The Lagoon 450 Alamandas Boat is a charter boat in a unique place in the world: the Glorious islands, not far from Mayotte. Gwenaelle, hostess – cook and deckhand, tells us about a short cruise which she enjoyed earlier this year:
Early in n 2014, we made the Lagoon 450 Alamandas boat ready for a cruise with a new client. We picked up Bob, our American host from Chicago aged 76, at the Dzaoudzi Airport. I asked him how he came to visit this unknown destination, and he said he belonged to an association whose goal is to visit 874 different destinations worldwide. These destinations have been selected by the founder of the association, an American billionaire. Bob has already visited 824 of these destinations: he is thereby in third position!
After the start, as very often in our journey to the Glorious, we see fins on the water: Dolphins! They love our bows, and they stay with us a long time. A really friendly Glorious welcome committee.
After 130 miles and under a beautiful sun, we see a pine forested island surrounded by white sand, on a giant blue lagoon pool. Heaven exists! The photographer will never be completely satisfied with his pictures: he always will find they do not reflect the true beauty of reality. Upon arrival, the authorities informed us by radio of our mooring location of the place of rendez vous to proceed to our clearance.
The next morning, the photographer decided to take a dive near the island of Lys, with the skipper on watch to ensure his security. Funds are absolutely preserved intact, there are vast expanses of white sand and coral reef. Huge green turtles swimming peacefully as well as stingrays and reef sharks are omnipresent. But everything unfortunately has an end and due to imperatives, we had to leave. Our average speed on our way back was 8 knots with the wind on the port side . It took 21 hours to come back to Mayotte, 3 hours less than the other way! You often dream of extending this small cruise due to the beauty of these islands which are so rich in flora and fauna!
We sail all year in Mayotte, which has one of the most beautiful lagoons in the world. Glorious Islands remain absolutely confidential and an exceptional destination. In order to get there you need a TAAF* permission, the boat must have a very specific equipment and pay tax. Today, Alamandas boat is the only professional boat to sail legally in this area.
*TAAF: The French Southern and Antarctic Lands (Land = “Terre” in French) are , since the law of August 6th 1955 , have become an overseas territory with administrative and financial autonomy .These lands are formed by the Crozet Archipelago, the Kerguelen Islands, the islands of St.Paul and Amsterdam, Terre Adélie and other scattered islands (since the law of February 21st 2007): Glorieuses, Juan de Nova, Europa and Bassas da India in the Mozambique Channel and Tromelin north of Reunion. All these lands provide an Exclusive Economic Zone of more than 2.5 million km ² of rich marine resources to France
