The Inner Seychelles archipelago comprises 43 granite islands scattered across 400 square nautical miles of the western Indian Ocean, the only mid-oceanic granite formation on Earth. Mahé, Praslin, and La Digue form the inhabited core, but the surrounding islets—Curieuse, St.
Pierre, Moyenne, Silhouette—remain largely uninhabited, their shores protected by marine parks established between 1973 and 2002. Eden Island Marina on Mahé serves as the primary departure point for day charters into these waters, its 80-berth facility lying three kilometres north of Victoria.
Seychelles sailing tours operate year-round, though trade winds shape the calendar. The southeast monsoon blows from May through September, delivering steady 12-to-18-knot breezes ideal for catamaran passage. The northwest monsoon, October through March, brings lighter air and glassier conditions but higher humidity. Most operators deploy 12-to-14-metre catamarans or mono-hulls, anchoring at designated mooring buoys inside marine park boundaries to prevent coral damage. The Seychelles Islands Foundation manages six marine parks; entry fees fund ranger patrols and reef restoration.
Curieuse Island, 28 hectares of laterite soil and granite boulders, hosts the archipelago's largest Aldabra giant tortoise breeding programme, with over 300 individuals roaming freely. The island's mangrove boardwalk, rebuilt in 2019, threads through a 20-hectare Avicennia and Rhizophora forest. St. Pierre, by contrast, is a single granite dome rising 18 metres from the sea, its underwater perimeter encircled by shallow reefs where hawksbill turtles and blacktip reef sharks shelter. Ste. Anne Marine Park, gazetted in 1973 as sub-Saharan Africa's first marine protected area, encompasses six islands and 14 square kilometres of seagrass beds and coral slopes.
Island-hopping itineraries typically combine snorkelling stops with on-deck Creole barbecue lunches, grilled reef fish and coconut chutney served under sail. Skippers navigate by sight, reading the colour gradients of lagoon water—pale jade over sand, cobalt at the drop-offs. Granite boulders worn smooth by two hundred million years of erosion frame every anchorage, their rounded forms contrasting with the sharp geometry of modern rigging.
7 hr
