Day 13 (Wednesday, June 25) by Mike

Sailing with Dummies (Hawaii to Alaska Edition)

Bob and I went to explore the underwater world outside the reef at Midway. It’s pretty much agreed that the chance of seeing sharks, especially tiger sharks is higher outside the reef than it is inside the reef. This made us more wary.

Sure enough, as soon as we descended into the water we saw a five-foot shark. But it was a Galapagos shark (reportedly safe for humans to swim around) and didn’t seem to even notice us. It just kept swimming very slowly in and out of our sight. We continued exploring the caverns and coral for sea life. I was once more amazed with the number of fish.

We stayed down for quite awhile on our first dive. We were at 30-50 feet through most of the dive and our air lasted a long time. By the time we got out of the water we were both freezing. The water temperature was about 75 degrees, which sounds reasonably comfortable. And it is … until you immerse yourself in it for an hour (I was pretty sure that my core temperature was down to about 75 degrees).

The coral at Midway is not as colorful as it is in many popular diving and snorkeling spots. I think that’s because of the lower water temperature. While there seem to be as many bright, colorful species of fishes around here as, say the Florida Keys, there certainly are more non-colorful fishes swimming around. I assume that is because they fit in with the less-colorful underwater structure.

After a hot shower and some thrashing around in the sun and moving the boat to another spot, we were warm enough to get in the water again. This time we both wore wetsuits.

Our second spot had more structure. There were a few Galapagos sharks around, around 4-5 feet in length. They kept their distance and were moving around slowly. I was beginning to feel a little more comfortable with the sharks. They didn’t pay any attention to us and we certainly gave them a wide berth.

This time we started out about 80-90 feet and explored slowly up the crevasses and structures until our depth was around 50 feet. Bob was in a recessed area taking pictures of something when a shark meandered by just a few feet behind him. I was probably 30 feet away when I noticed this. I tried to get Bob’s attention by banging on my tank. It didn’t work since I was trying to bang on the tank with a rubber-encased depth gauge. The shark swam on and Bob didn’t know the difference. I noticed three sharks in the general vicinity of us and it reinforced my increased comfort level with sharks.

Shortly thereafter we both looked at our remaining air (about 800 psi) and decided it was time to head back to the boat. We exchanged meaningless hand signals to each other and shrugged our shoulders a few times. Eventually we pointed at our air gauges and pointed upwards and headed to the surface. As we looked up we noticed a lot of sharks in the area. A lot of sharks. It was like they appeared from nowhere.

My newfound comfort with sharks immediately evaporated. As we swam to the surface there were sharks everywhere. They were swimming faster and generally circling around us. It seemed like they were swarming us.

We surfaced and located the boat about 75 yards away. I remember saying something profound, like “that’s a lot of sharks,” and Bob replied something profound, like “that’s a lot of sharks.” And we headed toward the boat posthaste. I went down to about 15-20 feet to (1) help with decompression since this was a deepish dive, and (2) make as little commotion in order to NOT attract the sharks’ attention.

Then I noticed something odd. Bob was on the surface ripping and tearing his way to the boat. This is normally a no-no around sharks. I figured he knew something I didn’t and kept swimming.

Scuba diving is an activity where personal movement is truly three-dimensional. A diver can swim in any direction. Up, down, north, south, east, west. Or any combination of these. Up ten degrees and east-northeasterly. Down 60 degrees and southwesterly.

The underwater diver can also look any direction while moving. For instance, while swimming northward it’s easy to see down by swimming face-down. Likewise, it’s easy to see west by swimming right-side-down. And by looking above your body you would see north, and toward your feet you would see south.

As I was swimming toward the boat as calmly as possible (not calm at all) I was continually and slowly rotating in 360 degree rolls as I kicked onward. I also looked above my head and towards my feet. In every direction, toward the surface, north, west, toward the bottom, etc. Everywhere I looked I saw 8, or 10, or maybe 12 sharks. I estimate that they were mostly 15-25 feet away, but there was often one or two that were more like 10 feet away.

At one point I looked toward my feet and noticed one swimming directly toward me, slightly faster than I was swimming. I sped up marginally (from almost-full-speed to full-speed) and it kept gaining ground at about the same rate. It was heading directly toward me, gradually getting closer. It would get to my feet first.

Flying airplanes we practice emergency procedures. These are basically what-ifs and a sequence of remedies would be best to follow. Sailing boats we practice man-overboard drills. As the shark approached me my mind was racing, but there was nothing in particular that I could think of to do. The only “emergency procedure” we had discussed was banging on an air tank if we saw a tiger shark and that wasn’t helpful to me at this point.

I did remember someone saying that sharks don’t like air bubbles. I had also heard that they are attracted to motion. I remember questioning in my mind whether either of these things were true. Maybe they were just hearsay. Then I wondered if it came closer, would it try to bite one of my flippers? Or maybe I could push it away if it kept coming so slow. And if one shark attacked would that create a “frenzy” like you see on tv?

When it got close to a shark-length away I stopped kicking and created a lot of air bubbles by exhaling a big breath and pressing the discharge button on my alternate regulator. The shark casually turned right 45 degrees and lazily swam on by as if I wasn’t even there.

Me? I’m resumed my flight to the boat at best speed. The sharks were still everywhere in all directions, but none particularly close to me. As I continued my looking-all-around-while-swimming, it dawned on me that I was unable to spot Bob on the surface. My “moment” with the shark surely hadn’t lasted more than 10-15 seconds. I ascended as I swam on. I wanted to get a fresh bead on the boat direction (and distance) and wondered where Bob was, too.

I popped up briefly and spotted the boat about 25 yards away. It seemed like a mile. On my way back down to 15 feet I noticed Bob was down at about 50 feet. That was strange. I swam on. He swam on.

Bob got to the ladder an instant before I did. That was the fastest I have ever seen anyone climb on board with scuba equipment. I was right behind him and out of the water as fast as possible. We then engaged in profound sailor talk. “I didn’t like that,” one of us said. “I didn’t either,” the other one replied. Neither of us mentioned being cold after that dive.

Cathy had seen us surface, saw sharks, and also wondered why Bob was splashing a wake back to the boat. As Bob explained later, his surface swim was the result of hitting the wrong button on his BCD (buoyancy control device) which inflated it and buoyed him. When he got the air dumped he went down.

Galapagos sharks are reported to be curious. Everything that happened was probably nothing more than them looking us over. But it was scary. Really scary.

We plan to dive again tomorrow. I promise I will not be comfortable around any sharks.

Daily Cuisine:

Pong is the head cook at the cafeteria. We’ve been eating most of our meals there. It’s simple and it’s good.

Fishing Report:

Fishing is still not allowed in this national monument. I think this is a lousy rule.

Arts and Entertainment:

Cathy, Bob, and I mixed with some of the locals at their watering hole this evening. It was enjoyable to hear stories and learn more about them. All the people on the island are really nice.