The Sharkmasters' Log
- Trip Reports -

Guadalupe Great White Sharks
Nov 14-18, 2007

Nov 14             Wednesday     Day One
          The guests all gathered in front of the Ramada Inn hotel as we waited for our bus to arrive. This trip is a charter put together by Lawrence Wahba who is now a host for a Brazilian TV wildlife program and Gabriel Ganme the owner of a dive shop in Sao Paulo, Brazil.  Lawrence and I had first met in 1995 when he did a Blue Shark trip with me off San Diego. That was back in the “good old days” when there were still plenty of Blue Sharks off the coast to see. Unfortunately, due to al the shark fining occurring all across the Pacific, there are no longer enough Blue Shark left to pull off a successful trip. Also on board this trip is the crew of shark divers from Hawaii Shark Encounters including Stefanie Brendl. She was the girlfriend of the great Jimmy Hall. The shark crew tagged each piece of luggage and loaded them into the compartments of the bus as the guests boarded. We were soon on our way to Ensenada.
        As soon as the Andrea Lynn was cleared by the port captain and Mexican immigration we cast off the mooring lines and made our way out of the marina to began our transit to Guadalupe Island. The seas were glassy and clam, the sun was shinning in a brilliant blue sky as we made our way past Punta Banda and Todo Santos Island at the southern end of Ensenada Bay. There were lively conversations during the afternoon as we made our way south and discussions about how the film crews wanted to set up their scenes. After dinner there was even an impromptu performance by Andy Casagrandy, the National Geographic cameraman onboard. Andy sang a song he had written about white sharks. Wild applause erupted after he finished signing. That was the first time we’d ever had anyone sing while aboard a trip!

Nov 15             Thursday        Day Two
          As we approached Guadalupe Island we could see that the top of the island was clear, but the lower portion was obscured in clouds. This is the opposite of the usual weather pattern. We pulled into the anchorage and the sky cleared and the seas calmed to a glassy surface. The first divers got into the water for the practice dive and not 15 minutes into the dive the first white shark shows up! We then went into our rotations for the day. Early in the day we saw a couple of males, Buckethead and Flash. There were a couple of California Sea Lions around the boat and they chased the sharks around. It turned into a stellar day when Bruce, one of the big male sharks showed up to play with us. Bruce is known as an “intimidator” because he often swims slowly by the cages right next to the openings and looks at each individual diver. It is as if he is sizing up each diver inside the cage. The first time it happens to you it is really unnerving. Bruce really put on show aggressively rushing the hang baits. He was able to get several baits even though the wranglers were on their toes and watched his every move. Swimming along with Bruce was a very small male. This year we are seeing many sharks less then 8 feet in length. Later, a couple of females came around too. One with pilot fish leading her way. She had a very strange deformity: the upper lobe of her caudle fin was completely collapsed and floppy. With the flat calm seas and glassy waters, it was a picture perfect day. Everyone agreed it was a great day of shark action. By the time we pulled the cages out of the water, we had seen 7 different sharks. The passengers later settled down for sushi appetizers and then a delicious barbequed ribs dinner. Mauricio Hoyos came onboard to do his white shark research presentation for the guests. This was going to be the last week on the island for Maurcio. He and his captain, Jorge will be loading his panga and all his support gear onto the Andrea Lynn for the ride back to Ensenada.

Nov 16             Friday              Day Three
          Shortly after some of the passengers left on a sunrise shoreline tour one of our “shark watchers” spotted the first shark of the day at 0654. The action started off slowly and began to build as the day progressed. A couple of sharks swam circles around each other below the boat and finally demonstrated some parallel swimming behavior before one shark came up for the baits. Bruce was next in line to show up. He and Lula, the shark with the floppy tail named by the Brazilian group, put on a show. The crescendo was when good ole Buckethead made several surface runs at the hang baits. “Andy Brandy Casagrande” our token folk singer for the journey even serenaded the sharks from below by taking his guitar in on a few dives. Other sharks today included Jacques, Chicka, Sarah, and Joshua. There was a lot of activity on deck as there were large cameras going into and out of the water and pangas doing circles around the big boat to get wide-angle shots. By the end of the day 9 different sharks had been spotted. The water was calm today and the sky was clear. With so many cameras on board, this could be one of the most well documented trips in history. The weather was holding and it looks like we’ll have calm seas and clear skies for our last day at the island tomorrow.  After the cages came out of the water we had a great dinner followed by Jessie’s ID project presentation. There was a shark ID party after dinner that showed us exactly how many sharks were actually around the boat today. 

Nov 17             Saturday          Day Four
          The weather was threatening this morning with dark clouds on the horizon and a wind line off the island. We had one brave “shark watcher” in the water when our first shark showed up at 0735. The shark action really took off from there. The weather finally cleared and the sea flattened out. It was a gorgeous day. Most of the day we had three to four sharks around the boat. There were a many of close passes to the cages and a lot of splashing as the sharks took the hang baits. Because there were so many sharks around the boat a one time the passengers really got to see the different behaviors of the Great Whites.  By noon everyone was lining up to get in the water, which is unusual for the last day of a trip. It was the best sharking we’d had all season.

Nov 18 Sunday Day Five
          What a way to close out the 2007 Guadalupe Island Great White Shark. I am somewhat saddened not only because we are done for the year, but more so because Jessie “the shark chick” is getting married next year and won’t be working with us next season on a full time basis.  I hope she will be able to get away to do at least a couple of the white shark trips next season. Over the past nine years that we’ve worked together I’ve grown to respect Jessie and value her levelheaded judgment.  She has saved my bacon on many occasions and has gown into a knowledgeable and respected public speaker. She always carried out her in duties with a smile and was the crewmember that passengers always warmed up to right away. Jessie will be starting a new phase in her life and I wish her the best. I will greatly miss my friend and confidant. I do have the “rookie” Shannon returning next season. Boy, what a learning curve I have to go thru with this one!

