One night in after our first trip and already we are turning the boat around and heading out to Guadalupe Island to do it all again! It sometimes feels like a lot of effort and time to center trips around this location but as ever, once we arrive, it is always well worth the wait........
We started diving at 8.30 on the first morning and had our first shark sighting at 8.47. Although it was not long to wait, what we often see on the first morning is that the sharks are down very deep (not a problem at this location as the incredible visibility means you can see the animals as they cruise up from the depths to the surface.) Once the sharks gain a little confidence (or become a little more hungry) then the action starts to take place right in front of our divers!
Midday came and although we where having sharks, they where being a little shy and keeping their distance from the cages.................then one of Guadalupe islands legends turned up.....with no introduction necessary.........”Bruce” had arrived!! Bruce has been seen at Guadalupe since diving began here and this sighting is his 11th year running! For me, he is the ultimate Great White shark - 16ft in size (which is large for a male here), very stocky, well proportioned and has a huge grinning smile! On top of this he has the personality to go with it! He comes right in for our baits making pass after pass in front of the cages and putting on a real show for our guests! He spent over two hours putting on this show and left our divers with all the photos they could ever want and dizzy from the amount of action taking place.
The rest of the day was steady for sharks and overall we identified 5 different animals and a duck who decided to take residence in one of our surface cages! One thing we must report was a natural breach that took place on the port side of the boat - a 12ft shark was seen by some of our lucky guests as it jumped clear of the water and actually hit the side of the boat! The whole boat shook and those guests where left speechless! When the first day came to an end, as ever Guadalupe had not disappointed.
Day 2 of course was hard to match the previous however we did see 4 different sharks and those of our guests who took a ride in our submersible cage had a great showing of 3 sharks at a time and on one particular dive we shared the cage with a Guadalupe seal as he took cover from the sharks! - a pretty funny experience sharing a cage with one of these beautiful, agile and placid species.
Our final day at the island was a classic! sharks from the moment we got in the water, some exhilarating submersible cage experiences and fantastic surface action on the baits in particular from a brand new tagged shark we have nicknamed “chappy.” After an intense last day we started too make our way back home to San Diego via Ensenada and where treated to some great sea conditions making our journey home very comfortable for our guests as they traded photos and videos of there adventure over the last 5 days. Whilst many of the sharks had given the guests some spectacular footage, I feel that there is going to be a few more photos on Facebook and a few more videos on Youtube of one shark in particular and his name is “Bruce”!
2 trips down and still way more to come folks......................
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