Chartering Dabulamanzi in the Seychelles

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When I turned 15 our family was lucky enough to charter a sail boat called Dabulamanzi (cut through the water in Zulu) in the Seychelles.

Dad had been invited to do a yacht delivery the previous year from the Seychelles to Durban.  Mom flew to the Seychelles for a short holiday with him before he and the all male crew left on ‘Golden City’.  It was not an uncommon sight to see Dad leaving with his sailing bag in one hand and his Captain style cap planted firmly on his head.   He came back enthusing about the trip which had taken two weeks and had many boys tales to tell of how they had abluted and washed their clothing and even showered much to my amusement.  He was also very interested in the Seychelles and what it had to offer.   He had met the Skipper of Dabulamanzi which lead him to book this amazing holiday for our family.    I am sure I can speak on behalf of the rest of my family that they were not as enchanted about the idea of being on a sailing boat for 2 weeks solid sailing from island to island in all manner of sloppy seas.  Mom was horribly sea sick and there was the incident when in a fairly rough sea,  I un-clipped her harness to help her reach the edge of the yacht for barf purposes,  well was I ever in the poo for that one !!!!  New lesson:  Never un-clip your Mother from the safety of the superstructure so that she throws up outside the cockpit and not inside the cockpit !!  Ok, lesson learned.   We did however all have a happy time discovering all that is to be discovered in the Seychelles we had the opportunity to go to Mahe, Silhouette Island, Praslin and La Dique in the main group and then onto the Amirantes group, Aldabra, D’Arros, Desroches and Poivre.   We saw the huge tortoises, tasted Seybrew, saw the very sexy Cocco di Mare, we explored coconut groves and saw how they extract the oil with a tired looking donkey and a stone wheel that crushes the coconut flesh,  we fished for our dinner and caught a very large barracuda, we snorkeled in the most pristine spots and saw beautiful corrals and sea life,  if ever you wanted text book white beach, swaying palm trees and an abundance of nature kind of a holiday,  I can highly recommend the Seychelles.  The thrill for me (besides having a massive crush on Pip the skipper) was being able to helm the yacht,  on long passages we each got a turn to take the helm (under adult supervision of course) and follow the course.   I loved that feeling 15 years old and skippering a yacht in the big wide ocean,  even more – dog with his head out the window and tongue flapping in the breeze moments for me  –