Nov 7-11, 2007

Nov 7            Wednesday     Day One
         The border crossing and the drive down to Ensenada went smoothly and we boarded the Andrea Lynn around 10:30. After being cleared by the port captain and Mexican immigration we cast off the mooring lines and headed down to Isla de Guadalupe. On the way we crossed the path of a large pod of Pacific Common Dolphins. The sea surface was almost glassy and made for one of the smoothest crossings of the season.

Nov 8            Thursday        Day Two    
        At dawn we could see the island ahead of our bow. As we rounded the northern point of the island, a large group of dolphins escorted us to our anchorage. The high cliffs at the northern end of the island make an impressive introduction to the island. After anchoring we launched the pangas and set the cages for the divers.
We only have 10 divers aboard this trip, which is a half load for us so there was no need to split the passengers into two groups. The three cages allow us to put everyone in the water at the same time. The first shark did not show up until 10:24. The animal stayed down around 40 ft swimming in a triangular pattern, but wouldn’t come to the surface to feed on any of our hang baits. It turned out to be the slowest sharking day of the season so far. One of the resident pods of Beaked Whales surfaced off the boat.  A group jumped into the panga, but was unable to ‘sneak’ up on the illusive creatures. Instead, they took a quick look at the baby Fur Seals playing in the shallows. We didn’t really see any surface action until late in the afternoon around 4:00 when one shark made several passes at the hang baits. At least everyone got to see this shark from the deck and one diver got a great show from the cage she was in. After a great diner, Mauricio shared his shark research.  Everyone retired early with dreams of sharks.

Nov 9              Friday              Day Three
         Just after the panga left with a full load of passengers for the shoreline tour the first shark showed up at 0658. It was Curly, a 13 ft female. She is the same shark that visited us yesterday late in the afternoon. She continued to surface, make passes at the hang baits, and then circle down below the cages throughout the day. There was another unidentified shark swimming at depth that was sighted by the divers, but it didn’t come to the surface. There was more action than yesterday and the weather was sunny and warm most of the day. Everyone came out of the water and was excited to look at their images. Even though there were not a lot of sharks, we had consistent action. Curly was the star of the show today. After dinner Lance Milbrand, a wildlife filmmaker showed us his short film on a wetlands restoration project occurring in Del Mar just north of San Diego. He had a second film funded by the National Geographic Society about his expedition to Clipperton Atoll 1500 miles off the coast of Mexico. Lance stayed on the small atoll for six weeks filming the animals both underwater and on land. During his time on the atoll Lance was surrounded by crabs, rats, and thousands of sea birds. What an adventure! Not long after the presentation an impromptu sign along started up with Jessie, Elena, the cruise director of the Andrea Lynn, and Sjoukje Brown, one of the passengers, singing along to old disco tunes. Then the dancing began. We had lots of fun that kept me up past my bedtime!

Nov 10             Saturday          Day Four
          There were several more people who wanted to do another shoreline tour today so the panga was prepared. The passengers departed around 6:45. In the meantime we launched the cages and set up for the day’s diving.
          The first shark showed up at 7:29 and made a couple of passes before starting it pattern of swimming circles under the cages at about 30 ft. We identified it as Curly, the same shark from the previous days. Evidently she wanted to hang around our boat, but wasn’t real hungry and only took a couple of the deep baits we had hung off a line in an attempt to lure the animal back to the surface. The divers in the cages told us there were actually two sharks milling under the boat. Chugey was the second shark, but he wasn’t interested in or surface baits either. The weather was still beautiful and the water conditions clear and calm. There were a couple of other sightings of sharks. One was a large female and another had a tag. The sharks just did not seem too hungry today.  It was a tough day of sharking by the time we had to pull the cages at 4:00. Everyone had had a good time at Guadalupe Island and all had seen sharks, but it wasn’t the same action we had seen on previous trips the season. The crew stowed all the gear and all the passengers secured their belongings for the transit back to Ensenada. It was a nice ride as we made our way past the northern tip of the island.

Nov 11             Sunday            Nov 11
          Everyone got a comfortable night’s sleep last night as the Andrea Lynn gently rolled with the swell. We were making good time going “up the line”

Oct 29-Nov 5, 2007

Oct 29         Monday      Day One
         We greeted our guests at the bus pick up site. In the group were two very special divers, Ron and Valerie Taylor. They stared in the very first of the shark diving feature films-“Blue Water, White Death”. The film was made in 1969 and has been a cult hit with divers since its first showings in major theater houses worldwide.  Many people decided to become divers because of the Taylors and the film.  We boarded the bus for the ride down to the San Ysidro boarder crossing. Unfortunately the officials made us unload all of our baggage and “push the button”. A couple of people got the red light and then re-board the bus to continue our ride down to Ensenada to board the Andrea Lynn. The boat still had to load fuel and provisions before we departed so some of the guests wondered around taking pictures and unpacking their gear. We finally pulled away from dock a little past noon local time. The transit down was another fine ride with a gentle roll.
         A couple of guest spotted two Blue Whales and a pod of Pacific Common Dolphins raced across our path as they were chasing bait. Over dinner everyone got to know each other and then settled in for the night anticipating the white shark action tomorrow.

Oct 30         Tuesday      Day Two
         Excitement grew amongst the passengers as the Andrea Lynn approached the island and we completed the dive briefing. Captain Trini anchored up and we began off-loading the pangas and shark cages. We had just finished setting up the cages and I had come on deck to announce that we were ready to begin the practice dive when one of the passengers jokingly said to me “well where are the sharks?” I happened to look into the water at the side of the boat, pointed, then shouted “White Shark”! Our first shark appeared at 0852. It was before we even got the divers in the water! There was a mad dash to get dressed out and into the cages. We ran thru two rotations until we noticed that the boat was dragging anchor so we loaded the cages back onto the deck and re-positioned the boat a little further south in the bay. It wasn’t until after lunch around 2:00 that a shark came by the cages again. Total, we had five different sharks visit with us today. Harvey, Rocket, Bullet, The Russian and another female we have not id’d.  Not a bad number considering that we had a windy morning and had to re-anchor. Jessie did her shark ID project presentation after dinner and everyone had good conversations into the night until people began to slip away to their cabins for a good night’s rest. We’ll see what the weather has in store for us in the morning.

