Great White Adventures 2013

An awesome crew, team & group

Lawrence Groth and James Moskito
of Great White Adventures

Wow! What a jawsome adventure!  First off I want to thank my boss, Joe, for making this epic adventure a reality.  This has been a dream of mine for many years and I finally got to get up close and personal with these beautiful sharks. 
Thank you to Great White Adventures for dedicating time towards bringing people together to respectfully interact with Great Whites and learn how amazing and intelligent these sharks really are.  Thank you to the captain and crew of the Solmar V for an outstanding job and making us all feel so welcome and comfortable...and keeping us well fed.

If you have ever thought about diving with Great White Sharks I highly recommend Great White Adventures, with sister company Shark Diving International, and the Solmar V.  Everyone was extremely helpful and went above and beyond expectations.  Everything was well managed from start to finish which made for a worry-free trip.  The sharks were 'jawsome' and hung out all day, each day.  Delicious and fresh meals were cooked and enjoyed by all.  I really respect that the crew not only supplies the best shark locations but also educates us on sharks behavior, habits, awareness and conservation.  I can't wait for my next trip with Great White Adventures and the Solmar V.  Check our our video compilation for some of our jawsome footage compiled by Neil Sharkey.

We flew into San Diego on August 2nd and stayed overnight in the Best Western.  I was so happy to spend time with my good friend Carey who is now stationed in San Diego with her husband Jake.  She drove down to catch up over drinks and dinner with me since I was staying overnight before heading south to Ensenada where our Great White Adventure was to begin. 

The bus picked us up at our hotel at 9:00am on the 3rd and we started our journey south to Ensenada.  I met a few of the other group members and listened to James of GWA go over our first briefing.  After about an hour we made our way through the border control in Tijuana and onto the Solmar V where we were to spend the next 5 days aboard in Guadalupe.  We were greeted by the crew, had some lunch and another briefing by Lawerence Groth of GWA.  We got our assigned staterooms, unpacked our gear, went over safety protocols and then started on drinks and getting to know each other.

Blue Whale Sighting
c/o Brant S.

Blue Whale Sighting
c/o Brant S.

Along our journey to Guadalupe we got to do a bit of Blue Whale watching.  Dinner was served at 7 and we enjoyed Chef Tonys incredible chicken, potatoes and green beans with a side of Mexican beer and margaritas. Then I got a great surprise - the lights went out and the crew and group started singing Happy Birthday to me and brought be a cake.  It was such a great birthday, thank you all for making it special!

It was an overnight boat ride to Guadalupe and although I didn't sleep great, I was still relaxed. I had never slept on a boat before but I think my adrenalin was pumping because I knew the real adventure was soon to begin.  I was up by 6am and enjoyed a fresh breakfast of fruits, eggs, bacon and hash browns.  We arrived at Guadalupe about 9am on the 4rd and were escorted in by a pod of dolphins, even a baby was along for the ride.  Once at Guadalupe we had our dive briefing, changed into our swim attire and started our rounds into the surface cages.  I was in the second group to get in the surface cages yet standing topside was quite enjoyable.  We watched and waited for a short bit until our first Great White arrived.  It was a known shark named CC, short for Cut Caudal.  CC has been showing up on these trips for a few years now.  He stayed around for a bit and put on a good show.  It was finally my turn to get in the cage.  Since we didn't have to bring out fins, BCD or regulator, it was nice getting in without all that gear.  Except to keep us under water we wore a 35-50 pound weight belt/harness and weights on our ankles.  After scooting carefully into the surface cage for the first time and seeing my first Great White up close and personal was beyond words.  I think I had more water in my mask from my tears of excitement than the saltwater around me.  I stayed in the cage for an hour before finally crawling out and warming up with the hot sun and some amazing hot soup that our chef, Tony, made.  After we all had our first dip, it was free range.  Whenever there was an empty spot in a cage, anyone could claim it.  It was a full day of shark excitement.

7:00 rolled around and we enjoyed another incredible dinner this time at the bow.  The crew had grilled beef, chicken and chorizo, had fresh salsa, flour and corn tortillas, and all the fixins for Mexican tacos.  It was delicious!  I washed it back with a margarita and some beers and relaxed on the upper deck on the lounge chairs reminiscing about the amazing first day.  I finally made it to my bed and could hardly sleep knowing what was in store for tomorrow.

 

 

I rose to the sun coming up and the smell of breakfast. The morning sky looked the same as it did yesterday, dark and cloudy.  However I now knew better, as the sun would rise, the clouds would part and give us another clear blue sky.  Guadalupe has this amazing cloud formation that stays pretty much 24-7 and it almost looks like a waterfall, which I have dubbed a "clouderfall".  Sure enough, at about 8am the clouds were parting and I was gearing up to get in a surface cage and great some new sharks.  The submersible cage would be operational today so I was even more excited.

