breeze and the sky was hosting fluffy white clouds. Our berth on the dock wasn’t the greatest (warehouse and container area) but that didn’t matter since we would be away from the ship most of the day.
We booked an excursion to take us out on the water to look at fish and the reef, snorkel if we felt like it and go to a beach (also if we felt like it). One thing we did not bring with us and wished we had is water shoes. Those would have been good for the last of these options.
We boarded a catamaran practically at the stern of MSC Magnifica. This looked like a new (or at least well maintained) ship capable of holding at least 100 people. We sailed away from port toward Saint-Anne Island and a marine reserve surrounding it. As we neared our anchor point half the passengers boarded a submersible to view fish and coral. Those who remained on the catamaran watched from the railings as fish were fed. After 20-25 minutes the positions were reversed. When all were back on the catamaran it moved to the anchor point and the anchor was dropped.
At this point people could don snorkeling gear and swim around the reef that was just off the starboard side. Others could board a zodiac and be ferried to a beach not far from the ship but out of view from it. I stayed on the catamaran as I had not brought beach wear. The breeze and the warm air made it hard to keep from dozing in the shade of the ship. Kelsey and Jan took the zodiac ride and spent time on the beach and in the water. Jan said that having water shoes would have made their journey better because there were small rocks on the beach you needed to cross and they were not pleasant to walk over.
While on board the catamaran another fish feeding took place – this time drawing some larger fish (you’ll see that if you watch the videos). After an hour to an hour and a half the zodiac made a couple trips to bring back those on the beach. When all were aboard the crew began singing Seychelles versions of songs most people knew – like Beatles hits. That was a nice way to end the excursion and return to port. All the crew were happy and helpful making the trip memorable.
Once back on land we had time before dinner so decided to do a little exploring in Victoria. We hired a taxi to take us to the center of town. Didn’t take long to get there and as we drove he gave us some background about Seychelles. One thing I remember is him saying that they have the world’s smallest population capital city (Victoria) with around 26,000. Their main source of income is tourism.
He let us out after pointing out Little Big Ben – a miniature of the Big Ben in London in the center of a traffic circle. Of course we had to take a selfie with Little Big Ben. We also tried to take a selfie with a brightly colored “I Love Seychelles” sign near there but the sign was out of focus (silly iPhone). I took a panorama of the sign which does display all the bright colors. As we walked back to the ship we passed many stalls with handmade items. At the last of the stalls Kelsey found some colored hair clips she liked. I believe there is a photo of her deciding which colors to buy.
In today’s media there is a time-lapse of our sail-away from Seychelles that fades to an out-of-view sunset.
Tonight’s entertainment in the theatre is Guitar Revolution. A single guitarist (who is very good) with a backup band on video. He plays songs and sings songs by Dire Straits, Queen, Eagles and others. His mastery of the guitar is impressive but his singing just isn’t close to the originals.
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