Oct 31         Wednesday Day Three
        A dozen brave souls got up early for a sunrise shoreline tour to photograph the pinnepeds on the island. It was a great tour as two dolphins and a Sea Lion played on the bow of the panga nearly the entire time. From the boat, a wounded Elephant Seal was spotted.  In the panga, we were able to see that the perfectly circular wound was made by a Cookie Cutter shark: the most dangerous shark at Guadalupe Island. After the panga departed we lowered the cages into the water and began “shark watch”. We didn’t have to wait long until the first shark showed up at 0707. There were slow periods as the sharking day proceeded.  The animals would show up for brief periods, make a couple of passes at the baits then leave or just circle under the cages at about 30 feet. Slinky, Bullet, Scar, and Buckethead were the stars of the show. Those on the last dive of the day saw three sharks around the cages and had a great time, but on the surface we did not see them eating the hang baits. We had sushi appetizers tonight before dinner. Since this was Halloween night Jessie dressed up as a pirate “wench” and Shannon was the “China Doll”. I eventually revealed my true identity as the “Head Shark” Several of the passengers got into the spirit of the evening with masks, a “fro”wig, and a custom costume of a shark eating the person wearing it. Those who didn’t have a costume got Groucho Marx noses. We all had a lot of fun with the silly costumes.

Nov 1          Thursday    Day Four
        Today, the winds calmed and the sun came out in full force. The “shark watchers” spotted the first shark at 0700 this morning. The beautiful female Slinky, who we just glimpsed the day before, came in very carefully and began slowly swimming past the cages.  She seemed to be sizing up the cages and the whole scene before she decided to go for a bait. She had beautiful light rays on her back as she swam back and forth behind the cages.  She was a player.  At 1100, a different female showed up.  She was even larger.  The females have so much more girth then the males. From that point on it was hot and cold all day as far as the shark action. We did get some great passes by the two large female white sharks that visited with us today. In the afternoon, Scar made a token appearance along with a couple of other unidentified smaller sharks.  One little male made a quick run and nearly snaked off with a bait before we even noticed he was there.  Just before we ran out of light, the action ramped up. Another female worked the wranglers for a bit, then all became quiet.  We pulled the cages for the night and got ready for a wonderful Cornish Game Hen dinner. There was lively conversation well into the night.

Nov 2          Friday         Day Five
        The sun rose over a calm sea and “shark watch” began at 0630. By 0700 we had spotted the first shark. It was good action day, interspersed with dead calm periods and no sharks.  Scar, Jessie’s favorite shark did a late afternoon pass. It was just enough to get everyone’s attention then he continued on his way patrolling the bay. We had a total of five sharks including two females Slinky, and Tail Scratch who we have not seen for four years. A young small male about six or seven feet also took a chance at the bait along with another male Harvey who hung around playing with us for a good amount of time. After dinner this evening we had a special presentation. Dick Brauer, one of our guest had spent 3 years as an exchange officer with the Australian Royal Air Force and wanted to honor Ron and Valerie Taylor by displaying the Australian flag in the salon and presenting them with specially made t-shirts with the emblems of all the American military special operations groups. We then viewed the newly released DVD of “Blue Water White Death” Valerie Taylor mentioned it was the first time she had seen the special features component of the DVD and filled us in on all the behind the scenes details of onboard life and the making of the film. It was a real insight into the first of the shark diving films from the stars of movie. A lot of people were inspired to learn to dive and to begin diving with sharks because of the movie. I know that when the film was first released I had to drive 30 miles from Long Beach, California to Hollywood to see the movie at the old Pantages Theater. It was my first view of white sharks on film. Little did I know at the time that I would eventually be making a living taking people to dive with white sharks myself.

Nov 3          Saturday    Day Six
        The first shark of the day was spotted by our keen eyed “shark watchers” at 0748. The animal was down about 30 ft below the cages just swimming in figure eight patterns. Unfortunately that would turn out to be the routine for the rest of the day. We had at least five different sharks show up but they would only rarely come within in 10 ft of the surface. All the conditions were right with calm seas, clear water, and good current, but the sharks just didn’t want to play today. After dinner some of the passengers played poker to end the night.

Nov 4          Sunday       Day Seven
        Another nice morning and clear water the first shark appeared at 0708. We began the rotations and hoped for some good action today. The day progressed much like the previous one with the sharks swimming below the cages and not showing much interest in the tuna baits. We did get some players in around 1000 and again at the end of the day. For the divers who stuck it out in the water, they were rewarded some nice shots of the sharks.
        The last diver exited at 3:30 and we began cleaning up and retrieved the cages and pangas, then we started our transit back to Ensenada. It was a smooth ride and all turned in after dinner and a movie.

Nov 5          Monday      Day Eight
        Neptune smiled on us thru the night with fair seas and a comfortable ride home to port.

Oct 19-26, 2007

Oct 19         Friday         Day One
         We boarded the bus on a beautiful San Diego morning and quickly made out way down to the San Ysidro boarder crossing. As I tell people, “we never know what will happen once we get to the boarder”. Today was one of those days. One of the customs officers decided that we all had to pull our luggage out of the bus and “push the button”. This is a device like a traffic signal. If your get the green “pase” light you can move on, but if you get the red “alto” light, you must have your baggage inspected.  Since the group was made up of mostly serious U/W photographers they each had multiple cameras. This made the customs officer suspicious and we had to do some fast-talking to convince him that these were personal cameras, not for sale in Mexico. After some haggling we were cleared to re-board the bus and continue on down to Ensenada. It was a fairly nice transit down to the island; quite a difference from just two days ago when we got pounded on our ride back to Ensenada on the last trip.

