Monday was another full day of diving, both on the surface and in the bottom cage. We did the usual surface cage session in the morning after breakfast, with another slow start to the shark action. We did one round of bottom cage diving before breakfast, with a very curious, small male shark that was clearly excited by the smell of tuna blood in the water. One of the coolest parts of the bottom cage is when the sharks closely circle the cage; you can see their eyes inspecting the shiny metal box with strange creatures inside. Its not often you can make prolonged eye contact with a shark. After another delicious lunch prepared by Jade, we did another round of bottom cage diving, then finished the afternoon with a nice surface cage session. We wanted to take the guests to North Neptune Island to look at the fur seal colony, but the wind had picked up enough to make it too rough for the zodiac journey. Instead, we enjoyed the colorful sunset and relaxed in the lounge, talking with guests and looking at some of the incredible shots from the trip.
Tuesday I woke up feeling weird. This was going to be my last day of cage diving and I was dismayed to find that my time with RFSE was rapidly coming to an end. But I chose to savor every moment of the day and the routine that had become my life for the past 3 weeks. Drinking my morning coffee while stirring the berley, tying tuna gills to the floats to use as surface bait, getting splashed by cold water as I helped guests into the surface cage – it all felt so normal to me now, it was sad to know it was my last day doing it all.
We originally were going to do one last round of bottom cage diving, but decided to cancel because the seas were quite rough and we didn’t want to put unnecessary strain on the crane. It was then I realized I had made a major mistake over the past 3 weeks of diving with RFSE. For those of you who’ve read my last few blogs, you’ll have noticed that there are no photos of white sharks above or below the water that are my own. I was planning on taking my camera in the water on a bottom cage dive, but kept forgetting to or having reason to not bring it. And on my last possible day to bottom cage dive, we canceled the plans!! I had zero pictures of white sharks despite three weeks of up close interactions and I was seriously regretting it. But, we still had the surface cage in the water with a few sharks circling round so I thought, “Well, I’ll just jump in after all the guests have had a chance and at least get a photo from the surface cage!” Once a spot opened up, I suited up and hopped in with my camera (also my first time in the surface cage!) eager to get a few shots of these magnificent sharks. Lady Luck was not on my side today – not a single shark appeared during my hour in the cage and I never got a single photo of a white shark.
Disheartened, I climbed out of the cage and jumped back to work prepping the back deck for the journey back to Hopkin Island. At least being busy with work kept my mind off my failure to capture a single image. But at least I knew I spent the past 3 weeks working hard and living in the moment, not obsessed with trying to get a good picture. Sometimes the quest for capturing the perfect image keeps us from truly appreciating the experience and I wanted to work my hardest alongside the crew, which I think I did. We spent the early afternoon doing one last dive with the sea lions before heading back to Port Lincoln.
Our group, which was an incredibly fun group of photographers, had booked a table at the local restaurant to enjoy oysters and wine for the evening, inviting the crew along. We had an amazing evening of fresh South Australia oysters and good company, staying up a bit too late and laughing a bit too much. It was just the right end to not only the trip, but my entire time in Port Lincoln.
The guests stayed overnight on the boat, disembarking at various times throughout the morning. Once everyone had left, we stripped the boat down and did most of the major cleaning. By the early afternoon, Jade, Dani, and Rory had already left to go home for the holidays and I was all alone on the boat. I got to packing my bags in preparation to go to Sydney the next day. To finish the day, I went to Shaun and Medeanna’s home for a BBQ with their family and friends, which was good fun. It was really nice to be included with the locals and I was extremely grateful for the hospitality and generosity shown by Shaun and Medeanna. After a good evening of amazing food, I said my farewells and thank you’s, heading back to the boat for a quiet night of sleep.
Thursday was my travel day back to Sydney (and also Christmas eve), which was quite uneventful and I made it back to Jayne and Colin without issue, sad to have left Port Lincoln but looking forward to spending the holidays with familiar faces.
Friday was Christmas and Jayne had a wonderful day planned for us. We started it off with a fantastic dive at Chowder Bay, a local Sydney dive site, followed with a champagne and breakfast picnic with friends. We then had a nice long walk with the dogs on the beach, soaking in the summer sun (it was weird celebrating Christmas in the summer!) We then headed back to Jayne’s to clean up and prepare the Christmas dinner. We had cocktails in the backyard as Colin grilled salmon. It was a perfect Australian Christmas, with gift swapping and good food, lots of laughs and Christmas crackers. We spent the evening drinking, laughing, and eating away, ending with a walk to see the Christmas lights on a neighboring street. Although I wasn’t able to spend the holiday with my family back in Houston, I was happy to have spent it with such good friends halfway around the world.
We spent the weekend doing a few touristy things – went to watch the start of the Sydney Hobart, a massive sailing race that begins in Sydney harbor and goes down to Tasmania, which is a massive event here in Australia. We sat on a cliff and watched the boats race towards the headlands from the harbor, looking magnificent with their sails full of wind, tacking left and right across the harbor.
We also took a trip in to the city to walk around the Sydney Opera House and Botanical Gardens, two major tourist destinations. It was a gorgeous and sunny day, but the city was packed with tourists in town for the holiday and families on vacation from work and school. I would have a few more days with Jayne in Sydney before heading off for my next adventure in Fiji and I was really looking forward to seeing the firework show in Sydney Harbor for New Years Eve.
