“Step right up! Step right up, folks! No trip to La Digue is complete without an Adventure Day with Grin the Adventure Boat! You'd better hurry, we’ll be sold out in minutes! Four slots only! Step rrrrrriiiiiiiiiiiigggggggghhhhhhhtttttt up!”
“Grin, who are you talking to?" Leslie asks me.
“Anyone who will listen!” I say. The sun rose hours ago and I am still tied to Sonrisa’s hull. “You promised me an adventure today, It is time to go!”
“We’re going, Grin! Don't be impatient."
“I am impatient. ‘Impatient’ is my middle name. Grin Impatient Oddgodfrey." I tug on my tether to illustrate my point.
Leslie raises her eyebrow at me, but she does start gathering her camera gear and sunblock into a backpack. "We’re almost done, the quiche is cooking.”
“The quiche?" I ask.
“Yeah,” Leslie says, “we we are having a picnic on Anse Source D’Argent!”
This is news to me. “Step right up! Step right up, folks! Gourmet Picnic Adventure on the most photographed beach in the world!"
Leslie shakes her head at me, but just ducks below to check to make sure the quiche isn’t burning. "What kind of quiche?" I yell down below.
“Spinach and feta!” She hollers back.
“Mmm!" I say. Andrew emerges from Sonrisa's hull patting the spikes of his cowlick down smooth. He begins digging in Sonrisa's cubbies to emerge with fins and snorkels. I like how this morning is shaping up. It's been so long since we've had an official Grin Adventure in Adventure Grin. I guess we went to the immigation office two harbors over one day, but that hardly counts as an Adventure. I guess the last one would probably be hammock adventures in Chagos. My adventure quotient is a bit low.
Soon, everyone is ready, including the quiche, which teeters atop a towel balanced on the flat of Leslie’s hand as she climbs aboard. “Don't lose that!" I say, trying to hold my wobble still. “Maybe put that in the coolerbag. I don't want to worry about splashing it, we are going to go fast in the waves!"
Leslie thinks the better of her current strategy and does gently settle the quiche into her coolerbag, despite the fact this will likely warm Andrew’s beers a bit. Soon, we are on our way with Tango zooming up close behind. “YEEEEEHEWWWWW!" I chortle as we skim across the calm surface.
Our adventure takes us through uncharted reef territory, open ocean, and fields of granite boulders. Fishermen cast lines off small islands, we motor past a small village with a Catholic Church nestled on the shoreline. Fishermen toss a line into the sea from the water’s edge. "This place is so pretty, isn’t it?" Leslie says as she admires the scenery sliding by.
We arrive at a white sand beach, and despite a roll of somewhat terrifying waves, I slide Leslie, Andrew and the quiche safely onto the beach no worse for wear. Andrew anchors me among a school of colorful little fish while Leslie, Jen, and Ricarda hunt for the perfect place to hold their lunch.
“No....not here," Jen reports as she returns a circuit.
“Why not?"
"There are naked people just over there.”
Leslie laughs, looking over her shoulder to see a young man disrobed and sauntering with no hint of shame from the ocean to the tree cover. “Must be European....”
We are lucky, in a way, though. With Covid, there are very few tourists arriving here. This beach would usually be thick with beachgoers, but today we (and the naked set of Europeans) have it to ourselves, relatively speaking. Jen finds a better place a bit further down the way, using the abandoned meagerie of things formerly attached to a beach juice bar. Soon, my crew has re-constructed a small sandy, shady living room in which to sip their beers and nosh on Beach Brunch.
Leslie breaks out a quiche with Andrew's hand made butter and thyme laiden crust, eggs, cream, carmelized onions, spinach and big chunks of feta. "Delicious!” all concur.
The resident Beach Doggy joins their party, and unbelievably doesn't even try to steal any of the food. He’s just there for the company!
After lunch, Doggo leads the way as my team explores the series of small, private beaches nestled between Anse Source D’Argent's trademark granite boulders. I wonder if this beach misses its usual modus operadi as much as I do? Leslie makes sure she takes a few hundred photographs, helping The Beach to maintain its “most photographed" status.
But soon, Pete says we have to go. “Tide is going down and we are going to get trapped in this shallow reef."
I collect my crew, and indeed find Kitty's propeller dragging across a rock every now and then. “Think light thoughts!” We zig and zag, searching for the deepest channel through the reef until we pop out into open ocean and I surf the big rollers just like Sonrisa does. “Whhhheeeewwww!" I say as one mounds up below me and pushes me skyward.
Our day is not over, though. Back at the big boats, Andrew ties me up and everyone jumps in for a swim. The water is clear, cold and refreshing (for the tropics anyway). A giant squid has taken up residence under Sonrisa, and Andrew dives below the surface to commune. It doesn't take long for him to make friends, and the squid approaches his open hand, wiggling his tendacles and reaching out to shake Andrew's hand.
Andrew pops to the surface: “He shook my hand! That squid shook my hand!"
Leslie raises her eyebrow, a bit skeptical, but I confirm, “It's true! I saw it!"
Jen swims over and upon hearing this story she says, "well I guess that means you won't let me fish him up for dinner."
"Squid are friends, not food, Jen." Andrew confirms.
Everyone enjoys swimming in the sun lit water, Leslie freedives to the floor following the tracks made in the sand by current and waves for as long as her breath allows.
"This is beautiful!" Ricarda says, I think she likes the sailing life.
That night, my crew throws their fitness diet and their budget to the wind deciding to partake of a nice meal at one of the Seychelles beautiful resort restaurants. Tango leads the way through a deep orange sunset.
They find a nice place right on the water with Sonrisa part of the view.
(See her tiny anchor light like a star out there?)
And the meal turned out to be all they hoped:
Lighted menu!
Fish for the lady, Steak for the gentleman!
An espresso in a shiny cup and saucer.
Great weather and even better company.
By the time they return to me, they are all smiles and the mood is light like cruising days of old, Pre-Covid. Leslie reads my mind and pats my bench: “the world will get this all figured out and we will be able to explore more. We just need to be patient.”
My name is Adventure Grin Impatient Oddgodfrey.
I'm addicted to adventure.