Saturday a week ago we went to drop off a rental car we had hired to take my sister back to the airport. Walking back from having dropped it off, it occurred to Craig that we hadn’t paid for it! Typically we do that when picking up the car, but as the owner was trying (and failing) to nurse a severe hangover when Craig came to pick up the car, paperwork was not something he was going even to attempt, so he tossed Craig the car keys and waved him off.
Contemplating going back to settle the bill we arrive at our dinghy to find our engine and fuel tank stolen! It is possible that only cruisers understand how massively inconvenient this is. It’s a real bummer, to put it mildly. Sad and despondent and with complete loss of faith in the human race, we paddled out to our boat.
The next day, Craig goes and reports the theft at the police station, then, not wishing misfortune on others, he heads to the car rental guy to pay the bill. Whilst there he takes the opportunity to share the burden of our situation, and the car guy shares the appropriate sympathy as well as utter disgust for his fellow Seychellois who have dared taint the reputation of “his beach!”.
At this point, we just want to get out of the Seychelles! But sadly, for the next few days, we are stuck dealing with police follow-ups and insurance claims. Pantaenius insurance company makes all the necessary murmurs about how they “understand our difficult situation” followed by how they unfortunately can’t cover a single cent as we are not able to show a photo of how the engine was secured to the dinghy. (We’re still waiting for them to point us to the relevant section in our contract for this requirement…)
We are now even sadder, more despondent, and want to get the heck out.
Friday morning, when there is nothing more we can do, we head to the various offices (customs, immigration, etc) to report our departure and check out of Seychelles. We do our provisioning and prepare to set off to Tanzania early next morning.
After dinner with some newly arrived Dutch sailors, I check my email and see a note from our weather router advising them to stay put as storms are on their way! Bugger! Early the next morning we double and triple-check the weather, but regardless of how we look at it, the weather is coming. And a lot of it! So we go back to the offices to cancel our departure😔😔😔.
Not only are we stuck in a place we no longer want to be in, but we also can’t move freely to and from the boat due to the missing engine. And when we do find a new engine (hopefully Tanzania) we have to cover the whole cost ourselves. We’re pretty sad sailors at this point.
Then… our new Dutch friends, whom we’ve known all of a few hours rock up and say, “We have a spare engine, use that while you’re stuck here”.
Well, that makes a heck of a difference, so we’re feeling a bit better.
Then… A few hours later we get a call from a local number, which is weird as we don’t know anyone. It’s the car rental guy!?!?! He’s heard about a guy who’s just bought a second-hand engine matching our description. He sends us the photos and are ours!! Can we please come and pick it up? Yay!!
This place happens to be on the other side of the island, where a taxi would be about 80 euros.
Then… some lovely German sailors we met a few weeks ago at a nearby island, happen to be anchored right next to us. They pop over and tell us they have rented a car and wonder if we need a lift somewhere?! Yup, as a matter of fact we do!! So Franz and Craig go on this crazy journey across the island to pick up our stolen engine with the help of a car rental guy who promises that he and his friends “have ways” to deal with people who give their beach a bad reputation😳. Police get involved, the thief is identified, and then everyone gets pizza (yeah, that part was confusing to me too, but apparently the car guy owns a pizza restaurant, and as he didn’t want any compensation, Craig decided to increase his revenue by buying everyone pizza. Police included🤷🏼♀️).
So, the engine is back; the baddies caught, and our faith in the human race (excluding any and all insurance companies) is restored. And we feel very lucky that if we were to get stuck somewhere, we’re happy it’s in a beautiful place like the Seychelles 🇸🇨😊
