Guadalupe 220 miles off San Diego is not only one of the most sought after destinations in the world today but also one of the most remote! When boarding in San Diego we often tell our guests to leave all their troubles on the docks, immerse themselves in the trip for 5 days and pick them back up on the way home...............trip 3 was yet another one of these once in a lifetime vacations for our ecstatic shark divers.........
Day 1 and we where off to a flying start! We had sharks during the first rotation of the day (which is early for the fist morning) and it didn't let up. One particular shark which we have nicknamed “Scarface” due to his nasty scarring on his left side of his face put on an amazing show from midday onwards and stayed making pass after pass around the cages for nearly a constant 4 hours! At the end of the first day some of our guests had over 1000 photos already and we still had 2 days to go!
Day 2 continued in the same way and included many highlights such as one of our favorite sharks “Chuggey” stealing a few baits from our crew, the sight of a landslide taking place on the island itself, a shark taking a poo right in front of some divers and seals and turtles coming and checking us out up close! However the main highlight took place on the back deck at around lunchtime..................
Myself and 5 of our guests where standing at the back of the deck having a casual conversation. One of our guests, Mike, was leaning against the rail and out of nowhere a 12ft Great White breached right out of the water at a height above the rail...........and 2 foot from Mike!!!!! I have seen sharks breach this close to the boat before but have never had anyone standing right there when it happened!! We all screamed with excitement as the shark crashed back into the water! Amazing! We don't know why the sharks breach like this out here but when Mauricio Hoyas (Guadalupes’ head researcher) boarded the boat that evening for questions and answers it was the first question asked. He believes why the sharks breaching naturally here is down to some sought of social behavior. It is often seen when many male sharks are together and is a kind of dominance display shown by one of the animals against the rest. One thing is for sure, the sight of a shark suddenly appearing behind one of our guests a good 10 foot out of the water is one I will never forget!
After experiencing sharks from our submersible cage and finishing the end of our last day with an amazing showing from a 14ft male who nearly ate some of our guests go pro cameras he came so close, it was not hard for our guests to loose touch with the normal living of life back on everyday land. When the Islander pulls away from Guadalupe on the last day back to San Diego our guests are left to reflect on what a special location this is and why it has to be experiences first hand to fully understand why more and more people are coming each year, often returning guests needing there Guadalupe “fix” for another year.
Trip 4 on its way guys..............
No comments:
Post a Comment