Weekend Trip Set

February 7, 2013 (6:10 P.M.)

                So I officially have my weekend trips set. On Saturday I will be bungee jumping from the world’s tallest bridge jump (fourth tallest jump period). After the jump, we will be heading to the cheetah safari to walk with the cheetahs and their cubs. On Sunday, I will once again be attempting the cage dive with the great whites. Hopefully there is better weather this time. I will be much more prepared as far as clothing to bring and what to wear on the boat. As long as the weather holds up, I will finally be able to see my first great white.

                I’m sick of everyone else coming back from their chumming trips and saying how many sharks they saw. I’ve been here for over a week and on three separate occasions it has failed to happen. Supposedly next week we will be chumming in an area known for their huge numbers of sharks, but once again I’m skeptical.

                At 5:30 a.m. this morning I had to get up and help a master’s student with his project. It involved watching benthic sharks move around in a cave. If you know anything about benthic sharks, they don’t move very often so it was quite boring and not exactly something I would like to be doing at six a.m. After that I had my shark lab session; much better. I got the opportunity to clean the smooth hound shark tank. It’s about 29,000 gallons and I had to go in there with a sponge and goggles and swim down to clean the windows with all the sharks and fish swimming around me.

                No worries though, the smooth hound shark only gets to be about a meter or so and they don’t have any teeth. Plus they were fed right before I had to go in. They prefer cephalopods and crustaceans and look very similar to the smooth dogfish we get in New Jersey. It was still a cool experience because the ceiling of the aquarium is only about a foot above the tank so it’s a bit nerve-racking coming to the surface knowing they’re swimming beneath you. We also got to feed all the sharks today and record it.

                Once I figure out why I cannot upload videos, I will absolutely post them to the blog. Also, I need a good site to use for Luke. My mom recommended just creating a blog type site and posting all the videos and images just for him and his class. That way his class can just enter the site whenever they choose and look at all the material I posted. I would use blogspot, but since I’m having a bit of trouble with the videos, I’d prefer a new site. If anyone has a good site they use or know of, feel free to comment on this or send me an email at tjmorrell1@gmail.com

                I would really appreciate it. I also plan on holding the camera – while it’s tied around my wrist of course – while I bungee jump so I would really like to post that up as well. Let me know. Thanks everyone!