Oct 20         Saturday    Day Two
The wind began to pick up about 30 miles out from the island and the Andrea Lynn began to roll. We finally anchored up and began to launch the pangas and cages. I decided to only launch the two stern cages because it was too rough to work with the side cage. Harvey was the first shark to show up at 1030 with Chugey, Bucket Head, Jacques, and another unidentified shark following in quick order. The wind blew all day and the sea surface got to the point where it was too dangerous for us to work with the cages. At 2 in the afternoon we finally had to call it quits for the day, pulled out the divers, and winched the cages and pangas back onto the deck. Captain Trini weighed anchor and we motored past the northern point of El Faro Bay to get into the wind shadow of the cliffs located there. Everyone got to see a white shark today even though the diving had to be cut short. There were lively conversations during the sushi appetizers and over dinner. We had picked up Mauricio Hoyos from the Horizon, another shark boat that had opted to depart early to get back to San Diego. Mauricio did his research presentation for the group after dinner.

Oct 21         Sunday       Day Three
The captain fired up the engines at 0300 and we slowly motored back towards our sharking spot. The wind was still howling as we made our way across the bay. We’ll have to wait until dawn to see if we can actually work in this weather today. I found out that the reason we started up the engines so early is that the wind had put such a strain on the anchor chain that we actually broke the chain and lost our anchor and about 200 ft of chain. As we were motoring about the crew was busy attaching our spare grappling type anchor. The wind finally died down at dawn so we launched the cages and began our sharking day. “Long John” Bock, our trip videographer, was in on “shark watch” when he spotted the first shark of the day at 0836. The action was off and on the rest of the day. Occasionally the divers would see two sharks at the same time. The Andrea Lynn began to drag anchor and we were getting close to one of the other shark diving boats so we had to pull the cages out and reposition the Andrea Lynn further away and re-anchor. Once again the cages were launched and we started a new shark watch. There was a 45 min. wait until the next shark showed up and we began the rotations into the cages. The Andrea Lynn began to drag its anchor again, but this time it got hung on a rock just before we got too close to the other boat. Scar, our favorite “player” showed up late in the day to do a couple of fly-byes but wasn’t interested in any of our baits.
We finally closed out the diving day and stored the cages back on deck where we had to adjust all of the regulators since the divers said all of them were beginning to breath “hard”. After dinner our rookie “shark chick” in training, Shannon, did the shark ID project presentation. It was her first time doing the presentation and she had the added stress of doing it in front of her family who were onboard this trip. She actually did pretty well.

Oct 22         Monday      Day Four
We had about the half the passengers up before dawn so they could do a sunrise shoreline tour this morning. They motored close to the shore photographing the island’s three types of pinnipeds.  Meanwhile we launched the cages and started shark watch. The first shark showed up at 0745. It was a beautiful day and we were the only boat in the bay so we had the sharks all to ourselves. After lunch we noticed a brown haze enveloping the island. According to Captain Trini, this was dust being blown off the Baja peninsula by very strong easterly winds.  All of the ports on Baja had been closed and Santa Ana winds up to 65 mph were whipping up fires in southern California.  One of our guests got a satellite phone call from a relative letting him know that his residential area in Irvine California was on an evacuation alert. The captain figures that we might get two more calm days before the winds get to us at the island. By the end of the afternoon 11 different sharks had visited us.  Jessie and Shannon gave the weather updates and sighting summaries after dinner and collected images for the ID project.

Oct 23          Tuesday      Day Five
On the horizon as the sun rose, a tall ship sailed in toward Guadalupe Island.  It was a picture perfect sight. The school ship S/V Robert C. Siemens heaved to just south of us. Jessie contacted the tall ship and learned that it was one of the SEA Semester ships. They did not stay long; just enough to do a quick experiment then sail off over the horizon once again.  At 0746 the first shark took a hang bait and we began our dive rotations. While the shore tour was cruising along watching the islands’ marine mammals, our divers were busy trying to identify the different sharks swimming in front of the cage. The sharks included Buckethead, Harvey, and Scar to start with. The sharking was good until just after 1:00 when the boat was surrounded by a milky layer of water that dropped visibility to only 10 ft. We decided to pull the cages and re-position the boat further south in the bay in some cleaner water. While motoring south, there were two other sharks in the bay “sunning” themselves along the surface, their bodies contrasting sharply with the tropical looking water. Soon after we set the cages our buddy “Scar” showed up to put on a late afternoon show for the divers. We have really lucked out on the weather; it has been great at the island so far.  We are sorry to hear about the wind whipped fires in southern California and the fierce winds on the Baja peninsula.

Oct 24         Wednesday          Day Six
Dawn broke with a brilliant orange orb rising out of the sea casting a surreal light on the cliffs of the island.  The cages were set and “shark watch” began, but we couldn’t get anyone interested in getting into the water this early. The first shark showed up at 0742 and things just took off from there. We had as many as five sharks around the boat at one time and the divers could see as many as three at a time from the cages. The visibility was phenomenal with divers reporting they could see down the anchor chain 140 ft away! This was certainly the most productive day of the season with the best weather. On the horizon, a pod of Cuvier’s Beaked Whales were sighted.  Mauricio set off to get a closer look and captured some awesome footage of a large male. The sky was clear and blue in the mid 70s on the deck and in the water the temps were 66-68 F. Everyone agreed it was a picture perfect day of Great White Shark diving at Isla Guadalupe.  The conditions could not have been better! Just as dinner was about to be served, Bill burst into the galley and claimed that he had just seen a white shark breach, which was followed by exaggerated splashing.  Perhaps he just witnessed another predation.

Oct 25         Thursday    Day Seven
Today is the last dive day so we are going to hit it hard and see if we can duplicate yesterday’s amazing action. The first shark was sighted at 0723. The divers were loaded into the cages and our shark diving begun. The action was slow compared to yesterday, but the conditions were still holding with warm sun on the deck and great visibility in the water. The usual cast of characters arrived to make passes at the hang baits. Scar, Bucket Head, and Harvey all made appearances before we had to pull the cages at 4:00. All the gear was stowed on deck and preparations made for our transit back to Ensenada. As we motored off the north end of the island we ran into a surreal looking fog bank. I had never seen fog at this island before. It just goes to show that this place is really unique.

