All this perspective gained from a week within the Eden Island Marina and so probably will need revising once we get out and about. However our week has been enjoyable partly because it is a lovely setting, everyone is laid back and friendly and partly because it is the perfect antidote to sailing through the Indian Ocean with its isolation, unpredictable weather and the worry of a boat with ongoing gear failure. Another “consolation” is that we are not alone and we are now fully aware of just how much maintenance and repair is required to keep a boat sailing around the world. The ingenuity and resilience we come across with other cruisers is awe inspiring. We heard of one yacht that had major equipment failure in Chagos and the crew lived on Isle Boddam for months while other yachts brought in replacement parts for them.

Seychelles is a natural stop for yachts taking the northern route across the Indian Ocean. A more southerly route takes you via Mauritius and Reunion from where you pass to the south of Madagascar but from where you can come north around the top of Madagascar and even up to Seychelles. The SE Trade wind is compressed at the top of Madagascar and combined with strong currents can give rise to difficult sailing conditions. Sailing from Seychelles gives you the option of a more northerly route around Madagascar. Increasingly popular is a route from Seychelles across to Tanzania where it is yacht friendly, you can visit Kilimanjaro and game reserves and from where you can either head north towards the Red Sea or South towards South Africa. Several yachts here are doing this and for those not planning a flight home from Seychelles it avoids the need to wait here for the right conditions to sail the Mozambique Channel in October and November.

Arrangements for further work to the boat are now in place. We will send out a new Aquadrive unit from the UK plus new engine mounts. Also the parts to change the toothed V belt driving the alternator and seawater pump to a flat belt, now fitted as standard by Yanmar. We get a lot of black dust from belt wear and although regular belt changes have prevented the belts from wearing through I am going to change to the new set up as part of the 3000 hour service that will be undertaken while we are away. This will include servicing of the alternator and starter motor and a new fuel pump. We have replacements for each of these on board but I can imagine failure of any of them coming at a critical moment. There is also an oil leak to be tracked down and fixed that may still be from the crankshaft seal that was replaced in Thailand. The good news is that it looks like our shaft noise is confined to the Aquadrive which can be replaced while on the water. This means we don’t have to haul out as planned during the first week of August. One of the marina guys offers a hull cleaning service and two cleans while we are away will save time and expense on our return. It’s very brave of him as bull sharks have been seen within the marina.

Other work will include new wind sensor and cockpit reader as one or the other is intermittently not working, new wheels in the mast head and boom end sheaves where the existing wheel hubs have failed, new forward safety wire rails (the originals are rusting through), new lazyjacks (lines on either side of the boom that hold the mainsail on the boom when lowered) and an alternative boom preventer arrangement with one on either side leading to the cockpit so that I don’t have to go forward to pass the single preventer we now have around the forestay every time we tack or gybe. In light winds and choppy seas a preventer line from the boom end to the bow or side deck prevents the boom from swinging inboard and then crashing outboard again. It is also essential in order to prevent an inadvertent gybe of the mainsail when running downwind or slightly by the lee.

When we return we have someone lined up to help us go through our battery charging arrangements to include a replacement Duogen regulator, wiring of the solar panels through the same regulator, reprogramming of the Mastervolt battery monitoring system and possibly an additional solar panel. At the moment the regulator is not allowing the full output from the Duogen to go through to the batteries and the solar panels are wired through a separate regulator. Our aim is to get maximum charge from the existing arrangement with the ability to run our new portable freezer on the long ocean passages ahead.

Annie and I are both now in a better frame of mind to complete the circumnavigation. Annie is terrified of the potential weather conditions to be encountered in the Mozambique Channel, not helped by the gloom and doom prognostications of our weather forecaster Des Cason in Durban. We think it is part of his encouragement to take the conditions sufficiently seriously and to plan accordingly, subject to which we should be ok. Certainly we will have to be meticulous with our route planning, with accurately marked and understood safe havens along the route. We will need to ensure everything is set up securely on Vega to deal with strong wind and big seas. We will also need to be better at managing our fears and supporting each other when things go wrong. We worked on this during the later stages of the last passage and things improved tremendously - we actually work well together when we put our minds to it.

The fact that we are now having a 3000 hour service on the engine seems astounding. When we left Bristol in 2015 we had 400 hours on the clock. Most cruisers regard motoring as part and parcel of getting from a to b. The weather routing software requires an input of the sailing boatspeed below which motoring is assumed. In our case it is two knots at which point the software assumes we will motor at five knots. Motoring and motorsailing are integral to maintaining the intended average passage speed. Some boats have motored the whole way from Maldives to Seychelles. However, there are stalwarts who will only use the engine to get on or off an anchorage or marina and if the wind doesn’t blow will sit it out until it does. This sounds commendable but requires a relaxed attitude to passage times and no deadlines. We found it very frustrating chasing the wind or dealing with squalls and unfavourable wind without the engine on our last passage. However, we arrived with a full fuel tank and on reflection I now feel guilty (slightly) about the number of hours we have motored.

So, a break now back in Blighty, staying at a friends house while they are away sailing and ours has tenants. We return to Seychelles on 22nd July when hopefully we won’t have a repeat of Thailand and spend our whole time on boat repair.

Oh, and we did get out of the marina today in a hire car and found a tangible British legacy - they still drive on the left side of the road.