First breach of the season

Oh my word, I cant believe its been so long since our last blog post.

The end of Feb saw the start of our shark trips to Seal Island. We did our first film shoot of the year with the travel channel and Redline productions and since then we have done about 8 shark trips. All but 1 trip we got sharks, which is very good for the intermediate season which can have a 50-70% sightings rate.

We finally fitted  our booking shop in Simon's town. at the beginning of March, much to my relief, however  I have had a frustrating two weeks interviewing potential candidates Some don't pitch or pitch the next day at there own leisure, don't phone to say they will be late, etc etc. However, yesterday I think I finally found the right person. Lets wait and see what progresses. 

We went to sea yesterday, and we saw our first breach of the season. It was a decent sized shark of around 4m. As Wellington put the seal decoy in the water, the shark leaped out of the water in a spectacular explosion.

We took our new guide to sea today. Shoena is a qualified marine biologist and zoologist and is very excited to  be spending shark season with us.

Today is the Argus Cycle race. Its blowing a gale outside and I am very glad to not be on a bike in this wind. It does mean we are stuck in our house the entire day, which is really frustrating for the kids, but I am going to take them down to the park just now. They have been really naughty, and last night I found them painting Adams little scooter with some paint that we had used to paint the shop. I had taken it out of the car a few hours before and the kids eye's must have lit up as if they had found the jack pot. Adam had a paint filled roller in one hand and was wielding it like a sword.

Best I take them for a walk as my locusts have just destroyed the bathroom.............

Elections and Voting

Yes, we voted. I stood in the queue for an hour and cast my secret ballot.

I wont get into the in's and out of voting and my opinion, as politics is such a hot topic that I am bound to get a million replies, both good and bad.

Rob voted in the evening as we had a shark trip that day. He saw three shark predations but they where in the distance. No sharks around the boat unfortunately. I think if the group had not left so early (they only wanted a short trip), I am sure we would have had sharks to the boat.

Adam, our little chap was wheezing really badly. It got worse towards late afternoon and so I carted him off to the medi-clinic. As there was only 1 doc on duty, we waited longer than it took me to vote. There is only so much you can do to entertain a 20 month toddler before they start causing havoc. He thought that the wheel chairs where great fun and tried to push them around the halls.Thankfully the admin staff had a sense of humour and let him have some fun.

After the diagnosis that he has bronchitis, we headed for home. Being super mom I made the kids supper(omelettes, quick and easy), ordered the kids into the shower with Rob and dashed off to a lecture. Tired and hungry, my course seemed to go on forever...and ever...and ever, and I was very grateful that it was the last night of it.

Today I sit here, cup of coffee in hand and bleary eyed, yet grateful that I didn't have to get up at 5.30 am to go to sea.

The last few trips

As I mentioned a few posts ago, we arrived back home to find out that the shark activity had not been so great in our absence, with about only a 60% sightings rate.

This is very strange as April marks the start of high season and we normally have a daily shark sightings (over 90%).

We do not go to sea on Good Friday. It is an old standing sea tradition and considered extremely bad luck. Anyone who knows anything about the sea, knows that. However, there will always be someone who is willing to forgo the tradition for commercial reasons. So, in saying this, we where at home celebrating "Good Friday", when one of the False Bay operators phoned us to say that as he arrived at Seal Island he "got" great white sharks.

As we had a trip going on Saturday,and pretty much a full boat, I was thrilled to hear this news. However,on Saturday, sadly to say no sharks where seen by us. I could not believe it.

We had another trip going on Monday, but we had to cancel it due to strong South Easterly winds. Rob is out at "Seal Island" at the moment. The wind has changed direction to a light northerly, and that is always good news. I will let you know how today's trip went.

I am now about to leave to get some parts for the engine. We need some new spark plugs, 12 of them, and they cost a small fortune each. It also means I need to now drive for about 50 minutes one way, just to fetch the parts, and if you know Capetonians, anything longer than a 20 minute drive is just too far... .those jokes that people talk about us, saying we rather just chill dude, and look at " The Mountain", are partly true..ha ha ha.

I am still wanting to tell you all about our Botswana trip, but at the rate I am going with all our work here, it also still being school holidays, with mad kids running amok at home, I am not sure when I will get to it.