As this passage progressed we began to learn what Meikyo is capable of and pushed her a bit harder.  As with any sailing boat, when the steering gets difficult it’s time to reef.  Up to the 6th day of our passage we had been making excellent time with daily runs of between 150 & 160 nm (average about 6.5 knots) in fairly strong trade winds and with sometime quite lively seas.  We were looking at arrival in the early hours of Friday the 5th.  Then, on the afternoon of the 3rd the winds began to ease and we progressively increased our sail area until we were back to full sail but our speed dropped off to below 5.5 knots and our ETA began to show late arrival on Friday.  We weren’t sure if we would be able to complete clearance at the weekend and we were beginning to picture a weekend in the exposed quarantine anchorage.  But on the plus side the sea eased right down giving some lovely sailing.
The Seychelles sit on a shallow bank, with the depth going from 1,000 meters to 30 meters in the space of about 5 miles.  No one ahead of us had reported turbulence but as the wind and sea picked up again and we were approaching in the dark we reefed in case, but felt no real effect.  Soon Meikyo’s was eating up the last 30 miles and at daylight the main island of Mahe was clearly visible.  We dropped anchor at 0815 after a passage of 1120 miles, taking an hour shy of 8 days.