While the surface cages were being occupied a few of us took a ponga ride along the island and saw the Fur Seals, Sea Lions and Elephant Seals.  There were hundreds of adult and baby seals all over the rocky shore and playing in the water.  We cruised around for about an hour then were ready to get back in the water with the sharks.  CC showed up again today along with a couple that were not distinguishable.  Not to say they haven't been there before but the crew wasn't sure by their markings which Whites they may have been.  I hung out in the surface cage for a bit until I was quite cold then got out and warmed up on the upper deck while watching the action below when finally it was time to get in the submersible.  I was slightly nervous and excited at the same time.  The decent was a nice slow, steady pace so it was easy to clear along the way down to 40' where we were then able to climb out the top of the cage and hang out in the blue as the sharks swam by.  I have to say I really enjoyed the submersible for the different experience you get while viewing the sharks. We stayed down for only 20 min but it was worth it and I knew I would get more chances, so when we surfaced I went straight into one of the surface cages and stayed until I was shivering, hungry or had to pee...whichever came first.

Lunch was served, another hot, yummy soup and huge burgers. Everyone was cycling in and out of the surface and submersible cages in between dining on our delicious lunch.  There were a few of us hanging out on the upper deck enjoying the sun when we were all in awe of the large mass approaching the boat.  Finally we recognized it to be a Blue Whale, which swam right under the two surface cages and then under the submersible.  I kicked myself for not being in the cage however being on the surface and seeing it was still an amazing experience.  Thankfully one of the divers, (Matt S.) got a pretty good video and shared it with us all.  The Blue Whale was the talk of the day and there were few instances when a cage was not full.

Hanging out of the submersible
c/o Joe Murray

As night approached and dinner was served a few of us enjoyed some cigars provided by Neil on the upper deck and gazed at the stars.  I asked Neil to see if we could get the boat lights turned out for a bit and he managed to get the job done.  Once the lights turned out the sky just exploded with stars, it was amazing!  I have never seen a sky so clear of light pollution and full of stars.  The crew was nice to leave the lights out for a good 30 minutes so we just laid out and enjoyed the view and searched for satellites. 

The next and final day was just as good as the days before.  Three sharks hung out with us all day, Meli, Harvey and an unknown one.  I had two rounds in the submersible and was constantly in and out of the surface cages. Sadly final call came for the cages but it was still an epic day with great shark activity and beautiful weather.  The crew started cleaning up and bring in the cages as we all got our gear rinsed and hung up and got ourselves cleaned up.  We shared pictures and videos, watched some TV and dined on our final dinner, prime rib, baked potatoes and veggies.  Margaritas
were being poured and we had started our journey back to Ensenada.


As you can see there were so many highlights of this trip, however another great highlight was meeting so many great and adventurous new people.  I had such a great time getting to know everyone and sharing this adventure with them.  Thank you again to Lawrence and James of Great White Adventures and the entire crew of the Solmar V, you all made this a trip of a lifetime.

c/o Joe M.

c/o Brant S.

Dominica 2013

"I am beauty unspoilt. Culture preserved.  I am a diver’s dream and hiker’s paradise. I am the trailhead to adventure and discovery, unlike any other Caribbean destination. I am volcanic peaks, boiling waters and underwater champagne springs. Sparkling waterfalls, rushing streams and rainforest canopies. I am celebrations of music, art and flowers. I am nature’s island. I am Dominica. Are You?"

I have been given a great opportunity from my new job, Coral Edge Adventures, to go on a Fam Trip to Dominica. A Fam Trip is shortened for Familiarization Trip where a company takes lead on setting up a trip for their sales branch to a certain destination to learn about what they have to offer, both diving as well as land based. My bosses Joe and Jim told me that I was going to be going on this particular Fam Trip and Joe decided to go as well for some vacation.

The itinerary was set and looked like were going to have a busy week ahead of us. We flew out of Dulles early Saturday morning (June 22, 2013) and had a layover in Charlotte, NC. There was a short delay flying out but had plenty of time to get through to our terminal in CLT yet there was another long delay from CLT.  Our plane sat on the Tarmac for about an hour waiting while other planes kept going around it and taking off.  Not sure what the issue was but was a bit annoying and made for an issue after landing in San Juan, Puerto Rico.  Once in San Juan we had to collect out checked luggage and dash to gt thru security and recheck our bags for our final flight to Dominica. However since our flight had been delayed and Liat, the airline in and out of Dominica has a strict policy on your check in times, we missed our flight.  Thankfully we were able to get on the next flight which had a short layover in Antigua and were then on our final leg to Dominica.

