Location: Transit between Ensenada and Isla Guadalupe AND anchored Lighthouse Bay, Guadalupe Island
Comments: Visiting the great white sharks of Guadalupe Island involves an open ocean transit. There is just no two ways about it. We ask our guests to meet us at our hospitality suite at the Ramada Inn in San Diego and then transfer everyone to Ensenada by luxury highway coach to board the Nautilus Explorer. After that, it is a 182-mile open ocean run to Guadalupe Island. Sometimes it is as flat calm as a swimming pool and occasionally – to be honest – it can be rough with 8 to 10 footers. But the sea conditions are usually mellow, averaging 4 to 5 feet on a long ocean swell period of 12 – 14 seconds, and our last transit to and from Ensenada was no exception.
It was an easy transit and nobody was seasick. Life is good! For those folks worried about seasickness, I always recommend either a scopolamine patch or borrowing one of our electronic anti-seasickness bands and that usually does the trick. Red wine or beer seems to help as well! We usually arrive on site at Lighthouse Bay, Guadalupe Island shortly before dinner and the calm seas in our sheltered “sharky” anchorage ensures that everyone has the opportunity for a good night’s sleep before the white shark cages open at 6:30 am the next morning. Or at least, a good night’s sleep unless they get distracted by the hot-tub, the starry Mexican sky, our wine and beer list or just the simple pleasure of meeting so many like-minded people onboard.
OK, on to the most important stuff. Great white shark sightings and behaviour were EXCELLENT today with more animals than I have ever seen before. Positive identifications included poor tattered old Shredder (he is one beat up looking shark!), Skid, New Rock, Criss Cross as well as some other animals that we couldn’t positively ID. At one point four sharks were circling 40 feet deep below the boat! All the sharks that we saw were males today. The award for most interesting behaviour would have to go to one very inquisitive 9 foot juvenile. This guy would come very close to the cages and was not at all hesitant about mixing it up with much bigger animals. We had a bit of a problem with our rubber inflatable last week when a juvenile male was displaced from the back of the boat by much bigger sharks and became… ahem… overly inquisitive about our zodiac. I’m wondering if it is the same juvenile and if he is becoming less intimidated by the big guys. Interesting times.
–Captain Mike
Weather: Sunny, hot, flat calm, gorgeous!
Water: Water temperature 70 degrees, visibility 100 – 125 feet.
