Seychelles by Catamarans: Granite & Giants

The idea

A week among the only granite islands in the middle of an ocean. Everywhere else out here is coral or volcano. The Seychelles are a piece of continent left behind when Gondwana broke apart, which is why the beaches have those enormous rounded boulders and why nowhere else looks remotely like it.

We sail the inner islands in short, sheltered hops — Mahé to Praslin to Curieuse to La Digue and back. One proper passage on the second day, and after that most days are two or three hours of sailing and the rest of it swimming, walking somewhere green, or doing other cool stuff.

Your cabin

Every guest cabin on these boats is a private ensuite double. A proper double bed, not bunks, set in one of the hulls with a hatch above and a port at sea level — you wake to light and water rather than a wall.

The bathroom is yours alone: electric toilet, sink and a separate shower in every cabin. Nothing shared with the cabin next door, no queue in the morning. Both boats carry a water maker, so fresh water is produced on board every day and nobody is rationing showers. Air conditioning throughout — in a Seychelles January that is not a flourish, it is the difference between sleeping and not.

The boats

Two Lagoon 46 sailing catamarans. Four guest cabins each, a proper galley, generator, flybridge, sun pads and — the thing that actually shapes the week — a water maker. Making our own fresh water is what lets the flotilla spend the week on quiet empty anchorages instead of buying marina berths to refill tanks. One night alongside at La Digue is the only exception, and that is for the bike ride.

You move aboard on the Saturday and sleep the first night alongside in the marina. No passage on arrival day, so a late flight is ok.

Choose your own days

The boats are the basecamp, not the itinerary. Most mornings run two or three options from the same anchorage and everyone regroups for lunch and the sail onward — so the hikers, the divers and the people who want to read on the trampoline all get their week.

Included for everyone: every hike and park fee, snorkelling, paddleboards and kayaks, trolling lines off the back on every crossing, the Curieuse beach barbecue, coco-de-mer forest on Praslin, bikes on La Digue, and the climbing and zipline afternoon at Port Launay.

Add-ons you can book separately:

• Two-tank dive day — on the Praslin side, mid-week. January has the best visibility of the year.
• Wreck diving off Mahé — the Seychelles wrecks sit in 16–25 m off Beau Vallon. Certified divers only; not snorkellable.
• PADI Open Water — if you want to arrive uncertified and leave certified.
• Game fishing charter — a dedicated boat off Praslin for the serious anglers, while everyone else does the forest.
• Hotel nights on Mahé, either end.

Tell us what you want when you register and we will build the day around it.

Two honest notes

The route is tentative. Anchorages, the order we take the islands in and which bird reserve we land on will shift with weather, swell, park access and what the skippers advise nearer the time. That is normal for sailing anywhere, and a skipper who refuses to change a plan for conditions is a worse skipper. What we commit to is the week you see here — the islands, the tortoises, the boulder beaches, the climbing anchorage — not a fixed set of GPS coordinates.

The photographs are not our boats. They show the islands and the kind of catamaran we charter. You will get the names, build years and real photographs of your boat once cabins are confirmed.