Big Sister Sunday

First some stats:

At the halfway point of this trip, we've been through 120 eggs and 140 litres of drinking water. If Lou Lou puts a salad on the table, it’s gone in seconds. Dessert? Yes please. This crowd is into eating healthy and well. We love it.

Lou Lou has been absolutely crushing the food service. I have not been very successful at doing her meals justice as I am not always there for all of the commanding announcements and descriptions she gives our guests at dinner about what they are about to enjoy. I get names wrong, I get ingredients wrong, But I am definitely filling my belly with the creations she brings to the table. I’ve said it before - cheffing on our trips is the hardest job on this boat. Lisa is a pro, and her cheffing adds so much to this experience. Tonight’s meal was nothing short of a triumph. She called it “LLT”, Lobster tail, Lettuce (actually arugula) and Tomato. The whole thing sat on a bed of perfectly cooked pasta. Just fantastic. Dessert was a new dish for her and us - FRIED WATERMELON. On yogurt with caramelized walnuts no less. The end.

But I’m getting ahead of myself.

Also crushing it today was our swim spot - Grand Soeur, or Big Sister. This uninhabited island is about an hour east of Praslin. We pulled up at about 945 am and jumped in. No zaps, no itching, clear blue water, just the right temperature. Ah.

To the rock wall we swam. I nearly cried at what I saw. Atop the underwater granite boulders I saw dozens and dozens (maybe hundreds??) of HEALTHY coral heads. Just incredible. Table top corals, elkhorn and staghorn corals, brain corals, flower corals, cup corals and more. Everything looked so good. Huge schools of reef fish. Striped grunts by the hundreds, tangs too. Fusiliers clouded over us, parrot fish and butterfly fish everywhere. The turtles were almost pushy. I’ve never seen such chill turtles. Of course, a spotted eagle ray made an appearance, moving slow and sleepily along. Above water, the majestic boulders soar into the sky, topped with the most lush green palm jungle. It’s too good to be real. We meandered and swam and laughed and dove down again and again. It was so uplifting. This is the Seychelles of my dreams.

During the swim, Maria spotted a beautiful reef shark with a remora on its pectoral fin. This was a gray reef (Carcharhinus amblyrhynchos) which has been classified as endangered on the IUCN Red List. We saw it swim past us - it clearly knew we were there, then swim on and away. We saw it more than once, which I took note of, but didn’t find alarming. Sharks can be territorial and will often patrol an area. I knew it was the same one because of its size (about 5 feet long) and the remora on the fin. What a sighting.

Grand Soeur was so good, we decided to stay all day. So out came lunch of marinated chicken and a fantastic quinoa salad. They ate it all. Meanwhile, in the heat of mid-day, many day boats came to bring snorkelers from Praslin. I can’t imagine them being back up to the sun in those hours of off-the-chart UV index, but they did. They bobbed around and squealed at turtles and all the pretty fish.

At 330 pm we lubed up and jumped in the ocean from our boat. Someone looked down and noticed two figures circling at the bottom, 40 feet beneath us. “Shark! Shark!” someone yelled, and they all scooted right back up the ladder. Simon and I stayed in for a while, sussing things out and talking quietly while observing the behavior of the two sharks. One was smaller than the other, and one was definitely the one we saw this morning - Mr. Remora-on-fin.

With zero judgement of the decision not to swim by most, Simon and I ended up taking two guests and Margon on a swim along the rocks we had yet to see. It was exquisite, with more healthy coral, reef fish, turtles and so many beautiful rock rooms. Magic.

Hopper has said, wisely, that sometimes it takes courage NOT to swim. On SwimVacation, we take pride in our ability to provide a safe and comfortable platform from which our guests and guides can stretch into new corners of themselves, sometimes beyond their comfort zone. That said, we fully support and expect that each swimmer will listen to their inner guide and step away from a swim they just don’t feel good about. There is no reason to swim scared. This is supposed to be fun, afterall.

Let’s talk about sharks.

Without question, even a smallish reef shark can cause damage if it were to bite a human. Without question, humans have been bitten by reef sharks. I know two people who have been bitten. One was spearfishing and takes full responsibility for what happened to him. He saw signs and he disregarded them. I have really admired that way he has shared his story. The other person had no idea why he got unlucky, as he never saw the shark and thought he was minding his own business. That incident was 50 years ago, when there were a lot more sharks. This is to say that sharks are certainly a concern for swimmers. Also, I believe that knowledge and some informed observation can go a long way toward comfort in the water when one sees a shark. As for today, these were the things I considered before embarking on our afternoon swim when there were two sharks beneath our boat:

We had seen at least one of the sharks earlier in the day. Having paid attention, I felt very certain that it had seen us, perhaps more than once, and was uninterested.
All afternoon many swimmers and snorkelers were in the water with the two sharks. Some of the snorkelers may have seen them, some may not have. None of them seemed to feel threatened.
I suspect that the two sharks that were hanging around beneath our boat, 40 feet down, have learned that when the sun gets lower in the sky, scraps of food come off of boats (after dinner). It’s possible they were waiting for this potential opportunity.
Sharks do not eat people.
After several minutes of Simon and I floating above them, they showed absolutely no interest in us. I saw no signs of aggressive behavior, their movements were smooth and even, not quick or agitated.

Still, I thought it a good idea for the five of us to stick together as we crossed from our boat to the rocks - for boat traffic as much as anything else, and for us not to behave erratically - something I never recommend anyway!

We never saw the sharks along the wall during our swim. They remained beneath our boat where I imagine they are as I type. I will say that if they had been tiger sharks, bull sharks or great white sharks (not in this part of the world), I would have made a different decision. I will also say that while we often do a night lap around the boat before bed at our other locations, we do not do that here. This is common sense in a place known to have sharks. It’s also worth remembering that even though sharks can be seen here, the gray reef is still an endangered species. Sadly, sharks lost the war to humans a long time ago.

During cocktail hour on the bow, we had a little shark info session. I shared what I know, what I’ve experienced in the past, what I observed today, and the reason I decided to do our afternoon swim. I also made clear that I supported their decisions not to join. They all asked some great questions, and I answered the ones I could, and acknowledged the ones I couldn’t. Our brave swimmers all seemed to feel a little better having a little more information.

Anytime we get in salt water, we are entering the place where sharks live. These keystone predators are critical to the health of ocean populations. Seeing them indicates a healthy ecosystem. While a little nerve wracking during a swim, seeing the sharks patrolling the reef today told the same good news story that the healthy coral heads and teeming fish life told - in this spot, along the coast of Grand Soeur, life is hanging on. What a gift to see.

The sunset sure got showy tonight. All of us dropping forks on our delectable plates to take pics of the dimming sky.