Oct 26         Friday         Day Eight
Last night was one of the smoothest transits I’ve ever experienced headed back to Ensenada. Just before dawn the moon shown brightly on the water as we made good speed back to port.
We were quickly cleared and boarded our bus for the ride to the boarder crossing at Otay Mesa and onward to the drop off in San Diego.  After disembarking the bus everyone lined up for the group photos and said their good-byes. It was a fun bunch and a great trip.

Oct 13-17, 2007

Oct 12          Friday Night Pre-trip
This charter is hosted and has been put together by Susan Casey; the author of the novel entitled The Devils Teeth. The book is about her experiences with Great White Sharks at the Farallon Islands off San Francisco, California. The shark crew was invited to a bon voyage party at the W hotel to meet everyone going out on the trip in the morning. The wine flowed and the appetizers were endless. We talked about the upcoming trip and about sharks in particular. It was good to see Bob Talbot again. He was the primary underwater cameraman on the Free Willy and the Into the Blue movies. Another specials guest on this trip was David Blain, the magician. We are looking forward to seeing his magic in person. We also met Paul Atkins, who is also another noted underwater cameraman of feature films. Finally at 10:30 it was time for me to leave the party since I still had a lot of gear to load up for the trip.

Oct 13         Saturday    Day One
The bus picked up the shark crew at the usual place in Point Loma then drove to the W hotel to board our guests. It was a quick ride down to the border and down the coast to Ensenada.
The pre-departure briefing was completed and all toasted the trip with chilled champagne. Susan Casey then passed out red watch caps (ala Steve Zee Zuu) to everyone. We all quickly donned our new caps and took pictures looking like the crew from the movie. The forecast had been for winds and high seas but seas were remarkably calm for our transit. Guess we lucked out once again. A large pod of common dolphins charged the boat as we left Ensenada Bay and gave everyone a great photo-op as the animals played in the bow wave and the wake of the vessel. After a delicious dinner we watched “Blue Water, White Death” on the hi-definition TVs. This was the first of the shark diving movies made and created diving legends out of the stars Ron & Valerie Taylor and Stan Waterman.

Oct 14         Sunday       Day Two
We arrived at the island around 0830 and cleared the aft deck. The first practice dive began at 0900. We had just gotten the second cage loaded with divers when the first shark was spotted at 0905! This was the quickest a shark had shown up this season. We identified the animal as “Bucket Head”. The shark seamed really amped up this morning as he made very aggressive passes at the tuna baits. It took a while for the wranglers to get their timing down and ole Bucket Head scored several baits before they got warmed up. Bucket Head left and returned several times during the day. By late afternoon we estimated that he had eaten about 150 lbs. of tuna baits! We had very good action throughout the day. Several other sharks visited us such as Harvey and two females: Chicka and Stimpy. There were excited conversations occurring during “happy hour” and dinner. David Blain gathered a crowd in the galley as he helped us bend quarters and made our cards change before our eyes. After a great meal we had a special presentation by Dr. Kevin Weng, now with the University of Hawaii, on white sharks and about his experiences working with the Great Whites at the Farallon Islands off San Francisco.

Oct 15         Monday      Day Three
A dozen guests got up early for the “dawn patrol” today. The sunrise panga ride along the shoreline to get photos of the Elephant Seals, Guadalupe Fur Seals, and California Sea Lions. Bucket Head and Scar were the first to show up today at 0816. It was a fairly slow sharking day with several sharks either just doing fly-byes or circling below the cages. Today, there was wind traveling down the canyons and creating strong gusts along the shoreline. This may have caused the sharks to stay lower today. Throughout the day, David Blain wowed us all with a few seemingly simple tricks, but we could not imagine how he did them. After 4pm, we pulled the cages and reviewed the day’s photos and videos. It was an interesting evening with Paul Atkins showing a short clip of his work with Great White Sharks in South Africa and the Faralone Islands for a National Geographic TV special. A couple of the other guests also preview some of the short video clips that were award winners at local film festivals.
Sushi appetizers were served along with sake, then a delicious seared Ahi dinner. After dinner Mauricio Hoyos, a Mexican researcher, spoke about working with the Great White Sharks at Guadalupe Island.

Oct 16         Tuesday      Day Four
I was awoken to the sound of the anchor being winched up and heard the howling of the wind as I donned my rain slicker. As I stepped onto the deck I was slapped in the face with a 40 mph gust of wind and knew that we had dragged anchor and needed to reposition the Andrea Lynn. There was a bit of drama on the deck as we moved pangas behind the boat and slowly motored upwind and dropped anchor a little further off the beach. Its now 0330 in the morning and we’ll have to wait for sunrise to see if the wind lies down enough to launch the cages after sunrise. The wind slacked enough for us to launch the cages and begin “shark watch”. The weather all day today was freaky. One hour it would be fairly calm and he next the wind would gusts to over 15 kts. It was overcast most of the day, but there was a period of calm and sunshine. That’s when the action heated up. We had seen our first shark at 1044, but the sharks would mostly circle down at depth and wouldn’t come up to the level of the cages until the wind died and the sun came out. Both Scar and Bucket Head showed up at the same time and really gave the divers a thrill as they competed for the hang baits. It really made the day for everyone. Some great shots were taken today and there were smiles all around. Finally at 4:00 the cages and pangas were loaded onto the deck and we began our transit back to Ensenada. On the way we continued the “Guadalupe Film Festival” with more films produced by our guests. There were some very talented filmmakers in this crowd. After dinner everyone headed for his or her cabins since the weather had again turned nasty. The galley lost a lot of dishes, cups, and glasses during the night.

