And then, if this is not enough, to have a surprise sighting of a humpback whale that showed its presence only after taking a good look at us, much to the absolute delight of all those on board………………………..

4 Humpback whales, 2 of which were seriously chilled.  A massive pod of bottlenose & common dolphins mixed.  Cape gannets plunge diving into a shoal of red eye sardines.  All of this topped with a windless, warm day with a flat ocean…………………..it does not get better than this………….

Hi everyone

We only have a few days left before so many great and wonderful things begin and gosh, it’s too exciting for words!!!

To begin with, having been a specialist guide on the sardine run for many years and having worked the run for many, many years, Rob and I have been asked to guide on the first live a board sardine run trip this year with Extraordinary Expeditions.  The vessel is a 153ft ex navy mine sweeper called Snow Petrel and we depart from East London with 6 different trips, spanning 39 days in total. First departure date is 11th June.  What is more exciting, looking ahead, is being out at sea early in the morning as the sun rises and being out at sea late in the afternoon before sunset, which will give us a new understanding of the sardine run at these times, along with behavioural patterns of the sardines at these times and the predators in the area at the same time.

Rob and I have both been afforded this incredible opportunity for this year and are thrilled to be spending time with such amazing photo journalists and photographic groups on all of these trips.  We will all be sharing some of the most amazing encounters with being on the water for such long periods each day and being on the ocean at night.

Having said this, communication with you all will be scarce as we head out to cover vast areas of the ocean. BUT we will update you as and when we can.

The second exciting “happening” is that we are just that much closer now to opening up our second operation and new destination in Port St John’s, Wild Coast, Transkei. As soon as things settle a little and we have photographs, we will send out a news bulletin. Launch day for this is August, directly after the liveaboard sardine run trip, so there are many exciting things on our doorstep now…………just a few more sleeps and it all begins……………………………

We depart the KZN coast on Monday 30th May 2011 and head down to Port St John’s for a few days, to sort out the new operation there.  From there we head down to East London to spend a few days familiarizing ourselves on Snow Petrel ahead of everyone else boarding.  The 11th June sees us depart East London harbour for the start of an amazing 39 day journey into the world of the sardine run as we have not seen it before…………………………..early morning, late afternoon and at night………………………………….

Sincere apologies, up front, as communication is going to be non existent, but in the meantime, take care and happy diving to you all!

We must have had at least 25 Blacktip sharks throughout the entire dive and one very friendly and brazen potato bass to add to the dive, which spent the majority of the dive at the bottom drum.  When we decided to go and take a longer look at the potato bass, it came across in all it’s glory, checked us out extensively and posed for many pictures.

With hundreds of blacktail fish milling around the top drum, all the Blacktips in between this and the odd yellow fin tuna cruising past, it made for an exciting dive indeed.

We are constantly in awe how these sharks allow us so much time with them and they just don’t mind at all.  Amazing animals…………………

We had flat ocean conditions with an overcast but warm day to add to the superb shark dive, which was thoroughly enjoyed by all!

These amazing animals visit our coastline en route between the winter calving grounds of Mozambique and the summer feeding grounds of Antartica.

They are a beautiful sight to see as they travel and frolic along the way with their magnificent breaches, spy hopping, tail slapping and general fun behaviour.

We usually see them en route to Mozambique from May until July, even August and then sight them on their return journey later in the year, which is hugely lucky for us!!!!!

It also symbolizes the start of many, many exciting things along with it.

The first ragged tooth sharks (Carcharias taurus) have been spotted on the dive sites of Cathedral and Raggie Cave, and this is now the start of our ragged tooth shark sighting season.  This season usually starts early to mid May and lasts until mid to late November.  These sharks are incredible to spend time with as they are not reliant on movement to breathe, which is called the buccal pump method.  They are able to spend a lot of time neautrally buoyant just off the bottom, swimming slowly as they spend their day chilling, which makes research work on them hugely interesting as we are able to gather a lot of data on these sharks due to their slow movement.

Don’t get me wrong, they can move, for sure, but prefer to chill out and take things slow.

And along with the onset of winter is the sardine run, which is almost upon us and we are also keeping our eyes peeled for any slight sign that the sardine migration has begun.  We have already seen quite a few Cape gannets and juvenile cape gannets, which goes hand in hand with the feeding frenzy, as well as juvenile Wilson’s storm petrel birds.

So it’s all starting to happen, thanks to Mother Nature and all that she has to offer us in this magnificent ocean realm.

We will keep you posted on all that is going down this season and it seems like it’s going to be an exciting one!!!