Oh Hai Great White Sharks!

We woke up early (5:15) to go on our much anticipated shark dive.  We packed our bags and, lucky for us, a hotel shuttle whisked us away to the marina so that we didn’t have to walk.  We boarded the boat (a very nice boat!) and read some shark facts until we started heading out to sea.  The girl on board offered up breakfast and about 3 hours later, we were at our dive site. 

In the jaws of a Great White.

On the way, the woman sitting next to me suddenly smacked me in the arm. When I turned to see why I had been assaulted, she pointed out the window and said "Dolphins!". All was forgiven, and I immediately turned around and glued my face to the glass. A few moments later, I was rewarded with the sight of four common dolphins porpoising through the waves. I wasn't quick enough with my camera, so unfortunately this Google image will have to suffice:

One of my favorite cetacean species.

Delphinus delphis. 

I'm a nerd.

I had been drinking a ton of water so I really needed to go the bathroom: this was a serious mistake.  As soon as I left the bathroom I felt sick—terribly, terribly sick.  I ripped the bathroom door open and proceeded to perform the miracle of resurrecting my breakfast at the porcelain altar.  Afterwards, I felt much better…probably because I realized that I was capable of performing miracles. 

Meanwhile, I was upstairs eating chocolate cake.

The captain gave us a run down of the cage and safety and before we knew it, a shark showed up!  It was great to see the power that the sharks exhibited when they went for the bait. 

Sea Lions! (aka shark bait)

The cage.

The first shark!

Delicious. 

View from the boat.

The first team of four geared up and went into the cage. Kelley and I decided to go next along with a couple from Hong Kong. They went in one of the rooms and changed…which I thought was odd, but whatever. 

Lookin' sexy in our 7 mil wetsuits and hoods.

When our time came, we were lowered into the cage one at a time, and then the real fun began.  There were no sharks for a minute of two, but then one came over to the cage. We estimated that there were about 3-4 different Great White Sharks that we saw while in the water. Some were wary and kept their distance, while others came right up to the cage and seemed to look you in the eye. One even bit the cage when the skipper pulled the bait up in front of it. Despite the proximity of the sharks, I never felt in danger—I only felt a sense of respect for the sharks.  They were incredibly beautiful and very graceful in the water. 

Because we were extremely overweighted in order to stay down, I had problems maintaining my balance. Because I was wearing a vest with most of the weights on the back, several times I found myself on the bottom of the cage, looking up at the surface, awkwardly flailing about in an attempt to right myself. Thankfully I was able to correct my position in time to see the sharks.

These fish got trapped in the cage and couldn't figure out how to escape. I think I kicked one. Or two.

Not our blood.

Oh hai!!

 Great White Shark Gonads for your viewing pleasure.

 Om nom nom!

Om nom nom part II

I thought that the sharks would be constantly biting the cage, or only going after the bait, but most of the time they would just swim by and look at us. The video above was the only time that the shark bit the cage, but it did so because the bait was pulled toward the cage. I was surprised at how calm they were. They would appear out of nowhere, and disappear soon afterwards. It was hard to get photos of them because you never knew where they would show up. There was one point where we had 3 different sharks around the cage at once. 

When our time was up about 45 minutes later, Kelley went downstairs to shower change and, of course, the couple from Hong Kong showered and changed together.  After this, there was plenty of food to be eaten (though I never wanted to see or smell food again). 

I ate so much on that boat.

We went outside to view the sharks from above for the last two groups.

When we got back we were cold and I was finally able to think about food again in a positive way, so we showered and walked across the street to KFC. I ordered just about everything on the menu and the girl working asked me something.  I asked her to repeat what she said, here is my translation: “Do you need a sssjhfihrglrg?”  I have no idea what that is, I admitted.  She pulled out a little packet with a napkin, spoon, and fork.  Ahh, a serviette.  I accepted it.  That went terribly well and made me feel even more confident about understanding the locals.

When we got back to the hotel, we ate and turned on the local news.

Would you like some mashed potatoes with your gravy?

This ended up being more entertaining than informing, which I’m not sure that it should have been.  When they went to air one of the stories, the video kept starting and stopping.  So they went to another story: the sound wasn’t working.  Before they went to a commercial break to fix the apparent errors, the newscaster said “It looks like we’re having some MAJOR technical difficulties.”  The Australian accent made this really funny for some reason.  When the news came back on, a story aired about someone involved in politics.  A different politician was interviewed and said that the other politician liked to give “political judo chops.”  I honestly laughed for a solid five minutes about this comment—who says that!?

After I was finally done laughing, we watched the remainder of the newscast, tried to watch Australia’s Next Top Chef (it was HORRIBLE), and went to bed.

Oh yea.