Oct 17         Wednesday Day Five
The captain pulled back on the throttles last night to reduce the pounding the Andrea Lynn was taking and give the passengers a little smoother ride. This is the roughest transit we have done this season and I’m glad we were on this big steel boat. We arrived into Ensenada at 4:00 then loaded up our gear into the bus and headed for the border. Going thru customs and immigration at the Otay crossing was a breeze since there wasn’t a line. We dropped off our guests at the W hotel and finally got to our drop off site in Pt. Loma at 8:00 PM. It was an interesting trip with a very talented group.

Oct 6-10, 2007

Oct 6          Saturday    Day One

The pick up bus was on time to transport us thru the San Ysidro border crossing into Mexico. We had to pick up 12 of our group at the Tijuana airport. They had flown in from Mexico City. After loading everyone’s gear we continued on our way to board the Andrea Lynn docked in Ensenada. We finished the pre-departure briefings; then the boat cast off the mooring lines and off we went on our way to Isla Guadalupe and the white sharks. Just outside the harbor, a pod of dolphins and a Blue Whale was sighted off one of the islands.  Its blow was quickly masked by white water as the wind and waves were up.  With wind during the transit, the Andrea Lynn, at 470 tons, took on the swells with a nice easy roll

 Oct 7 Sunday Day Two
We got to Guadalupe earlier than anticipated.  Evidently we got a good push from the swell and were sliding down towards our destination at 11 kts. The cages were set by 0800 and the divers in on their practice dive by 0815. We certainly didn’t have to wait long for the first shark to appear at 0832.   We lost two baits before everyone was even in the water. What a beautiful day! The action was steady throughout the rest of the day with appearances by at least seven different sharks. Our old buddy “Scar” put on a great afternoon show as he made pass after pass at the hang baits. He managed to snag several from the wranglers who were a little slow on the draw. We also saw one of the large females who was accompanied by a pilot fish. She was an impressive gal with a large girth. She is in the white shark ID binder, but doesn’t have a name. I’m kind of partial to naming her “Queen Latifa.”  Later, after the cages were pulled, a great dinner was served and we learned about the Shark ID project from Jessie.  The fiesta continued until late into the night… we will see who makes the 0630 morning tour.

Oct 8          Monday      Day Three

Early, with a few passengers, the morning panga tour went out. With the morning light, the Northern Elephant Seals, the Guadalupe Fur Seals, and the California Sealions posed amongst the rocks.  Back at the mother ship, a mystery shark was spotted at 0832 as it slowly swam at the surface with its dorsal fin out of the water. It never came close to the cages. The day progressed calmly with a few white sharks doing fly-byes and circling below the cages. Many different sharks were seen including a few of the larger females.  Stimpy has arrived at the island and has grown significantly since last year. Through the calm surface water, we could see various sharks “sunning” themselves on the surface.  We were also graced with the appearance of a mother and baby Bottlenose Dolphin right in front of the cage. Then at 5:00 Bruce, a big male white shark, we have known for years showed up to give the divers a thrill. Bruce had been spotted by the other sharking boats early in the season, but this was the first time we had seen him near our cages. Old Brucey has always been a “player” and knows the game. He managed to get a couple of the hang baits before the wranglers got their timing down. He made several passes with his back coming out of the water and another couple of rushes at the baits vertically with his head coming completely out of the water. It was really impressive. Finally it was time for to pull the cages and clean up for dinner. We had two presentations this evening with Dean Fessler of the Shark Research Institute speaking on his research with the white sharks of South Africa and a second talk by Mauricio Hoyos about the movements of the white sharks at Guadalupe Island.  He had recently filmed an attack on a Northern Elephant Seal by our old friend Skid.  Chicka was there too to clean up the extra bits.  It gives you a since of the power and respect for the sharks seeing them in action. Several of the Mexican guests stayed up speaking with Mauricio until 4 in the morning.

Oct 9          Tuesday      Day Four
This was our last dive day and it was a thriller! The first shark showed up at 0750 and the action built up from there. Almost everyone was still asleep except for a few hardy souls who went out on the sunrise tour. By the end of the day eight different Great White Sharks had stopped by to sample our tuna baits and play a while. The list of characters was Chicka, Erik, Bucket Head, Jacques, Scar, Bruce, Stimpy, and one with no name but is listed in our ID book as #67.  Scar and Bruce seemed to be involved in a minor turf competition as they would take turns at the baits, but we never saw them both together: professional courtesy? With the flat water and bright sun, we could see up to four sharks at a time from the boat.  They were lazily sunning themselves on the surface between attempts on the wrangler’s baits.  We also saw some thrashing near shore with a shark’s dorsal and tail coming out of the water.  With Mauricio nearby, he went to investigate.  He saw several large tuna close to the rocks, but no signs of a predation.   A couple of the passengers jumped on board the research boat and helped collect DNA samples of the sharks.  Nearing the end of the day, with the best shark action so far, we reluctantly pulled the cages out of the water and prepared for the trip home.  We noticed for the first time this week a few clouds rolling over the northern point of the island so we battened down the hatches. After a wonderful seared ahi dinner, we all reviewed our images taken on the trip.  It wasn’t too late before the galley was empty and everyone was asleep.

Oct 10         Wednesday           Day Five
The transit back to Ensenada wasn’t as bad as I had anticipated. The wind did pick up about 3 hours out from port. We pulled into the new dock at Cruise Port in Ensenada and made our bus transfers for our trip back to the border. We dropped off our Mexican guests at the Tijuana airport then continued on to the border crossing at Otay. It was the quickest check thru we had ever experienced. I even had a conversation with one of the Customs agents interested in shark diving. Wouldn’t it be cool to have a bunch of border patrol and customs agents on board!

Sept 29-Oct 3, 2007

Saturday Sept 29 Day One
Our bus was delayed at the border due to a random inspection so we got loaded up at 0800 rather than 0730. It was a smooth transit down to Ensenada where we boarded the Andrea Lynn. We were quickly cleared by the Captain of the Port and Immigration then started our transit down to the island. About an hour outside of Punta Banda we saw a large pod of dolphins. Some of them charged for the boat to ride the bow wave then we noticed some spouts ahead of the Andrea Lynn. There were four Blue Whales making their way to the southwest. Cameras with big lenses came out and were shoot on full automatic to catch the huge animals as their surfaced to spout. One of the Blue Whales raised its mighty flukes skyward to slap the water’s surface before it made a dive. It was a real treat for the group from Minnesota to see their first whales. The wind increased to about 15 kts and we began to roll a little as our course to Guadalupe Island kept us the trough.

