Its 7:30 Saturday morning as we arrive at Struisbaai harbour after a 2 and a half hour trip from Cape Town. The water looks like a mirror reflecting the light cloud cover in the early morning sun and there is no sign of wind for the day to follow, today well be seeing some serious yellowtail action on the reefs off the coast of this little town is what is going through everybodys mind. We gear up and launch the boat and set off for our first spot on the gps markers. On the way there we saw some serious bird action and decided to investigate just in case its yellow tail, on arrival we see that its not yellow tail but bonito, schools and schools of bonito. The fist diver jumps in the water so fast he almost forgets to connect his float line but as he goes down the fish disappear almost immediately. So our skipper decides to rather go to our planned destination than spend the first hour of our day chasing these fish.
Arriving at 5mile bank we go overboard for our first drift down the strong current normally assosiated with that area. The current is almost non existent and the yellow tail that was supposed to be there isnt but we get the most amazing dive with 20m+ vis. After a few drifts with no yellowtail and only two smallish reef fish we decide to go dive one of the nearby wrecks and on the way there we once again spot the seagulls working hard, maybe its the yellowtail, and we go after them again. Its not the yellowtail but the bonito, this time two divers go over and start giving chase to the fast moving school of fish.
I get dropped off a bit ahead of the fish and while loading my 1.1 apex I see the fish flash past me in the water, this time the vis isns so great maybe 3m, and then theyre gone. I look up out the water to see where the birds are and see them about 10m in front of me so I start finning in their direction after a few metres I look up again and this time I cant even see the birds. So I start looking for the rest of our crew and as I turn to my left to see if anybody is behind me I saw a GWS fin sticking out the water only 3 or 4m away from me and I imediately stick my gun handle in the air to ask for a quick pick up, at that very same moment I see the shark turning and coming straight at me, I also see our boat coming towards me at full speed so I drop my head in the water and stick my gun in the direction of the GWS closing fast now:martial . The next moment the boat pulls up next to me and two of the other difers on the boat yank me out the water gun and all. On the boat Im told that the shark was about 2.5m long and that it was about a meter away from me, our skipper ran over it with the boat and only then did it turn away so my gun would have been of no use as I didnt even see it coming from a different angle than what I expected.
After the initail adrenalin rush subsided I decided it wise not to tempt fate twice that day and offered to drive the boat while the rest of the team dives, naturally they except and we built up a nice tally for the day while also discovering a new reef with some fat romans cruising around. Allthough the rest of the day was uneventfull shark wise Im still going to acuiere a shark sheild before the next trip and at least I got a good tan and good boating experience on my first trip out on the open water. On the bright side of it all I got to see something for free tourists pay to do and I didnt even have to go down in a cage.
Our tally for the day:
8 good sized parrot fish, 3 stray bonitos, a roman, a yellow belly, two saddle backs, a bream and a john brown and a good story to tell everybody back home about the new guy attracting sharks.
SAVE DIVING
Arriving at 5mile bank we go overboard for our first drift down the strong current normally assosiated with that area. The current is almost non existent and the yellow tail that was supposed to be there isnt but we get the most amazing dive with 20m+ vis. After a few drifts with no yellowtail and only two smallish reef fish we decide to go dive one of the nearby wrecks and on the way there we once again spot the seagulls working hard, maybe its the yellowtail, and we go after them again. Its not the yellowtail but the bonito, this time two divers go over and start giving chase to the fast moving school of fish.
I get dropped off a bit ahead of the fish and while loading my 1.1 apex I see the fish flash past me in the water, this time the vis isns so great maybe 3m, and then theyre gone. I look up out the water to see where the birds are and see them about 10m in front of me so I start finning in their direction after a few metres I look up again and this time I cant even see the birds. So I start looking for the rest of our crew and as I turn to my left to see if anybody is behind me I saw a GWS fin sticking out the water only 3 or 4m away from me and I imediately stick my gun handle in the air to ask for a quick pick up, at that very same moment I see the shark turning and coming straight at me, I also see our boat coming towards me at full speed so I drop my head in the water and stick my gun in the direction of the GWS closing fast now:martial . The next moment the boat pulls up next to me and two of the other difers on the boat yank me out the water gun and all. On the boat Im told that the shark was about 2.5m long and that it was about a meter away from me, our skipper ran over it with the boat and only then did it turn away so my gun would have been of no use as I didnt even see it coming from a different angle than what I expected.
After the initail adrenalin rush subsided I decided it wise not to tempt fate twice that day and offered to drive the boat while the rest of the team dives, naturally they except and we built up a nice tally for the day while also discovering a new reef with some fat romans cruising around. Allthough the rest of the day was uneventfull shark wise Im still going to acuiere a shark sheild before the next trip and at least I got a good tan and good boating experience on my first trip out on the open water. On the bright side of it all I got to see something for free tourists pay to do and I didnt even have to go down in a cage.
Our tally for the day:
8 good sized parrot fish, 3 stray bonitos, a roman, a yellow belly, two saddle backs, a bream and a john brown and a good story to tell everybody back home about the new guy attracting sharks.
SAVE DIVING
