Thursday, November 19, 2009

Dancing with Sharks !( Kleinnbay SA)


Another wild day in paradise! Today was the big one and I do not think we will top this for a while!
We went (Alec and I)cage diving with white sharks in a possessed ocean (up to 30 knots wind) where the water temp was barely 50 (14c). (about the same as air temp)
I had read about this unique place in the world where White Sharks gather but never thought I would end up diving with my older son in the middle of such chaos…storm etc
First we selected one of the few outfitters doing this business on the fact that Brad Pitt did it with them few years ago! If if was good enough for Brad Pitt it should be good enough for us!
The day started at 4 am when we woke up ready to go for a beginning of tour at 6.45am! Actually we talked about it all day/and evening before we opted to leave Carol and Luca on shore (Luca was not too keen on idea!) In short , we were not able to sleep!
6.30 am, Alec and I were the first one at Shark diving place!
Quick safety meeting (of course no liability in SA), breakfast (I had 1 sausage too many) and here we were on Barracuda with 15 other instant crazy friends!
8 am, after a short ride thru the bay (Mistakenly on the flybrige of the boat) we dropped anchor in the middle of a wind storm….just the ride in itself was an adventure to start with!
The captain warned us by telling us we could be here for couple hours to wait for a shark……fortunately within 2 minute a glorious 15 footer went by boat!
Frenzy was here! Suddenly the cage was dropped and the 15 tourists (including us) were looking for wet suits (7mm) and a spot to change on this 40 foot boat!
Everybody that has been wearing a wet suit once can picture 15 people trying to get in a full wetsuits on a small boats without changing rooms….epic!
The cage was in and we opted not to be first as we always do in those situations! The adrenaline pump was working and then our turn came. Alec went first and I was protecting him on the corner of cage exposing myself to 3 angle instead of 1!(creepy)
Could not tell you much how many time we dove under water it was a blurr!
The water was so cold but we did not feel anything but the rush of seeing those unbelievable creatures swimming around us! (we saw 7 different big whites)
Finally it was our last dive and a shark went straight for the cage sticking his head (safely) between two bars! Alec and I ended up less than a foot head on with a great white! We had enough!
The captain called us in saying the storm was coming (Thought it was always here!) and it was time to go back to shore!
We quickly(!) removed our wet suits and for some reasons we got seasick instantly!
The sausage too many was quickly released to the ocean and quite pale I went back to shore (Alec was not very fresh either!
We are on a cloud, Alec and I will NEVER forget this day and to be honest I am not sure I would do it again unless the weather and temperature were more friendly








2 comments:

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  2. Wow you guys...very courageous on your part and, yes, I can just imagine how rough the waters were and how unpleasant the sailing must have been..ouch. Fabulous blog you guys. Enjoy Quenelles and Rosette while in France. Ph.Danh

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