Map › Seychelles › Mahé › Ile au Cerf / Long Island

Southern & East Africa + Indian Ocean Islands · Mahé - Cerf/Long Island · Roche Caiman · Victoria

Ile au Cerf / Long Island

also known as Cerf Island, Long Island Sandbank, Mohana

lagoonbeginner-friendlylow crowds

JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec

On this page

Wind
- Month by month
Forecast
Water
Level
The scene
Launch
- Rescue
Hazards
Rules & access
Schools
Tips
Getting there
Photos
FAQ

Nearby Beau Vallon 6 km · North East Point 6 km · Anse aux Pins 11 km · Anse La Mouche 13 km · Anse Intendance 14 km · Police Bay 20 km · straight-line distance

SeasonMay to Septhe months riders and schools name How windy12-22 kttrade LaunchSandbank launch reported; no measured rigging area.access rules on record, below Waterflat to chop lagoon29°C in summer · 8 things riders flag LevelBeginner to advancedwith a caveat, in the Level section Schools2named at this spot From the airport35 minInternational Airport (SEZ)

On the clock

08:00 · 17:00

Trade wind, not a thermal, so there is no fill-in to wait for and no evening shutdown. Modelled hourly averages over the lagoon sit near 14 knots overnight and through the morning and dip very slightly in the early afternoon. What decides the session is the boat and the park hours, which run 08:00 to 17:00, not the clock on the wind.

The marks are the clock times the record names, laid on a 24-hour day. The bar between the first and the last covers those hours; it is not a promise of wind.

Ile au Cerf / Long Island really means the Long Island sandbank, known to kiters as Mohana, beside Cerf Island in the Sainte Anne group off Mahe. It is a May-September SE trade-wind spot: flat water in the lee of a sandbar that lies across the wind, with the breeze funnelled between Cerf Island and Long Island.

The lagoon is shallow and clear, flat to choppy depending where you sit, and the launch is the sandbank itself rather than any beach. There is no road and no walk-in.

Access is a boat from Mahe, about 10 minutes, which is the first catch; the second is that Cerf Island and Long Island sit inside Sainte Anne Marine National Park. No kite-specific permission is published for it, so confirm with SPGA or a local operator before you arrive with kites.

The riding area is well enough established across kite records; the legal access and the rescue cover are not.

The wind

locals call it South East Trade Winds

Direction

wind blows away from land — rescue cover matters here

Kite sizes

78910111213141516

metres · typical quiver highlighted

Character

trade

fills in: Trade wind, not a thermal, so there is no fill-in to wait for and no evening shutdown. Modelled hourly averages over the lagoon sit near 14 knots overnight and through the morning and dip very slightly in the early afternoon. What decides the session is the boat and the park hours, which run 08:00 to 17:00, not the clock on the wind.

Typical strength

Reported at 12-22 kt in the SE trade season, 14-25 kt on one trip, and 10-20 kt elsewhere for the SE trades.

Long Island/Mohana has a reputation as the most consistent and user-friendly Seychelles spot during the SE trades.

May-September is the southeast trade season for the inner islands and November-March the northwest monsoon; only May-September works at Long Island/Mohana, with the breeze funnelled between Cerf Island and Long Island.

Modelled hourly wind over the lagoon ranks the season: July and August at the top, averaging around 15 knots with about four hours in five above 12 knots, September just behind, June a step down near 13 knots, and May the weakest of the five at around 10 knots.

April and November are the dead months, under a tenth of hours above 12 knots. Reanalysis figures for the cell, not a lagoon sensor.

Also on record

The quiver, in words

Indicative for a 75-85 kg rider, worked back from the 12-22 knot southeast trades and a modelled May-September mean near 14 knots rather than from any local quiver list. A 12 m covers the bulk of the season.Drop to 9 or 10 m for the strong July and August days, when roughly four hours in five sit above 12 knots. A 14 m only earns its place at the soft edges of May and late September. Foilers ride far smaller.No measured local sizes.

