Scuba Certified

                                                               February 12, 2013 (10:05 P.M.)

 Here was seal island today when we passed it. I'm just waiting got a shot of the island with the fin sticking out of the water; or even a breach. That would be amazing.

 Here are our baby benthic sharks sleeping in the afternoon. They are the most active during the night, but during the day they all just lay around and relax.

I am now officially scuba certified.

I took my second open water ocean dive today at Santos Reef. It was one of the most fun things I’ve ever done. I feel as though I keep saying that, but it’s true. I brought my camera all the way to the beach and then left it in the car. It was a dumb mistake, but now that I’m certified, we can just borrow the equipment and head over there any time we want. Plus this weekend, as long as we get a certain number of people to join the trip, we will be going to Cape Town this weekend. It is supposedly one of the best places to dive in the country. I will absolutely be bringing the camera for that dive.

If we get to go, we will get the chance to swim with mako sharks and blue sharks out in the open; no cages, no protection. It would be exhilarating. Plus we will get to visit the aquarium, get a behind-the-scenes look there, walk with penguins, climb table mountain and see the city. It would be a pretty amazing weekend-long trip. I really hope I get to do it.

 My days here have been extremely long, but I haven’t had to chance to realize it. It never ends. My day starts at 5 a.m. and doesn’t normally end until 10 p.m. During that time we get an hour for lunch and an hour for dinner. A lot of the times we’re eating lunch on the boat or dinner in the car. It’s just go, go, go and I’m loving every second of it.

 Tonight we went shark fishing; catch and release obviously. The goal was to catch a leopard shark and a pyjama shark for tagging purposes. Unfortunately we kept catching smooth hound sharks. At this point, no one needs specific information for that species, but it’s always cool to catch and hold a shark. We took measurements for each one caught and ended up attaching one tag anyway. It was cool to be one the water at night. We were just all sitting there on the water in pitch blackness. It was kind of creepy. I kept singing, “Show Me the Way to Go Home” and asking everyone to compare scars. Only a couple of people understood my reference. Apparently they haven’t seen Jaws as many times as I have; amateurs. If anyone would get my reference, I thought it would have been these people. My roommate eventually caught on, but by that point the moment was gone.

 These little fish kept stealing my bait so I put a little squid on a hook and kept it near the surface. When the fish came to eat it, I scooped him up with a bucket and used him as live bait. He didn’t catch me anything and I eventually released him (little shaken up, but alive) but at least I was out sharking fishing. I currently have the intern record for most fish scooped out of the water while chumming with 12, but people are getting closer each day. Hope I can hold it for two months. Fingers crossed.

 My next couple days are going to be chaotic. Hopefully I will have some time to work on Luke’s presentation. I found out the internet here is too slow for uploading videos. I’m going to have to go into town and see if one of the local wifi restaurants has a strong enough connection to upload a couple. It just wouldn’t be the same without a couple sharks tearing up some tuna heads.