Sorry do you speak English?

Obviously one of the main concerns about working abroad is not being able to speak the language, well here on Aride it is exacerbated by the fact that the visitors we rely on to keep the money coming in, are a complete mix of nationalities, German, French, Italian, Dutch, Russian, to name a few. For me the hardest part has got to be communicating with people from across the globe via the telephone. When face to face you can use gestures and expressions, but on the phone it can be extremely difficult, especially when I am often struggling with a poor reception too.

It is often the case, as the day gets underway, the phone will ring, to place a booking for a 10am collection off the mooring buoy and 9 times out of 10 the person on the other end will not be British. Boats calling before hand is not essential, but as we get towards the south east monsoon, when the sea gets rough at Aride, it is good practice, as there will be days when we can’t land guests because of the conditions.

Well today it was a little touch and go whether it was too rough as the wind continued to come from the south east, causing the sea to whip up. To launch the Aride boat in such weather it needs many hands to hold it still whilst the engine is started. To start, the engine needs to be in deep enough water and the difficulty is hanging onto the boat whilst being pushed off by strong waves and struggling to keep your feet in the swirling water. With this in mind we were a little concerned when Silhouette cruises (0ne of our regulars) called with 18 guests, but we accepted. It was too early to be turning guests away, we need the money and we need to boost the figures for April. Seychelles is a small place and at this time of year as soon as we start to turn guests away, the word would get round that visiting Aride is now too difficult.

So sticking by our decision we went through the usual preparation to meet and greet the visitors. Before too long the phone rang again, and looking back now I can laugh, but at the time it was a classic situation where if I had spoken Italian, it would’ve helped!

'We like to visit Aride today, we group of 6.' The voice on the end of the phone said in broken English.
'That would be excellent, we would love to see you', I replied in the back of my mind thinking well we can combine them with the 18 from Silhouette and make a full tour and we will have to cope with the rough sea; it would only mean 4 trips of 6 people.
'Is somewhere to moor?' the Italian lady asked
'Yes' I replied 'There are moorings outside the island, you can take one of those and we will come and collect you'
'Is enough room?' she asked
'Of course' I said, 'There are 3 buoys and you will only need one, there will be no problem'.
'But we are group of 6' she repeated.
I tried to be assertive, without sounding impatient, together with trying not to shout – why do we do that when people are struggling to understand.
‘Yes’ I said, ‘we don't have anyone else booked in needing a mooring...' Then it dawned on me - a group of 6, surely she wasn't meaning a group of 6 boats? I asked her
‘Yes 6 boats’ she replied.
I swallowed and took a deep breath, my mind working hard, trying to stop the ££ signs from flashing up too much, preventing me from making an informed decision.
'Ok' I said, 'how many people are you?' As I asked my head was thinking that could be a lot of people, these self sail catamarans aren't small.
'48 persons' she replied
Not wanting show any hesitation, I said quickly, 'that will be fine, 3 boats can moor up on the buoys and the others will need to anchor, no problem, there is plenty of room'
'What about the waves?' she asked
'It is a little rough' I replied crossing my fingers,' but ok, so we will see you at 10am'
'Yes she said 10am.'
I pressed the phone to end the call, and looked at it in disbelief, that booking was the size of La Ponnant cruise ship, blimey, together with Silhouette Cruises it was going to be one hell of a busy day!! Normally that wouldn't phase us, but with the sea as rough as it was it was going to take all of us to make it work and all of us to work together.

We could time the start perfectly as all the self sail left Praslin at the same time and looked like a regatta coming across the stretch of water in between, every one gathered on the beach all a little apprehensive, but excited at the busy day ahead. It was super to see, all boats heading our way, so often have we seen them not venture out to us. A private hire sped through the middle of them and pulled up at the mooring before them and Silhouette cruises snook round the back and took his time in finding a secure anchoring.

Well it was a brilliant day, it went like clock work, smooth, professional, excellent team work, resulting in happy customers and a happy team. The total number of guests reached 70 Adults and 5 children, but worked well, all tours went off as soon as there were enough guests for one, which staggered them beautifully so that people did not follow each other round and did not all end up on the hill together. The end result was a heap of money on entrance fees and an amount not to be sniffed at in the shop. It was all hands on deck at all times as the last group left the first group was soon to return, from 9.30 to 3.30 it was constant, lunch didn't feature and not even a cuppa. The total number of boats was 7 self sails, 1 private hire and 1 Silhouette Cruise boat, it looked like a marina outside.

Once the island returned to the peace & quiet, we sat up on the beach crest with a cuppa and enjoyed the moment, we could still see a number of the yachts in the distance, it always gave the island a buzz when we had a successful day with clients, and today had been exceptional. I will remember it as the day the Italian group of 6 came to Aride.