Direction to shore

Variable around the sand spit; one side can be offshore and the other onshore.

Forecast

Month by month

Jan63
Feb76
Mar44
Apr33
May, riders' month74
Jun, riders' month94
Jul, riders' month98
Aug, riders' month99
Sep, riders' month99
Oct73
Nov30
Dec61

per cent of the month at force 4 or more

Ringed months are the ones riders and schools name: May, Jun, Jul, Aug, Sep.

13Jan29°
14Feb30°
10Mar31°
10Apr31°
14May30°
16Jun29°
18Jul27°
18Aug27°
17Sep28°
13Oct29°
10Nov30°
13Dec29°

avg knots per month · water °C below · season highlighted

Month	Force 4+	Knots	From	Air	Water
Jan	63%	12.7 kt	NW	26.6°C	29.1°C
Feb	76%	13.6 kt	NNW	27.2°C	29.5°C
Mar	44%	10.4 kt	N	27.4°C	30.5°C
Apr	33%	9.7 kt	SE	27.4°C	30.8°C
May	74%	13.6 kt	SE	27.5°C	29.8°C
Jun	94%	16.4 kt	SE	26.5°C	28.5°C
Jul	98%	18 kt	SSE	25.2°C	27°C
Aug	99%	17.6 kt	SE	25.3°C	26.9°C
Sep	99%	16.8 kt	SE	26°C	27.9°C
Oct	73%	12.9 kt	SE	26.4°C	28.7°C
Nov	30%	10.1 kt	SW	26.7°C	29.7°C
Dec	61%	12.7 kt	W	26.3°C	29°C

modelled

A weather model's cell over this place, not a station on it. Good for comparing places, weaker for one beach.

Modelled from weather reanalysis on a 10–25 km grid (2022-2024), not a ground station: reliable for trade and synoptic winds, understates thermal sea breezes and valley winds. The typical daily max and the direction are columns of the table above, month by month. Highlighted months are the riding season from the spot record.

ERA5 reanalysis grid point (modelled) · Open-Meteo historical weather API — ECMWF ERA5/ERA5-Land reanalysis, not a ground station · 2022-2024

The water

Type

flat to chop lagoon

Standing depth

Shallow around the sandbank and lagoon; exact standing-depth area unconfirmed.

Tides

Tide changes the sand-spit and sandbank setup, though the range is reportedly not huge.

Temperature

29°C summer · 26°C winter

Wetsuit

Boardshorts or rash vest year-round.

27–31°C waterBoardshorts or rash vest year-round.

Clear lagoon water, flat to choppy around Cerf Island and Long Island. Cerf Island is ringed by coral reef and sits inside Sainte Anne Marine National Park, so reef and seagrass protection is part of riding here.

Your level

beginnerintermediateadvanced

Beginner, intermediate and expert riders all get something out of the sandbank, and it is considered user-friendly. That holds only with boat support and local guidance, because this is not a simple public beach launch.

The scene

What riders come here for

flat waterfreeridefoilingboat-access sessions

Boat-access sandbank used by the local kite community and by riders arriving on yachts. Expect few or no other kiters, and mainland day boats crossing the lagoon.

Launch and rules

three ways on to the water, and what each one asks of you

With a school or a boat

2 schools name this spot

See who they are

On your own

Room to launch: Sandbank launch reported; no measured rigging area.

access rules on record

Somewhere else

Beau Vallon, 6 km

Beau Vallon North East Point Anse aux Pins

Every spot within 40 km is on the map at the top of this page, with its distance under it.

Rescue

+248 2527196

Nothing formal. No lifeguard, no patrol boat and no kite-specific rescue service is published for the sandbank, and there is no road, no beach club and nobody on the sand. Your cover is the boat that brought you, so agree with the skipper that it stays on the water while you ride rather than returning to Mahe.

The one kite operator running the 10-minute transfer answers on +248 2527196. Onshore the emergency numbers are 999 and 112, with 151 for an ambulance and 133 for police (2026). Victoria and its hospital are close in a straight line, which is the one thing in your favour.

