After a good night’s rest in Port Lincoln, I was up nice and early on Monday morning to continue working to get the boat tidied up for the next trip, which was starting in just 12 hours. The crew and I spent the morning cleaning up around the boat, then took a trip into town to run the usual errands – buy groceries, restock alcohol, get more tuna, and any other odd ends that needed to be taken care of. By the afternoon the boat was all ready to go and we relaxed for a little while before heading out to pick up the guests. This next trip was going to be fast and furious – it was only 2 days out at the Neptunes, which meant we’d be running around for the majority of the next 3 days. Once all the guests got to the boat, we went through the usual introductions, briefing, and paperwork before heading to bed.

 

Tuesday was another early morning as we planned to leave from Port Lincoln around 5 am, well before the sun had risen. We untied from the dock and were on our way to the Neptunes, and the weather was on our side. Although the seas weren’t as flat as my first trip, they’d come down a significant bit from the previous trip, making for nice sailing on a gorgeous morning. We reached the Neptunes just after breakfast and we were all working before the anchor had been set. The surface cage was put in the water, bait out, and divers briefed all by 10 AM. We had sharks around the back of the boat after a bit of waiting and divers in the water shortly after they’d been briefed on the surface cage. The day was turning into a gorgeous feat of summer and we spent the whole day in the surface cage, with lots of good shark action throughout the day. I felt that by this time I was truly a working member of the crew and was (hopefully) pulling my weight with the work. While there were still small things I had to learn, I was also taking a lot more initiative with the work and trying to give the rest of the crew a small break from the enormous work load they have.

Wednesday would be a day for the record books, we just didn’t know it as we woke and slowly got ready for the day. It started off ordinary enough, with bringing the buckets of bait and berley down to the back deck from the freezer,  and drinking the usual cup of coffee while stirring up the berley on the back deck as the surface cage bobbed behind the boat. We started seeing sharks within 30-40 minutes of putting the bait out, as usual, and divers in the surface cage for the whole morning.

The weather was the first sign of the good day – it was calm and flat, with not a cloud in the sky and a nice, hot sun shining down on us. I’d almost forgotten I was in South Australia diving in temperate waters, it felt so tropical! After a break for lunch, we briefed the group of guests who would be bottom cage diving, then got to one round of bottom dives, which had good shark action and relatively clear waters. Back topside, we settled in for the rest of the afternoon with the surface cage, with lots of sharks swimming around, being highly active and giving guests good encounters with a variety of different males. Then, around 4 in the afternoon as we were in the thick of good action, something happened that no one expected. We had about 4 males that were around the cage at any given time, making close passes to the cage and actively going for the bait (which we worked hard to keep away from them). Mike and Medeanna were working the bait while Dani spotted for them and I was helping divers in and out of the surface cage. Someone noticed a shark coming up on one of the baits and called it out – but this shark didn’t seem like a normal great white. As it got closer, I thought, “Man, that is a thin and beat up white shark!” before slowly realizing it wasn’t in fact a white shark. It was a massive mako that decided to show up in the midst of the action and swam straight to the back deck. He had big scratches on his back but clearly this shark was a mean old thing, as it was easily around 3.5 meters and didn’t shy away as makos tend to.

He swam around the boat for over 30 minutes, bullying some of the smaller white sharks, periodically sticking his head out of the water to look at everyone standing on the back deck (and they were looking at him in amazement). I can remember Mike running around all excited, exclaiming that they’ve never seen anything like this before! Everyone was in awe watching the sleek shark as it circled around the boat before finally disappearing into the ocean. We spent the rest of the afternoon buzzing from the encounter and from the continued action put on by the white sharks. What a day! We finally pulled in the surface cage and had dinner to an amazing sunset. As night and darkness set in, a few of us wandered out to the bow, to look at the thousands upon thousands of stars in the sky. Being so far away from a city, you can have truly incredibly night skies devoid of light pollution. To top it off, the sea was as flat as a pancake, making it difficult to tell where the sea stopped and the sky began. It was a perfect end to a great day and I stayed up much later then I should have, talking with Medeanna and staring in amazement at the stars.

We spent the next morning doing one last surface cage session to give the guests a last chance to see sharks before snorkeling with sea lions. Just before lunch we packed up the cages, secured all the gear, and pulled anchor to begin the journey to Hopkins Islands. It was another gorgeous day and we all soaked in the sun as we scrubbed the tuna blood and oil off the back deck in preparation for the sea lions. By early afternoon we had set anchor just off Hopkins Island, lowered the zodiac in the water, and had guests suited up in snorkeling gear. We all clambered into the zodiac and zipped over to the shallow cove where we slipped into the clear blue water. We were shortly joined by 5 or 6 sea lions, who zoomed all around us, clearly entertained by the clumsy group of visitors.

