Since Brian turned 33-- I decided to plan 3 surprise adventures for his celebration. The first one required us to get up at 5:30 AM (not such a nice present) and head to the North Shore. Brian kept guessing that we were going whale watching or sky diving. Even when we pulled into the N. Shore Small Boat Harbor he didn't register the sign that said NS Shark Adventure. He was taken aback when I finally revealed the surprise. There was the caveat in the beginning that he did not have to do anything he didn't want to. But he was a trooper.
We were joined on the boat by 8 other passengers: a father and a teenage son (who ended up puking his guts overboard), another teenage son and father (the father did not participate)and a couple in their 30s and the woman's dad. Who knew swimming in a shark cage was such a family experience. The sons and fathers were funny as there was this whole sullen, angry teenage vibe going on--like their fathers were inflicted upon them during this cool experience. Never mind, who was paying for their cool experiment. And on the other side, fathers desperate to connect to their sons without being too pushy. It all made for a quiet ride as we mostly listened to our two crewmen make silly jokes about lawyers and sharks.
As we made our way to the buoys, I saw a whale's tail slap the ocean and the spray of water shoot up like a missile from its fluke. We arrived in an area that had been marked by crab trappers. The shark adventure came about when a crabber realized that after years of emptying the bait from the crab traps, the sharks began to recognize the sound of the boat and like the good Pavlovian animals they are connected it to the bait in the water. These bottom dwellers now come to the surface when they hear the boat engines.
As the sharks surface, 3 people enter a cage that has quite large gaps?! The crew throws fish around the cage (not many) and the sharks eat. We were the last to go in the cage, 5 sharks swam around us in circles coming close enough to nip off a finger or toe that held on to the cage. They were Sandbar and Galapagos sharks. I can't say that I had tremendous fear, I was really struck by their beauty and the ingenious fish that swim in the wake create under the shark's bellies.
Cold, we dried off and hung out on the North Shore--though the way to our next adventure was blocked by a landslide. We had several hours to take an alternate route for the 2nd adventure.
No comments:
Post a Comment