Launch

The launch is the Long Island sandbank and its spit, not the Cerf Island beach. It is sheltered, so riders walk out into the water with the kite to reach clean wind. Getting there is about a 10-minute boat ride from Mahé.

Space

Sandbank launch reported; no measured rigging area.

Hazards riders report 8

Boat traffic to/from the Cerf Island and Long Island resorts
Marine national park boundaries nearby; whether kiting is formally permitted across this zone is unclear
Boat access and day-trip traffic in the Sainte Anne Marine Park lagoon.
Coral reef, reef protection zones and seagrass habitat around the marine park.
Offshore side of the sand spit depending on where the rider launches.
Formal kitesurfing permission inside or immediately beside Sainte Anne Marine National Park is unconfirmed.
No rescue cover of any kind at the sandbank: the boat that brought you is the only help on the water.
Park closing time at 17:00, after which the lagoon empties of the boats that would notice a problem.

Rules & access

2026: Long Island/Mohana lies inside Sainte Anne Marine National Park, which also covers Cerf, Moyenne, Round, Seche and Ile Cachee, managed by the Seychelles Parks and Gardens Authority under the National Parks (Saint Anne Marine) Regulations. The park is open 08:00 to 17:00 daily. Entry for a non-resident over 12 is Rs200 (2026), payable on site by debit or credit card only, no cash, or bought online in advance; overnight yacht mooring is Rs250 per yacht (2026). Prohibited inside the park: water-skiing, speed-boat racing and any motorised water sport, carrying a spear gun, fishing gear or fish traps, and taking marine life. Landing is barred on the nesting beaches of Sainte Anne island. Kitesurfing is named nowhere in the published visitor rules or in the regulations, neither as banned nor as permitted, so confirm with the authority or a local operator before you arrive with kites.

Access rules drift faster than anything else we hold — check locally, and propose an edit if this has changed.

Rider tips

Book a boat transfer or go with a local kite contact. Cerf Island is not a public beach launch.
Check the state of the sandbank and the water depth against the tide before you rig; the spit moves with the water.
Confirm the current Sainte Anne Marine National Park watersports rules before you ride.
Stay off the reef markers, the seagrass and the coral, and keep clear of the snorkel boats crossing the lagoon.
Watch which side of the spit you launch from: one side is offshore.
Budget the park entry: Rs200 per non-resident over 12 (2026), card only on site, or buy the ticket online before you go.
Plan the boat around the 08:00-17:00 park hours rather than around a wind onset. The trade blows much the same all day, so the gate is the constraint.
Ask the skipper to stay out with you. Nothing else on that water is looking for a kiter.

Getting there

Airport

Seychelles International Airport (SEZ), Mahe

Route

Fly to Mahe, transfer to the east coast or Eden Island area, then use a boat or kite-school transfer to the Long Island/Mohana sandbank. Cerf Island itself is reached by short hotel or water-taxi boat transfers from Mahe.

Transfer

35 min

Cost level

high

Staying

Stay on Mahe for easiest logistics; Cerf Island has small resort and guest accommodation but no roads and limited infrastructure.

No-wind days

snorkeling in Sainte Anne Marine National Park · glass-bottom boat tours · Cerf Island beach day · Victoria and Mahe excursions · boat trips to Moyenne or Sainte Anne islands

Photos

FAQ

When is the best time to kite at Long Island/Mohana?

The May to September southeast trade season is the documented window, described by one local operator as the most consistent Seychelles spot.

Is Mohana suitable for beginners?

Listings rate it beginner through expert with the sandbank called user-friendly, but this depends on boat support and local guidance rather than a public beach launch.

What is the wind like?

Southeast trades run about 12-22 knots, with reports of stronger 14-25 knot days.

Are there rules or restricted zones?

The sandbank sits within Sainte Anne Marine National Park, so riders should confirm current kitesurf permission with the park authority or a local operator.

How do you get there?

Access is by boat, about a 10-minute ride from Mahe.

Last updated: August 2026