After a nice long time playing with the sea lions, we headed back to the Princess II to finish our journey back to Port Lincoln. By 6 PM that evening, we had said our goodbyes to everyone and began the usual process of stripping down the boat to prepare it for the next (any my final!!) trip. After all the major chores were done, Jade and I headed into town for a nice dinner off the boat. Mike came to pick us up when we had finished and it was then he told me some big news. The last trip was a private charter with returning guests, all of whom were big photographers. A few had come in two days early and wanted to spend a day diving with the leafy sea dragons before the real trip began. Mike said he was sending me to dive with them (in addition to the guide from a local dive shop he had coordinated) to act as a representative from RFSE. I was shocked but definitely honored that he felt I was capable of representing the company. In addition to being excited to see leafy sea dragons, I felt a bit guilty I wouldn’t be around to help prepare the boat for the upcoming trip.

I was up and ready early Friday morning to go for these special dives. Mike picked me up, then the guests, and we headed to the dive shop where, after a quick introduction to the guide, we headed off to Tumby Bay, where the leafies can be found. We had 2 awesome dives along the jetty at Tumby Bay, filled not only with 3 leafy sea dragons, but loads of other unusual critters (including a pajama squid, which totally made my day).

It was weird to do a dive in normal scuba gear and not in a cage – I almost had forgotten how to use fins! By the time we finished the second dive it was early afternoon and we had a quick lunch at a nearby café before heading back to the Princess II. We dropped the guests at their hotel and loaded their gear on the boat. The rest of the group would be arriving that evening and while I had been diving, the crew had been diligently getting the boat ready for their arrival.

 

There was not much to be done by the time I got back from diving, so after getting the gear on the boat, we relaxed a little, anticipating the guests’ arrival at 8 PM. Much to our chagrin, they didn’t arrive until a few hours later (having wanted to get some food and drinks before getting on the boat). While they were out dining, their luggage had arrived in mass quantity. When the group finally arrived around 10:30 PM, a long night of unpacking and moving suitcases began. Because there was so much camera gear brought along, there was little room for anything else and Mike suggested that empty suitcases be brought to the storage shed just down the street. As suitcases were emptied, we loaded up the work truck to drive them over to the shed. I had been hearing of this shed for the past 2 weeks but had no idea what it was or where it was. I took this opportunity to quench my curiosity and tagged along with Mike to the much spoken about, yet ever mysterious “Shed.”  The visit to the shed was one of the best moments of my life (top 3 behind being born and getting the Rolex Scholarship) and I’m forever thankful to Mike for taking me there.  After 2 weeks of speculation, I finally got to see the shed I’d heard so much about, putting my fierce curiosity to rest. We unloaded all the suitcases, storing them in the shed, and headed back to the boat to see if there were any other empty ones to be stored away.  We finally got to bed around 1:30 that morning, sneaking in a few hours of sleep before having to get back to work.

We departed from Port Lincoln around 5 AM on Saturday morning, heading not to the Neptunes but to Tumby Bay to spend the morning looking for the leafy sea dragons again. It was glassy flat that morning, with a nice visit from a small pod of dolphins as we steamed over to Tumby Bay. We did one nice long dive that morning in groups of 4. I was charged with a group and was a bit nervous as the pressure was on for me to find the leafies again. Luck was on my side because I was able to find 3 adults and 1 juvenile for my guests!

It was a really good dive and everyone surfaced with smiles on their faces. Once all the divers had safely returned to the boat, we pulled anchor and headed to Hopkins Island to spend the afternoon diving with the sea lions. We split into 2 groups of six to dive with the sea lions, which were incredibly active that afternoon. After an hour dive with the playful sea lions, we begrudgingly got out of the water and back onboard the Princess II.

 

Sunday was an early start (though not quite as early as Saturday, thank goodness) and we had pulled anchor from Hopkins Island around 6:30 to make our way to the North Neptune islands for sharks! We arrived just after 9 and set out the baits. It took a long while for the sharks to show up, which made everyone a bit nervous. They finally came around and divers hopped in the surface cage for a session. Things slowly picked up on the surface, which was encouraging. After a nice lunch we prepped the divers for the bottom cage and began the first round of bottom cage diving for the day.

None of the 4 groups saw a shark on the first round, which was highly discouraging. But, the crew at RFSE are not ones to give up so easily and we set out for the second round of bottom cage diving. Dani took the first group down and about 10 minutes into the dive, she gave the signal rope 5 tugs. I was working the safety rope and asked, “what does 5 tugs mean?!” Mike told me that 5 tugs means she’s seen sharks, which was a very good thing indeed. I was up next for the bottom cage and we had 2 or 3 come round, which put everyone in good spirits and the rest of the divers saw sharks as well. Everyone’s fear of a shark-less trip were put to ease and we spent the rest of the day on the surface cage, which was proving to be more exciting and shark-filled then the bottom cage.