I went to bed at 4 am after Trinity and 2 am on Saturday. On Sunday I'm went shark cage diving and had to get up bright and early at 5:45 am. Needless to say I was really tired.
At 6:30 we met up with the crew. After brief safety instructions, we set sail at 7 o'clock. After a 20 minute ride from the Simon's Town dock we dropped anchor about 75 yards from Seal Island.
Seal Island was really fascinating. It is not very big, maybe 300 yards across but the island is absolutely covered in seals. I was warmed that the smell was terrible, but I didn't smell anything. Joining the seals, I saw an abundance of species of birds, including penguins. In the water we saw a huge pod of dolphins in the distance as well as the spray of the whale's blowhole.
But it's all about the sharks. There were three groups of two on the boat. As I said in a previous post, I was with my housemate Cam. Two guys in their late twenties went first. They put on the wet suite and snorkel gear and waited to get a shark in the area before getting in the 15 degree (Celcius) water. After about 5 minutes of bating the water and letting a fake seal hang off the end of the boat, a white shark swam by. It was pretty deep and so I only saw a shadow but it was massive. The guys popped into the cage and tried to see the shark. They saw him for a brief second before he disappeared into the blue. After twenty minutes of silence another, bigger shark, attacked the bate. We saw him very briefly as the animal just flew by. The guys were in there for about 35 minutes when Cam and I were suited up and ready to go. The first guys got out of the cage and were really stoked. Seconds later Cam and I were in the water.
The water was not frigid getting in but it was quite cold. Once in, we located the bate, which was sure to be the action point. Surrounding the cage were small fish and jellyfish. The visibility was not great. You could only see roughly 4 or 5 meters in the water which was not good because sharks on the other side of the boat were invisible to the people in the cage. As the minutes went by the water was starting to take its toll. After about a half hour of no action, my hands were shaking and blue. We decided to get out of the water and wait for a shark before getting back in. Getting out of the water was not as warm as I thought it would be, I had to stay in my wet suite and it insulated the cold. After 5 minutes, We spotted another one, Cam and I scrambled to get in the water but when we did the shark had lost interest and left.After 5 minutes in the water again, I was properly chilled. My hands were shaking while holding onto the cage and when I started having trouble breathing, I told the skipper I needed to get out.Cam was not nearly as cold as I was and stayed in the water. As I was defrosting slowly, Cam was able to spot two sharks after about ten minutes.We saw a little action on the surface as one of the sharks brought his entire back and tail out of the water as it went for the fake seal. Cam got out after another twenty minutes in the water and was really pumped after seeing the sharks. I was still pretty frozen as the third group got in the water. We were running out of time as the boat had to promptly be back on the dock by 12:00 but the best show was with the third wave of people. As the final shark swam by, our boat got close to some shallower water near some of the rocks off of seal island. The shark was sort of trapped and had to circle the cage for a good minute.The third group of people were only in the water for about 10 minutes and they definitely got the best show. From the surface, their dive was not very spectacular as the shark never breached the surface and mostly chilled under the boat.
After a few minutes of packing up the cage and wet suits we were headed back to Simon's Town. I was the only one not to see a shark while in the water and was definitely the most effected by the water temperature. Frankly, I feel like I missed out on the experience and I'm kind of pissed off about it. March is the very beginning of the season and May June and July are the peak months where the sharks regularly breach completely out of the water. I am contemplating trying it again later in my stay. I'm still pretty frustrated and the day was definitely anticlimactic.
Tonight, I plan on watching a movie and getting a solid night's sleep. Tomorrow we're going to Muizenberg in the afternoon and surfing. Will's wife, Roxy, owns a surf shop there so it should be a pretty cool experience. Hopefully she gives a lesson.
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