Whale shark day!!! Yeehaaaa. Up early (and excited) for a quick breaky and head up to the dive shop for a 7:45 start. Quick sorting out of wetsuits and fins and we were on the bus heading for the jetty. Off the jetty and onto the 57ft boat, 19 people in total on board, captain Andy the really nice, easy going sth african, deckhand Jimmy, the highly strung but super efficient Canadian, and the two swimmers, Kai the blonde haired kiwi girl and Timmy the Aussie rock star wannabe that plays guitar at weddings. There was also Ed, the English lad that would be the underwater videographer today, and a bloke I’ve taken note to make friends with in return for additional footage of us on the $50 DVD we’ll be buying from him at the end of the day.

We Head out on the boat and get our induction on proceedings for the day and the process for getting on and off the boat, hand signals, snorkeling tips etc. then head out to a “shark cleaning station” on the Ningaloo reef, which is a big piece of coral reef where sharks come, open their mouths and the little fishes swim into their mouths and clean their teeth for them. It’s some sort of mutual agreement the sharks have with the fish where the fish does some little dance for them, the shark gives a quick nod of the head and for a couple of quick minutes a truce is formed. Once the teeth are cleaned, it’s every fish for himself again.

We were prepared for the reef sharks as we’re we’re chatting to one of the staff the day prior to get a full run down of the day. Some of the others on the boat I don’t think we’re as prepared and gave the response that indicated a sense of concern about having their practice swim looking at a bunch of sharks!

We all got in the water as per the procedure and followed Kai out to the coral, adjusting and tweaking our masks, goggles and under water cameras etc Along the way. The coral and fish were amazing, unfortunately for us though, there were no sharks at the dentist today 🙁

Heading back towards the boat and we start hearing someone yelling out, I thought he was yelling out “whale! Whale!”. Looking up it was quickly apparent this dude was in trouble and was yelling “help! Help!” the swimmers were quick to respond and got him a life saving floater and onto his back to try catch his breath. Turned out just to be a panic attack from all the water going into his snorkel and stressing out. This marked the end of the practice swim and the staff were quickly aware of which people on board would need some extra attention. Unfortunately for the panic attack bloke, his day from now would be as an observer from the deck of the boat.

Back on the boat, Jimmy let us know that the spotter plane was due to take off in ten minutes, however given the strong easterly wind, there’s a chance he may not be able to take off at all and the day would be over. we dried off and had some snacks. Jimmys a positive kind of guy so started giving the whale shark section of our induction, in case the plane did get off the ground.

With the induction complete we got notification that the plane had taken off and a sigh of relief went around the boat. They still had to actually find us a whale shark on this windy and choppy day, but a Plane In the air is a good start! we cruised around for a few hours, anxiously waiting for the crackly radio call from the pilot advising that he’s found some. In the mean time we stumbled across a pod of dolphins, a dugong swimming with a turtle, and then the first couple of humpbacks for the season! Just brilliant to watch these awesome and playful creatures, one of them came right over and pretty much rubbed himself on the boat. Massive massive animals and put me at some ease that the close to $800 I’d just forked out to get Tara and I out on this boat, wasn’t entirely wasted.

After watching the humpbacks for a while, the crew laid out lunch and we tucked in. Typically, as soon as everyone has a plate full of food on their laps, the radio crackles from the pilot of the spotter plane that he’s found a couple of whale sharks. The skipper cranked up the massive diesel engines and we were off in the direction they were spotted. A real quick run down from jimmy about what was happening and the worlds quickest lunch and before you knew it we were at a whale shark and ready to jump in the water.

Into the water we go and the procedures we’d been taught were out the window. Everyone is kicking everyone else in the head and flopping around the water like mad men…it’s a surprise the whale shark didn’t freak out and go down. being a shark and not a whale, they don’t actually have to come to the surface to breath so can dive to over 1500m deep and stay down there as long as they want. Luckily for us this was a patient shark and let the group of crazies get themselves sorted and into the correct formation for viewing and swimming alongside this massive and majestic 8 meter fish. Words can’t describe how amazing it was to be in the water with this thing, something everyone should try to do once in their lives.

We swam with this one for about 20 or so minutes and jumped aboard and head to one of the other ones nearby. The second one was around the same size but not as playful so it dove down after a little while. Off to the third one and this this was a beast! About 10m they reckon.(they can get to 18m) It also dove down and we went off to another one and it was more playful and allowed pLenty of great pictures and videos. Unfortunately the permits allow a maximum of 1hr per boat to swim with the whale sharks, so we had to pack it up and head back to shore. Completely understandable but sad to leave…I could easily spend all day in the water with it!

On The boat ride back we enjoyed a cold beer out of our “Coral Bay whale shark swim” stubby coolers and chatted with the other people on board about the amazing day we’d all just shared, and as usual traded stories about what traveling each person is doing and a bit about their life back home.

Without a doubt one of the most amazing days of our lives and one that won’t be forgotten.

(I copied this text directly from my journal entry for the day, typos and all)

Dave

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