Sunday          Sep30          Day Two
The transit was a little rougher than the previous trip, but the boat’s stabilizing chine keels help to moderate the roll so that the ride wasn’t uncomfortable. We arrived at the island around 0830, anchored the Andrea Lynn, launched the pangas, and set the cages. We ran everyone thru the practice dives and were just into the “shark watch” when our first shark showed up at 1002. That was the start of our best day of the season so far!  The sun was shining and the water was in the high 60’s, with very steady swells. It was steady shark action from then on throughout the rest of the day. Every rotation in the cages saw sharks sometimes as many as five at a time. By the end of the day, at least seven different sharks had visited us. Our old buddy “Scar” put on a good show today. He has always been a “player” and lived up to his today making several calculated turns just in front of the cages. Another big male Bucket Head showed up, but this week he was sporting some new scars on his body that looked as though he’d had an encounter with an elephant seal. He didn’t seem to be any worse for the wear; these white sharks are tough animals. “Skid” came in for a while and posed nicely for the photographers.  He has really made a name for himself this year. A rather small male Cori B. was zipping around also. All the divers were carrying on animated conversations and downloading the day’s images onto their laptops before dinner. We had sushi appetizers washed down with generous amounts of sake and a few shouts of Banzai!! Dinner was a delicious Mexican feast of fajitas with a strawberry cheesecake desert. Jessie did her shark ID presentation to prepare everyone for the next day’s shark IDs. Late into the evening a lively poker game finished off the day.

Monday         Oct 1         Day Three
Dawn broke with overcast skies and smooth seas. Some of the guests got up early to do a sunrise shoreline tour to get close up photos of the seals. We had a couple of eager divers who jumped in for “shark watch” just before 0700. They didn’t have to wait long before our first white shark of the day showed up at 0718. We had great action before breakfast. A lot of divers hadn’t even gotten up yet so we had lots of open spots during the first and second rotation. The day progressed nicely as more sharks visited us and the overcast finally burned off around lunchtime. Throughout the rotations, the sharks attempted several different approaches and found the weak spots of our wranglers.  By the end of the day, no one would argue that these sharks were calculating their attacks on the baits and learning how best to outsmart even the best of our wranglers. A total of eleven different sharks played with us today and every cage rotation saw at least two sharks during their one-hour stint in the water. One rotation got an up close and personal view of a little hyper male. Finally around 530 in the afternoon, with the light fading, we pulled the cages. 

Tuesday         Oct 2         Day Four
Old Bucket Head/Bite Face started off our last dive day at 0819 by doing a few fly-byes. Each of the rotations was seeing sharks, but often the animals were just circling below the cages. We did see one of the larger female white sharks, but couldn’t an ID on her. Around 10:00 one of the smaller males, Rocket made some fast surface passes near the hang baits, then he dove and all of a sudden rocketed towards the surface and breeched completely out of the water not more than 10 ft from the port stern of the Andrea Lynn. He crashed down into the water with a tremendous splash. Most of those watching the action saw the breech, but no one got a picture of the breech. By the time we had to retrieve the cages we had been visited by six different white sharks. Jessie’s favorite white shark, “Scar” closed out the dive day with an impressive show of dashing for the baits. Everyone showered and began to secure their gear as the boat crew cleaned the deck and winched on the cages and pangas. The Andrea Lynn slowly made its way up the island and picked up speed headed for Ensenada.

Wednesday Oct 3. Day Five
We pulled into the wharf around 2:00 and were quickly cleared by the port captain and immigration. Soon after being cleared our bus arrived and we loaded up for our ride to the boarder. It was a relatively easy crossing this time. The bus pulled into the hotel around 6:30 and all unloaded then said their good-byes and were off to their rooms or evening flights back home. It was another successful white shark trip down at Isla Guadalupe.

Sept 22-26, 2007

Saturday Sept 22        Day One
The bus ride down to Ensenada was smooth with intermittent bands of rain as an uncommon September storm made its way thru the area. The Andrea Lynn was cleared to depart and off we went on our transit to the island. Luckily there were no large swells to contend with.  It was a beautiful ride with the occasional pod of dolphins riding the bow. 

Sunday Sept 23        Day Two
The overnight transit was fairly smooth and we got to the island around 0830. We dropped anchor, launched the pangas, and then set up the cages for the practice dive. Since no sharks showed up during the practice dive we went directly into “shark watch”. The first shark appeared at 1227. It was “Skid Row” who is sporting a nice gash on his head this season. The wound is only a few weeks old and probably from an encounter with another white shark. These big boys often play rough with each other. Skiddy stayed around the Andrea Lynn most of the day and was joined by two three other sharks: Bucket Head, Squire, and Criss Cross. Some of the divers saw as many as three sharks at one time from the cages. Towards the end of the day the sharks would slowly circle below the cages only occasionally coming to the surface for a tuna snack. Everyone had a good diving day. After cleaning up all the guests gathered in the salon for drinks and sushi appetizers then a delicious dinner put out by chef Poncho. There were animated conversations at each of the dinner booths as divers recounted their experiences with the sharks today. After dinner we were treated to a special presentation by Mauricio Hoyos, who is a Mexican researcher studying the White Sharks of Guadalupe Island. He explained his current project to place acoustic telemetry tags; both externally and internally, on a number of sharks then track their movements around the island. His power point presentation was both informative and entertaining. While the party continued, I opted for turning in since I knew I had a long day ahead of me tomorrow.

