Page 99 - South Mississippi Living - October, 2019

FOR MORE REFLECTIONS OF THE GULF COAST >> www.smliving.net October 2019 • SOUTH MISSISSIPPI Living 99
Next, we flew to Capetown, a two-hour, 870-mile flight southwest from Johannesburg, where we spent our second week exploring more of South Africa. On the
third day, we drove 100 miles southeast to Gansbaai on Van Dyks Bay where we had breakfast, a briefing, and
then boarded the boat. Interestingly, the small harbor has a launch ramp but no boat slips. So, they haul the
boats and then launch them each day.
After a brief 20-minute boat ride, we arrived at the
site and watched as they deployed the cage and began stirring the chum bucket.
“You know the water is pretty cold there,” my
good friend, Don Gaddy, commented during our trip planning. It turns out he was wrong. Even wearing a full
wet suit with boots and hood it was incredibly, freezing cold, with water temperatures in the high 50s.
Great whites are able to reach speeds over 40 miles per hour, can smell blood as faint as one part in 10 billion, and detect movement nearly 1000 feet away. But the dive
guides assured us that like most sharks, great whites don’t normally target humans...except when humans
inadvertently fall into their feeding pattern, such as surfers whose silhouette is similar to that of seals.
This apex ocean predator is second only to killer whales, which had arrived a season or two prior and attacked several great whites. They kill them just for the
shark’s tongue and liver. As a result, recent sightings have not been as frequent as in years past.
A short time after we entered the water the first arrived, a mere baby, less than seven feet long. This was soon followed by momma, a 10-foot long shark that was more impressive. But when the big daddy showed up and cruised by a foot or so away, his 12 foot-long body definitely got my attention.
Being that close to such a large shark was every bit as impressive as I had hoped. And when we finally got out of the water with teeth-chattering, I truly felt lucky to have had the opportunity for this experience.