We finally landed in Dominica at about 7:30pm and was greeted and escorted (somewhat) through security.  The 1.5 hr. drive from the airport to the first hotel was quite an experience! Dominica is more mountainous than I had expected and many of their roads are in the process of reconstruction. So needless to say it was almost like riding on a very bumpy and windy roller coaster. But alas we made it safely to the hotel, Castle Comfort, checked in and got a quick tour with a side of Rum Punch. Our luggage was taken to our rooms and we met up with the others who got there earlier.  I met Buddy Brown and his wife Cathy who are our AUP regional sales reps, Lucy of Columbia Scuba, Lucy's friend Ben (a scubana boy), Greg of Bluewater Scuba, Paul of Carolina Dive Center, Stephen of the Dive Shop on McEver, Marshall of Dive Shop Atl., and Bill of Down Under Surf and Scuba. We sat oceanfront and had a late dinner and I got to try Lionfish for the first time. It was delicious!

Sunday, June 23, 2013
Our first day was early and full of new discoveries.  We had a nice breakfast at Castle Comfort then got our gear ready for our first dives.  Our Divemasters took great care of us and were very professional.  We dove the Witches Point and Champaign Glass.  Both were amazing dives full of macro organisms.  I saw some Pederson's Shrimp for the first time in the ocean.  There were ton's, you couldn't miss them!  We were pointed out small Frogfish, lots of Arrow Crabs, Sally Lightfoot Crabs, tiny little Gobies and even some Cuttlefish.  Dominica's reefs are so full and colorful, lots of beautiful sponges and sea fans along with the amazing critters and fish, and I can say after our first two dives that I was more than ready for more.  

After our morning dives we headed back to the hotel to change, grab some lunch then head over to Anchorage Dive for the Whale watching tour.  I got to see my first whales out in the ocean, a mother Sperm Whale and her calf.  It took a little while to spot them but our crew was excellent and even worked with some of the other tour boats to find a good location where the whales were.  Of course dolphins put on a show for us too.  We stayed out for a few hours then got back, freshened up and planned to meet for dinner at the Evergreen Hotel.  Apparently they weren't quite expecting us so dinner took much longer than expected but it was still a fun time getting to know the group.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Monday, June 24, 2013
Our second day we did two morning dives at Swiss Cheese and (someone fill me in here).  Swiss Cheese was a neat dive full of swim troughs and a few turtles.  I ended up sitting out the second dive because I was having some trouble clearing my left ear so thought it best to be on the safe side and sit out.  Plus it was a good excuse to get some sun and just enjoy the beauty of the land from the boat.  Cathy ended up also sitting out the second dive so I had some company. The group returned from their dive and we headed back to the hotel to clean up and check out as we were staying in a different hotel for the remainder of the trip.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Castle Comfort Dive Lodge was a perfect location for the typical diver.  Nice rooms with single or double beds, private bathrooms and balconies, most facing the ocean.  Our new hotel was Fort Young Hotel and it was a bit more upscale with multiple room layouts.  Each of us had our own oceanview suite which I have to say was quite sweet!  I will admit that even though it was a very luxurious room, I would still typically stay at a location such as Castle Comfort.  Both hotels work with each other and they also both use Dive Dominica.

 

After lunch and a tour of Fort Young we gathered up for a bus tour of the North part of the island,  then a boat cruise along the Indian River, walked around the Cabrits National Park and Fort Shirley, then a late dinner and cocktails at Sunset Bay.  I definitely enjoyed the day full of sightseeing, especially when we got to see the area along the Indian River where Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest was filmed.  They built Calypso's hut and kept it there along with other relics from the movie.  The park was beautiful and Fort Shirley was full of history.  Sunset Bay was definitely a hopping place, good music, a dancing floor, oceanfront dining and great staff.  But alas, the night was ending and we had an early morning and long day ahead of us.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tuesday, June 25, 2013
Tuesday we met for breakfast at Fort Young's Waterfront restaurant and took in the beautiful view of a morning double rainbow.  The day ahead looked like it was going to be awesome, and being it was our last day of diving, we were going to make the most of it.  We were picked up at the dock by Dive Dominica with our gear and headed out to our dive sites: Scott's Head Point and Dangleben's Pinnacles.  Another two amazing dive sites!  At the end of our second dive, however, I had kinda buddied up with Greg as Joe and I kept getting separated while taking pictures.  As we were with a close group I was not worried and knew he would be OK and at one point one of the DM's pointed him out to me saying he was OK.  Well Greg and I were checking out something while on our safety stop and then we realized we were the only two in site...so as we were only 15' down, he surfaced to check the location of the boat while I waited below.  We were very slightly off course and made our way over to the boat and while we were waiting for the last few to safely get on the boat, a decent sized Manta Ray swam by Greg and myself.  I did not get as great a view b/c I was looking off at something else and Greg said he was trying so hard to get my attention, but I did end up looking his way and he pointed the Manta out as it was just passing us.  So amazing!  Pays to be a little late sometimes ;-)  and huge Thanks Greg for finally getting my attention!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We returned from our last dive adventure and were able to take some time getting ready for lunch and a meet-n-greet with other Tour Operators and Properties at Fort Young's dining hall.  We took our time and met with a nice group of individuals as well as larger companies and got information on what their company or organization had to offer.  It was good to be able to meet and take home a lot of information about the other dive and tour operators so that I can plan some future trips through Coral Edge Adventures back to this beautiful Island.  After a few hours of our meetings a few of us decided to hang out near the bar at Fort Young and have a light dinner and some cocktails while the rest went down the street to another restaurant.  I enjoyed chatting with the group and possibly having one-to-many of their amazing Rum Punch's (and thanks Steve for picking up the tab for the group! Very nice of you!).  As the others trickled in from dinner some joined us and some went to bed.  We stayed up for a bit and then slowly departed back to our rooms.