Monday Sept 24        Day Three
Our first shark showed up at 0829 and was a really sneaky guy. His strategy was to rocket up from below vertically and grab the tuna bait. The wranglers couldn’t see him made the approach so they lost several baits to this small male shark before he left. The Mexican crew called him “El Torpedo” because he was so fast and would come partially out of the water when he grabbed the bait. The rest of the day was slow until Scar, one of our favorite sharks, showed up to put on a show for the divers. A little later, our old friend Skid also played with us behind the boat.  Some of the guest who had already gotten out of their wetsuits and had begun packing it in for the day got so excited that they suited up again and went back into the water. They were rewarded with several very close passes right next to the cage by Scar. This particular shark has always been a “player” and is a consistent crowd pleaser. It was a great way to end the dive day. Sushi appetizers, drinks, and another great dinner started the evening. After the meal, Jessie did her presentation about the local white sharks and her ID project. While reviewing the day’s photos, two new Shark IDs were made.  We added Rocket and Flipkin to the growing list of sharks seen at Guadalupe Island.

Tuesday Sept 25 Day Four
Today started off with a bang at 0842 when Skid Row did his morning appearance and took a couple of tuna snacks. The action was ramped up from that point on thru the end of the day with divers seeing as many as four sharks at a time during their rotation in the cages. We had a total of seven different sharks visit with us to day. The players were Scar, Skid Row, Jacques, Harvey, Mau, Bulls Eye, and a new shark one of the passengers identified and named “Cori B”, after his daughter. It was a terrific ending to a great day of white shark diving. Perfect weather, great visibility, water temps hovering around 70 F, and exciting shark action all came together at the same time. It doesn’t get much better than this! The boat crew cleaned the back deck and we loaded on the cages and pangas, and then secured all gear for the transit back to Ensenada.

Wednesday Sept 26            Day Five
We lucked out once again with a smooth transit back to port. On the way home, several interesting species were sited: Blue Whale, Common Dolphins and even a Mola Mola, the Ocean Sunfish. The Andrea Lynn passengers were cleared to disembark and load onto the bus for our ride to the boarder and San Diego. It was a great group of fun people and an exciting group. I never get tired of these sharking trips!

Guadalupe Great White Sharks
Sept 15-19, 2007

Saturday Sept 15 Day one
The motor coach picked up the group at 0730 for the 30 minute drive to the San Ysidro boarder crossing where we all got off the bus to obtain our Mexican tourist entry visa.
The visas cost $23.00. It is a scenic drive along the Baja coast to Ensenada 60 miles south of the boarder. We boarded the Andrea Lynn and were cleared by customs, immigration, and the port captain for our departure. It was an uneventful transit down to Isla Guadalupe.

Sunday Sept 16 Day Two
 We arrived around 0830 dropped anchor and launched the cages. The first order of business was the practice dive. This is a 30-minute dive in the cages to give everyone a chance to get familiar with getting into and out of the cages and learn cage etiquette. No white sharks showed up during the practice dive so we went into “shark watch”. It was a slow morning, but finally after lunch at 1:18 our first white shark showed up. It was one of our old favorites “Scar” a 13 ft male that has a distinctive gash in his dorsal fin. Scar has always been known as a “player” and put on an impressive show of power as he rushed the hang baits. I was personally very happy to see him again. Scar is a very aggressive shark as seen by his many scars all over his body no doubt acquired by encounters with other white sharks and seals. Scar managed to take three hang baits before the wranglers finally got used to his attack pattern. We had steady action from that point on. Every rotation into the cages saw white sharks until 6:30 when we pulled the cages because it was getting too dark for photography. Everyone enjoyed the sushi appetizers a delicious seared ahi dinner. One of our guests, Joel Oakford, is a regional director for Anheiser Busch and brought along a new beer they are launching in selected areas of the US, called “Land Shark Beer”. It became an instant favorite with some of the divers as their end of the day thirst quencher. This was a special trip since we had Marty Synderman doing still photographer workshops, and Mary Lynn Price doing underwater video editing presentations. This evening was Marty’s turn to teach our divers how to get better shots of these White Sharks and how to be a better underwater photographer. What a great way to end a super day of White Shark diving.

Monday Sept 17
A couple of guests opted to do a sunrise panga cruise along the shoreline to get up close photos of the California Sea Lions, Guadalupe Fur Seals, and the Elephant Seals sleeping on the beach. The action was steady from when the first shark was sighted at 0808. Six different sharks showed up today, among those were Scar, Gunther, and our first female of the season, Chicka… She has grown from last year. The wind picked up a little so the divers got bounced around a bit while in the cages. The last rotation opted to pass on their turn into the cages. They had seen lots of sharks today and were getting cold from all of their water time. Not only did we have sushi appetizers but a few shots of hot sake before dinner. After dinner Mary Lynn Price did a presentation on how to shoot a good underwater video, how to tell a story, and most importantly some techniques on editing your videos into a finished product. This was a great opportunity for the videographers onboard to pick up some new info. Even the still photographer sat in on the presentation. It was another great ending to an amazing day of adventure.
This is my office!

Tuesday Sept 18
We had a couple of takers for a sunrise panga ride to photograph the seals, and elephant seals near the shoreline and to get that golden morning light on the cliffs of the island. The first shark showed up at 0801 today. It was a different animal called “Bucket Head” he is a large male going about 13 1/2 ft. Bucket Head stayed and played with the wranglers for a couple of hours. Then there was a lull in the action for about 1 1/2 hrs then  “Skid Row” made the afternoon matinee! He is another big male about 12 ft and sporting a new gash on his head. When seen from below there is an old scar in the shape of semi-circle. Evidently Skid Row had a bad encounter with another white shark. He made repeated runs at the hang baits and managed to get a couple from inattentive wranglers. The weather had calmed down some from yesterday and everyone had good sessions in the cages unfortunately this was our last dive day so we had to pull the cages at 5:30 in the afternoon and clean the boat then secure all gear for the transit back to Ensenada. Before dinner many of he guests were downloading their images into laptops and sharing pictures. Tonight was roast beef and baked potatoes for dinner along with a glass of wine or a cold beer it was a great topper to a good white shark trip.

Wednesday Sept 19