Beth, Alina, Lizzy, Aurelie, other Alina, me (holding Kita), Maarten (holding Mitzy), Ryan and Gerome in front of our vessel. We'll miss you Cake!
Last night
we learned that there was space for four volunteer spots on the boat this
morning. Alina, Lizzy and Beth had gone out to a bar in Gansbaai after the
braai, and they didn’t come home until pretty late. When they got home they
said that they’d probably prefer to just sleep the next morning, so we agreed
that Aurelie, Ryan, the other Alina, and I would go out on the boat. When my
alarm went off at 5:30 this morning, I headed out to the garage with Aurelie to
start packing up the supplies for the boat. Alina soon arrived at the house and
joined us. When Maarten arrived we asked him to go wake up Ryan in his room.
Last night was his last night here at the volunteer house, so we’d all had a
lot of fun, him especially. When he eventually showed up in the kitchen he said
that, thankfully, he was feeling okay and definitely wanted to go out on the
boat one last time. After walking down to the harbor in the darkness of the
early morning and packing up the boat, we returned to the volunteer house to
eat a quick breakfast before meeting the clients outside the white shark
projects office at seven.
We went back
to the dam today since it was a very windy morning, and the island is more
exposed than the dam. The first shark showed up pretty fast after we dropped
anchor, and it turned into another really great morning for shark viewing. We
saw a female that was over four meters long, which is definitely one of the
biggest ones that we ever see around here. We also got some more great action
with the shark that people either call “Slashfin” or “Razor”, the big female
that has two big slashes through her dorsal fin, probably from a boat
propeller. After being out on the water for about an hour and a half, the wind
picked up even more and the swells got bigger, pushing the limits of what our
boat can handle. We can go out if the swells are up to about three and a half
meters. When we first left the harbor this morning they were about three
meters, and got considerably more intense just as we pulled up anchor and started
to leave. We’re not able to go out if they’re bigger than three and a half
because the boat then has a higher risk of capsizing. The guests still all
seemed to have a really good time while we were out on the boat, and Ryan said
that it was a really good last trip for him.
When we got
back to the house, Lizzy, Beth and Alina were getting up. Maarten came with us
back the house, and we all got pretty sad when Ryan rolled his suitcase out of
his room. We’ve always called Ryan “Cake”, because it’s his last name and, as
we said, that name is just too great to not use. Being the only male white
shark projects volunteer for the time he was here, he was pretty sad to be
leaving, and all the girls were certainly sad as well to see him go. We all
walked down to the harbor one last time and took a picture of all of us in
front of the shark team boat. Maarten and Gerome, another crew member that
we’ve hung out with a lot, came down with us and got in the pic as well, which
was nice because Maarten said he really didn’t like to be in pictures. Upon
returning to the volunteer house, we all did one last shot in Cake’s honor,
exchanged hugs, then he got in the white shark projects bus and left.
It’s really
interesting how in a span of merely two weeks, people can come into your life,
come to pretty much feel like family, then leave again. Since all the other
volunteers are from around Europe, I’m probably the least likely of all of us
to ever see Cake again. Either way, we all had a lot of fun, life changing experiences
in the two weeks that we were all volunteers together. On that note, this post’s
food for thought- and title- is from a song that we were all recently listening
and singing along to in a restaurant: “You and me and my old friends hoping it
would never end. Holding on- we’ve got to try. Holding on to never say goodbye.”-
Jon Bon Jovi
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