I finished the rest of the weekend with two new experiences (at least sort of). My time here has been characterized by adventurous experiences … by myself. I am not used to doing things like this without my beautiful wife, Anna.
So, it’s a little bitter sweet that I get to have fun and try these new activities.
First up for the day was a stop on the North Shore at Dillingham Airfield. I decided that it had been entirely too long since I last flew. So, since I had never taken an ultralight (this particular one was a two-person powered hang glider also known as a “trike”), I decided that was the way to go. Well, the flight was a blast. We went anywhere from 500 feet to 3,000 feet above the ground. Since the seats were basically just lawn chairs (with a very secure harness, of course), the view was breathtaking. We flew for over an hour and went all across the north shore Oahu.
Here are a few shots from the flight to show you what I am talking about:
Flying over the North Shore:
Second stop was out on the ocean. For those of you who have read the previous post on the dive trip Anna and I took to Palau, you know we’ve dove with sharks. This was a whole different experience though. Previously, if we happened to see a shark, great, but it wasn’t the objective of the dive. Also, the sharks we had seen were reef sharks (black tip, white tip and gray) and not particularly aggressive. This time, we were after more aggressive sharks (Galapagos). So instead of using scuba gear to get close, we used a boat and a very strong cage. Here’s the boat and our protection from the animals we were searching for.
On the ride out to the buoy, we were treated to more north shore visitors.
As you may be able to tell from the last picture, we found a migratory humpback whale with her very new calf (from Alaska).
When we arrived, it didn’t take long for the sharks to hear the sound of the boat’s engine and come say hi. 🙂
The two guides tied us to the buoy and launched the cage. There were eight of us on the boat, so we went into the cage, four at a time.
I chose to go in the second group. So, after the first four got in the cage, the guides took out a large bucket of random fish parts. They tossed in pieces and basically got the sharks a little more excited with the free food passed out. In fact, there were long pieces of skin. You can see here what the guide did…
The sharks almost look tame (like a dog sitting up for a treat). However, that assumption could be very dangerous.
If you lose respect for these predators it could be fatal (or at least painful).
Each group spent 25 minutes in the cage. Since I have gotten used to the warm water in Guam, that was plenty long enough for me to get a little chilly.
Here’s my group in the water:
This shot gives you a better idea of how large the sharks were.
Basically, these sharks were anywhere from 6-12 feet long. That was only slightly larger than the reef sharks we found in Guam and Palau. However, in the water, they looked significantly larger! Of course that may also be because we watched them feeding… 🙂
Also, along with the sharks looking for a free meal, there was a large school of mackerel (probably 400 or so).
It was a great way to get up close and personal in complete safety to these spectacular predators. Next time though, I would love to find some great whites. we’ll leave that one for another time though.
So, after that thrilling morning, I headed back to Honolulu for a quick hop over to the Big Island of Hawai’i. I planned to spend the rest of the weekend chasing another long time desire.
So, until then…
–Jim
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