Swimming with Sharks!

July 21-Nager Avec les Requins! (Swimming with the Sharks!)
We stopped in at the TOP DIVE center to see about another scuba dive for me while we are waiting for a "weather window" to sail out of Tahiti .
They said sure, how about now?  No,too soon ..I needed to get my mind set since I hadn't been diving in more than three weeks ago.  I scheduled the next morning, an 8:30 am early dive supposed to be the more interesting "shark dive".. cool...I think...now Ive got overnight to prepare myself.

Morning comes too soon. I'm picked up by boat and delivered to the dive center which is only a mile away by boat, through the channel, past Marina Taina. The driver is young, good looking, friendly and speaks some English!  All the dive instructors are personable and good looking at TOP Dive. All are good looking...did I mention that? They are pleasant and so accommodating .  They have to be as diving is one of the biggest tourist attractions in French  Polynesia.  People from all over the world  come to dive these waters. My dive "mates" were two women from the states,  one from Seattle, one from Colorado, not in the best shape, older, but adventurous,  along with four local Frenchmen who were advanced divers.  you could tell by all the gear they had; lights, cameras and stuff! Those divers jumped off the boat at a deeper dive area than we did, but we all ended up at the same event, the "shark feeding" arena!
At the start of our dive, the instructor explains the course of what we will be seeing...a shallow area outside the reef called the White Valley,  where the sharks and fish funnel through a pass with the currents over white sand . We will go to the bottom floor, hold onto a piece of coral and staying there to watch as the dive boat lowers a metal cage full of fish parts!   Of course,  this attracts the throngs of fish and sharks! I'm not a huge fan of this artificial feeding spectacular because I think it trains the sharks to interact with people where they wouldn't naturally. But, hey, I paid for this dive and didn't know this is what they do to make the "show"!   Anyway, it was spectacular!  Even though it was created.  The schools of colorful fish filled the valley, circling around them were about a hundred sharks, all sizes of black-tipped, grey and lemons. There was one big fellow, a lemon shark , who was enormous! ( This is when I wished I had a camera to prove how big!)  I'd guess 13 ft long?...he made me  nervous,  but they weren't interested in us divers glued to the sea floor, bubbling away...they were after the bits and pieces of fish parts only yards away from us. this is the best part to see how a " hunting, aggressive shark looks while feeding in his "pack". The body movements are quick, sharp and fast.  This you don't want to get in to the middle of!
We stayed watching this show for 20-30 minutes..a little longer than planned, because it was such a good shark show, the instructor later said.
I was getting cold so my mind focused on the beauty all around.  I marveled at just being in this underwater world.

After the  allotted time, our dive master signaled for the ascent, we moved slowly over the coral and away from the feeding grounds. Our dive time required a certain stop half-way to decompress before surfacing, so we held onto a buoy rope while waiting.  One of the older women disregarded the stopping place and continued to the surface... this was a NO! NO! As the dive master tried to retrieve her...but, too late..she was sea sick and needed to get to the surface where she could vomit! The dive boat rescued her and all I know is she was alive and barfing into a bucket when we all came aboard.  She was  a sport and laughing about it! I think the dive instructors were worried, though.
The boat trip back was a rough ride, but fun pounding through the swells. A good day.