Wednesday, June 26, 2013
Surprisingly I woke up feeling pretty good and I was the first one down to breakfast too (if you know me, you know I am not usually a morning person so I gave myself a little pat on the back).  I had a bigger breakfast than normal in preparation for the long land adventure in store for us later on, however, first we had a Press Conference to get to.  The Press Conference wasn't long and was basically informative of our FAM group and how we have felt so far about our experience in Dominica.  Lucy and Bill were volunteered by Buddy to speak about the trip thus far.  (So glad I didn't have to get up there and speak).

 

After the press conference we gathered our snorkel gear and were picked up by Khatts tour bus where we started our journey first to Trafalgar Falls.  Our tour guide and bus driver were awesome and extremely knowledgeable of their land and its history.  We snaked our way up and down Dominica's peaks to the entrance of a decent hike ahead of us to the falls.  We then detoured and had lunch at (someone jog my memory please) where I decided to take a walk and explore while waiting for our lunch.  I am so amazed by the beauty and uniqueness Dominica holds.  The flowers, birds, lizards, natural warm water springs from volcanic vents mixed with cold water from the falls, and just how lush the land is.  There were so many times I wished I was taller so I could just reach up and pick the fruit off the trees and eat it. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
After a very delicious lunch we continued our adventure and made our way to the highest road point on Dominica which led to a huge fresh water lake.  Thankfully we did not swim in this one b/c it was quite chilly, well, you know me, I was ready to jump in!  We walked around a bit then continued our way to Titou Gorge and although it was just as chilly as the lake water, we still got in and snorkeled through the Gorge and enjoyed playing in the rushing water and trying to catch crayfish.  Titou Gorge is another place where part of Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest was filmed.  It's the part where the pirates are held captive in a round cage made of the bones of other pirates and man and they escape and fall into the gorge.  (Definitely watched that movie again when I got home).

2789 ft. Above Sea Level.  The Highest Road Point on Dominica.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We swam at Titou Gorge for a bit then made our way to Screw Sulpher Spas.  I know what you're thinking, and no, I do not know the entire story behind the name.  The owner is nicknamed Screw, and he was given that nickname by his wife...the end.  However, Screw Spa was amazing!  It was a series of levels with different springs fed both by different percentages of water from the volcanic vents and from the falls, so each level was cool than the previous.  The first one I had to take my time dipping into since it was so hot, but once in, it felt amazing.  We all spent our time soaking in the springs, going from hot to cold to warm to hot to cold to all combinations.  Screw was even there and put out some fresh fruit and water for us and Ben was awesome and got him to take a picture with me.  This is definitely a place on the list to make sure is a part of our dive trip when we get one set. 

 

 

 The group (from L-R): Greg, Joe, Bill, Kathy, Buddy, Marshall, Lucy, Me, Ben, Steve

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

"Peace & Love"

After our long and amazing land adventure we traveled back to the hotel, washed up and met for a nice group dinner.  I had a beer after with a few of the guys but headed back to my room to finish packing up and just take some time alone to embrace the view and that it would be the last time I would see it for a while.  I sat out on the balcony and just relaxed. 

Thank you Joe and Jim for giving me this opportunity to take my first FAM trip to Dominica!  I can't wait to lead the next trip there ;-)

Buddy, Cathy, Bill, Lucy, Ben, Greg, Marshall, and Steve, it was great meeting you all and sharing this experience.  I look forward to diving with you again sometime!