By early Tuesday morning the guests had disembarked and we spent the rest of the morning turning over the boat – stripping the beds of linens, collecting towels to be washed, vacuuming, running countless loads of laundry, and putting wetsuits back on the rack. By early afternoon we all took a break from the cleaning and spent some time relaxing. Jade and I were both living on the Princess II so we hung out for the afternoon, watching some movies before getting ready for the RFSE staff Christmas party that night. I was kindly invited to tag along although I was by no means staff. By early evening, Dani had met Jade and me at the boat and we walked to the nearby marine restaurant where we met up with Mike, Shaun (skipper), and his wife Medeanna (who volunteers onboard every now and again). We spent the rest of the evening having a wonderful time over drinks and dinner, laughing the night away and staying up way too late.
With two and a half days between trips, Wednesday was spent completely relaxing and doing almost nothing productive. After a nice sleep-in (I made it to 9, which is late for me!) I spent the rest of the day lying in the lounge watching movies and being a bum.
Thursday was back to work and after a quiet morning, Dani and Mike swung round the boat to help prepare it for the guests’ arrival that evening at 8 PM. Dani and Jade ran into town to do shopping while I did random things around the boat – folding towels, vacuuming (always vacuuming!), double checking rooms are clean, before helping load the groceries on the boat when Jade and Dani returned. The rest of the day slowly crept by and when 8PM rolled around, I headed with Mike to pick up the guests and accompany them back to the boat. When everyone made it aboard, Mike gave the usual introduction and briefing for the trip, and then we helped everyone fill out paperwork before calling it a night. By this time, Rory and Bec – two part-time crew – had also arrived and I spent a bit of time talking with them before heading to bed. While it was sad Dani wouldn’t be on this trip, I was looking forward to working with Rory and Bec, as they seemed like a pretty neat couple.
Friday we rose before the sun to depart from Port Lincoln – we had the boat out of the marina just around 5 AM to get to the Neptune Islands as early as possible. It was a much rougher journey out to the Neptunes and several people were seasick by the time we reached the North Neptunes and dropped anchor.
Everyone’s stomachs calmed down within an hour after setting anchor (although we dropped the surface cage in the water almost immediately upon getting there). We baited the water and had sharks within 30 minutes, although it took a while for the guests to feel good enough to use the surface cage. Mike gave the usual surface cage briefing and we soon had people in the water with the sharks, seasickness long forgotten.
We had an excellent morning session, with loads of sharks coming round and staying around. Mike had divided the bottom divers into groups and there was an extra space in the last rotation for me to tag along again.
This time though, I’d be doing the training to learn how to operate the cage myself. Before going down, Mike explained to me how to operate the cage – the tug system used to indicate up, down, and stop, then the procedures for floating the cage to the surface in case of a massive problem. We geared up and hopped in the cage slowly heading down. While I was excited to see the sharks again, I was more excited to learn how to operate the cage and give it a try. When we reached the bottom, Mike stopped the cage and then we ran through the drill of putting enough air in the large, metal float on top of the cage to make it neutrally buoyant, then practiced slowly bringing it up a meter or two: it’s a fine combination of adding and releasing air to maintain a slow and steady ascent. Once Mike felt confident in my ability, we got to enjoying the rest of the dive. When it was time to ascend, he let me command the cage up to 5 meters, stopping for our safety stop before ascending all the way up. I felt pretty solid about my ability to run the cage but wasn’t sure if I’d be entrusted to such responsibility so early on. We kept on with the rotations, helping guests in and out of the cage, working the safety rope, and occasionally running in to clean and dry dishes. By the time my second rotation came around, I noticed on the white board that my name was the only one listed as cage captain! I was being given the chance to do it all by myself!
I was excited, but a bit nervous to be given such a position so quickly but I knew I could do it. I hopped in the cage first, helping the guests in the cage before signaling for us to get lowered down. We plunged into the cold water and down we went to the seafloor, where I stopped the cage a meter above the surface. I was so nervous – what if we didn’t see sharks? What if I got the cage stuck on rocks? What if the cable snapped?! But I thought “ok Michele, just relax, breathe, take it easy” and I immediately calmed down. We soon had a few sharks circling round and before I knew it, it was time for me to bring the cage up to the safety stop! I had definitely been too worried (as I always do) and after our stop, we got hoisted all the way back up. It was really nice to act as a divemaster again (although being a divemaster here is unlike anywhere else) and have that sense of leadership in the dive. It was a gentle reminder of how much I love guiding and helping people on dives, solidifying the notion that I wanted to continue working as a dive professional after my scholarship year. Once everyone had their two dives in for the day, we secured the bottom cage and did another couple hours on the surface. The rest of the day didn’t disappoint, with continual action from the sharks up until the sun was so low in the sky it was hard for us to see anything in the water. We packed up the surface cage, another successful day of diving complete!
Saturday started with the usual surface cage diving session just after breakfast with lots of good shark action, followed by the usual two rounds of bottom cage diving in the late morning and early afternoon. By this time I was completely in love with being cage captain. It was so much fun to be a divemaster again, but this kind of work definitely kept me on my toes! With 4 meter white sharks swimming around the cage as it swings over the seafloor, there isn’t any time to get distracted. You have to be focused on your surroundings and your divers the whole time. Being cage captain was an awesome challenge and learning experience for me and was one of the best parts of my time working with RFSE. Once both rounds of bottom cage diving were done, we started the surface cage up for a few more hours before a glorious sunset to end the day.
Sunday morning gave us a chance for a few more hours in the surface cage and one last dive in the bottom cage before we had to pack up. Just before lunch the boat was pulling anchor and as we began our journey to Hopkins Island, Rory, Bec, and I scrubbed down the back deck of any tuna blood or oil. We were going to snorkel with the sea lions that afternoon and as a precaution, made sure that all bait scent/trails were completely cleaned from the boat. Just after lunch we made it to the shallow cove where the sea lions rest on a sandy beach. We threw down the anchor, hoisted the zodiac into the water, and helped guests get their wetsuits, masks, fins, and snorkels. We loaded up in the zodiac and zipped over to the cove. The sea lions perked up at the sound of our motor and a few splashed into the water. We all hopped in and spent an hour snorkeling with these amazingly agile creatures. It was remarkable to see the transformation of a sea lion from an awkward, clumsy creature on land to the most graceful and agile creature below the water. They are highly curious animals and would come right up to us and swim in circles around us.
Before we knew it, our time was up with the sea lions and we headed back to the Princess II. The last leg of our journey back to Port Lincoln took us just over 2 hours and we docked just before 6 that evening. The guests all disembarked shortly after we tied up and the crew quickly got to stripping the boat for turnaround. After getting the majority of the big tasks done with, we headed over to dinner at Dani’s house to catch up with her after a fun trip. And just like that, I’d finished my second trip and was beginning to feel like a part of the crew – I was starting to understand the flow of the days and was given more responsibility, which I gladly accepted. Each trip gave me more confidence and more excitement about this incredible opportunity.
