October 28

Finally, I am able to post.  I wrote the following on Word on the bus so I could just copy and paste when I get access to the net.

Well, today was the Great White Shark Cage Dive excursion….more about that later.  Haha I’m gonna keep you in suspense a little while longer.  Incidentally, I had to admit to my mom that I was getting in the water with sharks since she asked me directly and specifically.  She was cool with it and was impressed that I was brave enough.  Of course, the cat would have been out of the bag anyways since the tour group were all excited about it and talking about it a lot.

Had a buffet breakfast that was very good.  Again, this hotel is wonderful & the breakfast selection is great.  The group was going into the little town of Hermanus for whale watching, shopping, etc.  I initially wasn’t able to go because I, being the only one from the group, was going on the shark dive.  BUT….the shark pick up wasn’t happening until 12 noon so I arranged to be picked up in town so I could see Hermanus too.

The town is very nice with cliffs down to the bay.  There are pathways to go down to big rocks right beside the water.  There’s a Whale Crier who blows his horn every time there is a whale sighting.  There were Southern Right Whales in the bay.

Our tour guide, Lindy wasn’t feeling well and she wanted to go to a walk-in clinic.  The shark people were going to phone her cell half hour before my pick up time so I went with her.  Mom went off with another couple to explore the shops for the day.  The shark people eventually picked me up and away I went.  It was about an hour’s drive away to Gansbaai.  There are a lot of vacation homes in that community.  The water is absolutely beautiful and blue (like Hawaii).

Arrived at the Great White Shark Project headquarters where they fed me some lunch (and yes, I took a picture).  I signed a form indicating my emergency contact haha. We all walked across the street to our boat and climbed aboard.  The boat is NOT very big and there were about 25 of us.  There was enough room but it was tight.  The boat ride out to where the shark cage is was only about a 10 minute ride.  As I was sitting on the boat the smell of fish was overwhelming when I discovered that I was sitting right beside a bunch of dead tuna.  Of course, I took advantage of the photo op.

The boat anchors beside the cage and they took 6 people at a time.  I opted to watch for a while and get some shots from the top of the boat where you can see the sharks coming.  I called SHARK many times as you can imagine.,….SHARK AT 2 O’CLOCK…..SHARK AT 11 O’ CLOCK, etc….I really wanted to say…..’We’re gonna need a bigger boat’.  LOL

The first shark came within 10 minutes and I did get some good shots from up top but of course you always miss the shots where they rear their toothy grins or jump up a bit.  My camera doesn’t have that capability to take several shots in a row really fast.  After awhile I got my wet suit on.  Man, THAT was hard.  It’s like putting on ridiculously tight spanx for your whole body.  I needed help of course.  After you put your suit on you wait for your turn.  So I put away my iphone and got out my waterproof underwater video camera & took some shots from the main deck. 

When it was our turn, they give you the hoodie and booties too.  You get a mask and a belt full of weights.  Bob told me before I left for this trip that I should try and touch the shark at the back end if it swims by me close enough.  I asked the guy if we could do that and he said and I quote…’If I see you touch a shark, I will haul you out of that cage and we will all go back and it will be YOUR fault.  Sharks do not like to be touched even by other sharks and they are so fast and agile, he could swing around and bite your hand off before you even know it’.  I guess I won’t be touching a shark, Bob, at least not voluntarily (more about that later).  Anyways, the guy was nicer than I made him sound.

So, getting into the cage is a little awkward since you sit on the side of the boat with your legs in the cage.  You climb down the cage bars with your feet while holding onto the bars at the top of the cage.  Once you’re in the cage, you continue to hang on to the top of the bars above you with your head out of the water and your feet resting on the outside bars (confident that a shark isn’t gonna come from the bottom of the ocean and eat your feet).  When a shark comes by the guy yells ‘DOWN, DOWN’ and then you let go of the bars above your head and sink below the water surface holding your breath of course.  Even with the weights on, you’re still really buoyant.  You grab onto the INSIDE handle bars (not the outside bars of course) and tuck your feet under the inside bottom bar so you stay down there.  Thank goodness Bob figured out a way to attach a wrist band to the camera otherwise I wouldn’t be able to use that camera.

I am impressed that I was able to hold the camera so steady.  You do get used to doing the down, down thing after a few times.  In the beginning I kept knocking into the girl beside me with my feet.  There are lots of little fish around and seagulls galore.  There’s a lot of waiting in between sightings and sometimes you don’t get a lot of notice.  I took lots of short videos where no sightings happened.  I have organized them and will post a couple.  They are very short, as is the sighting.  The water is very cold and the visibility wasn’t great that day unfortunately.  I wasn’t that cold though since I had the wet suit on. 

They put the bait on the end of a long rope with a buoy and toss it as far as they can.  When a shark comes around and is interested in the bait, they drag it towards the cage so the shark will come nearer to you.  Many times the shark doesn’t pursue the bait that much and just turns around and swims away.  Other times it gets really excited and thrashes about.  You will see this in the best video I have.  In that video you will notice him turn quickly and thrash his tail on our cage.  Well, HE touched ME, not the other way around.  His tail touched my finger and I got it on video (not an exact finger/tail contact shot though, you’re just gonna have to believe me).  My camera was in my right hand and I was hanging on to the bar with my left and his tail came into the cage a little and hit my finger.  Better that end of the shark than the other, right? Haha

I do have some still shots too which I will put on the blog but you have to zoom in on one of them.  I have one shot where you see his face and that’s the biggest shark that came.  There were about 3 different size sharks (all Great Whites) that visited us.  None of them came at the same time.

It was a great experience and I’m really glad I did it.  I bought the DVD package which includes a video of our specific day’s outing highlights (which is great because they got shots I didn’t).  It also includes a bonus DVD of the best shots they have of the sharks.  I got driven back to the hotel and was eagerly greeted by some of my tour mates.  Had dinner and downloaded my pics and videos and packed since we leave the next day for Johannesburg.  Hope you enjoy the pics and videos.  Please comment or ask questions if you like.

Hermanus

See the whale made out of shells on the roof?

Statue of Southern Right Whale

Shark Bait

The ride out to the cage

The cage awaits

First sighting from top of the boat

Moi

This is the best still shot but you should zoom in.  You can see his face and toothy grin.

The ride back to my hotel (don't worry there's shark video too)

I have put 4 videos on youtube and here are the links.  Please look at them in the order I give you.  They are all very short.  The first two don't have sharks but you get the idea of what it was like.  The last two have sharks.  Enjoy.  Just click on the links below

Kendra's Video #1

Kendra's Video #2

Kendra's Video #3

Kendra's Video #4