Cage Diving with Great White Sharks (Guadalupe Island)

After my trip in San Diego (see previous post) I woke up with the sunrise when the sun was bright, the sky was beautiful, the water was calm, and everyone was in good spirits. The cages went into the water around 6:30am and the wranglers were trying to entice the sharks to come to us rather than the 4 other boats. It didn’t take long for a small male shark to pop his head in and see what was up. I suited up and jumped in after choking down an apple and coffee (sea sickness is the WORST!) The first shark was about 12 feet long, with a scar over his right eye that made him look like he was permanently grumpy. I didn’t know his name, so I just called him Groucho. A big female, about 17 feet long named Blue Steel popped in later in the day, as well as another male called Sad Face because he had a scar on his back that resembled the sad face emoji. The sharks were AMAZING y’all, they were scary at first but I got over that really quickly. They were more scared of us than we were of them, but they were driven to us by their curiosity. The tuna being used to lure them in was barely a snack, not enough to justify them coming over alone but combined with their inquisitive nature was enough to bring them over. Sometimes they got close enough to touch, but you couldn’t that was against the rules. At a couple points the sharks lunged at the bait and landed so close to the cages they knocked into them which was both terrifying and thrilling. One thing I didn’t know, but know and love now, is that great white sharks actually have blue eyes but their pupils are so big you can’t really see it until they’re up close and in the darker depth. Beautiful ocean blue eyes. They’re also huge scaredy cats, that old phrase “they are more scared of you than you are of them” is so true in this case. If there was anything unexpected at all, a sudden movement, a tap on the cage, a yell from above…ZOOM off they went into the deeper water. Like big, scared, puppy dogs all of them. Even the 17 footers that visited us! In all, we identified about 11 different sharks over the course of the three days. On the second day, we were even graced with an approximately 30 foot whale shark!! The captain who had been doing tours out to the island for the past 10 seasons said it was the first time he, or anyone else he asked, had heard of a whale shark all the way out there. It was a beautiful creature and I feel blessed having seen it. In addition to the whale shark and white sharks we saw some sea turtles that came close enough to check things out but not close enough to entice the sharks. The seals and walrus also stayed closer to the beach and mostly just screamed all day and night like a pack of deranged Wookies.

The Nautlius Belle Amie was a gorgeous boat with a wonderful crew. The food was delicious, and all of the staff were kind, compassionate and respectful of not just the people but the animals as well. They were funny and quirky and seemed to genuinely enjoy their jobs. One guy in particular everyone called “Gato” was super funny. I brought a great white shark onesie on the boat for fun, and he absolutely loved it! Even put it on and ran around in it. At the end of the trip I decided to give the onesie to him, he’d get far more use out of it on a shark boat than I would in my closet. Martyn was also a blast, always cracking jokes and throwing out friendly insults and encouraging people to get in the water.

It wasn’t all fantastic, although the bad parts were all my fault! Early on the third day, I set my AKASO camera next to the cage while I was getting in and my foot caught on the plastic mat. I lazily and recklessly kicked my foot free, and also kicked my camera into the water. Poor Jack tried his best to grab it, and the people in the cages below all tried to get it, but it was too late. My camera is now settled about 150 feet down at the bottom of the ocean. Fortunately I had already backed up my photos from the past few days so I only lost footage from that morning. People were super nice about sharing their photos though, so I definitely didn’t go without. I spent the rest of the last day just enjoying the sharks, and living in the moment, which I don’t mind at all considering at the very end two HUGE 17+ foot sharks came out and circled close to the cages. Even Gato came out afterwards to the three of us who had still been in the water like “Did you see those two?!?” They were both absolutely gorgeous, I wish we could have stayed longer!

We left to head back to port in the late afternoon. At first I put on the shark onesie to stay warm and sat above deck on a reclining chair, trying not to get sick, but also just enjoying the view of a light pollution free sky. I was up there for over an hour marveling on the gorgeousness of our galaxy. I saw at least two shooting stars, a satellite, and perhaps the space station. The point is, it was crystal clear, and so so many stars it was amazing. Eventually though the cold, windy night made its way through the shark onesie, so I took more medicine and spent most of the next day in my room lying in bed. It was mid-afternoon the next day when we made port in Ensenada. Getting back into the U.S. was surprisingly fast and easy. Once back in San Diego I checked into my next hotel and a group of 8 of us went to Mitch’s Seafood for dinner, which was once again super delicious. I crashed hard and fast that night, and slept in until mid-morning. After a good café mocha, I went out front to catch and Uber and ran into a very nice newlywed couple also heading to the airport so we carpooled over. The flight home was uneventful, and it was so nice to be home with my cats after being apart for 9 days.

.To be honest, I’m not sure what trip is going to top this one. This has been on my bucket list for 30-some years, and now I’ve jumped out of a plane and dived under the ocean…what’s a girl to do now?