Swimming with Sharks

Swimming with sharks is a term I’ve often used in my professional life. I’ve found myself working with ‘tigers’ and ‘killers’ and had to figure out how to ‘sink or swim’. Thankfully, I’ve always made my way back to shore.

And while many of those sharks have also fit the bill of ‘great white’, they were not nearly as deadly as the ones Jillian and I traveled to Nova Scotia to see.

This trip started out as a #yolo idea after Jill’s shark-seeing trip earlier this year was a bust. Among the sad texts i received sent from their unplanned night in Mexico after a cancelled flight (which was not even close to the worst thing about the trip), one stood out: A trip to swim with sharks only a short hop away, right over their birthday when I was already planning to visit? There were spots left so how could I not grab them? Before Jill made it from Mexico back to Ottawa, we were booked for a do-over.

#ABP

Anyone who knows the Steele siblings knows that we are each very different. And yet, if there’s one thing we have in common it’s #ABP. Always Be Planning. It’s Jay’s least favorite Steele family trait (though, a close tie with the use of every available bowl and mug). What does APB mean in practice? It means what it says: Always. Be. Planning.

Enjoying breakfast? Well, it must be time to plan lunch. Placed the dinner order? Time to start looking up restaurants for tomorrow. Already know what the plan is for tomorrow? Well, it just means we can get going on mapping out the day after. For those not raised on this model, it’s can be overwhelming. And sometimes feel confining.

But here’s the thing: the plans aren’t binding. They are a guide on the way to the final plan. Sometimes they are just a jumping off point for future collaboration. Sometimes they are the final plan if they don’t lead to anything else. But there are always plans. A. B. P.

So with this in mind, the total lack of planning we put into this trip was a little shocking.

Sure, we had the big stuff booked: hotels, flights – and sharks, of course the sharks – but everything else was just an idea.

Food is always a good plan

What’s the other thing that Steele’s have in common? That plans are primarily focussed on food. And so, that’s exactly where this trip begins.

We met up at the airport and had a $30 voucher to spend on lunch since Jillian’s flight had been changed. (Instead of meeting in Halifax, Jill was put on a connecting flight through Toronto. For those of you unfamiliar with this geography, this is a non-sensical route). But, no complaints about an earlier meet up, and snacks on AC.

We landed in Halifax, picked up our rental car and after a paper, rock, scissors battle to see who would drive it out (Jill won), we boarded our Nissan Kick and hit the road.

We checked in at the hotel, grabbed a quick nap, and then it was time to eat again. We walked along the water down to The Bicycle Thief for a Birthday Dinner. It was a good one.

We had skipped dessert at the restaurant, but saved room for epic ice cream from the Halifax Fog Factory

HBD, Jillian! It was a great day and the trip was just starting.

Halifacts.

Halifax is cute. Everything is uphill. The waterfront is a lovely wander.

That might be all.

Having wandered the waterfront on our way to dinner and passed the citadel to and from our hotel, we had pretty much seen it all. We added one area to the mix – the Hydrostone Market – I’d never seen any area beyond the waterfront on my visits to Halifax. It was cute, and 7 minutes later we had seen it, and were back in the car.

Peggy’s cove was our next stop. From 20 years ago, I remembered it being overrun with tourists and not worth the elbow to elbow shoving to get a photo of the distant lighthouse. With that memory in mind, I was pleasantly surprised by how charming it was! It wasn’t overly busy, and the sun was shining. We made some friends, popped into some shops and hit the road again.

Lunenberg: A town so nice we stopped there twice

Among the few things we had planned for this trip, a stop in Lunenberg was one of them. We had booked our second night’s stay close by based on recommendations (good recommendation, thank you to everyone!)

While it wasn’t an official plan, apparently seeing the Bluenose was on Jillian’s to do list. So that was our next stop.

We arrived in Lunenberg just in time to wander aboard before it closed at dusk (the rest of the town had already shut down because Sunday, and after 5pm).

We captured the requisite photos and walked the plank.

We had dinner at the Salt Shaker, and redeemed the sad lunch we’d eaten at the Halifax Wharf. With so much closed and daylight fading, we planned to come back through Lunenberg on our way back. The plan could of course, change, but we were feeling pretty solid about it!

Bridgewater: An efficient summary

Places to stay were limited in Lunenberg, so we had booked a ‘hotel’ in Bridgewater, a short drive away. The town had – you guessed it – a bridge, over water. Also, cute walkways over said bridges along the water, and a coffee shop. By 9 am the next morning, we had enjoyed and explored all this town had to offer.

It was just as well that Bridgewater wasn’t much of a draw, because we had places to go! Meals to eat! Sharks to prepare for!

We drove the Lighthouse route stopping for lighthouses, selfies and to (hopefully!) eat the world’s greatest clams.

By mid-afternoon we were ready for a break, so we washed down the poorly ranked clams with highly rated beer.

As we continued our drive, we found ourselves deep in Lobster country. And we made more friends.

We ended our trip in ‘downtown’ Yarmouth and grabbed dinner at Rudder’s seafood grill, where we also saw our first shark!

And for mom’s benefit, here’s what we ate ❤️

It was a big day, but we called it a night since tomorrow was going to be the biggest.

Please, let there be sharks!

Perhaps part of the reason we didn’t plan much of this trip was because we simply couldn’t plan the very most important piece: the sharks.

Could the trip be cancelled because of bad weather? Yep. Could we go all the way out and see no sharks? Absolutely. Could the whole trip’s purpose be totally unrealized? (No, because it would have still been a fun trip!).

Amazingly, none of this happened and the day was glorious and shark-filled. Like, ridiculously so.

The sun was shining when we packed our bags and traveled to the pier for pick up. Atlantic Shark Expeditions had seemed a little disorganized in the lead-up, but we quickly realized that it’s because this isn’t a tourist experience – it’s a reasearch boat, and the crew on it have work to do. The tourists tagging along (and paying the bills) are a secondary consideration to the sharks – and that was pretty amazing.

In our layered clothes and layered seasickness precautions, we hauled our heavy wetsuits to the ship. We’d been given cold water suits, boots, gloves and balaclava-type hats. It was a lot!

We sailed 90 minutes out from the port and thankfully, the water was pretty still. The skies were clear, the water was blue and no one was puking over the side of the ship. This had been a primary concern and I was grateful to have made the 90 minute journey with my breakfast still in tact!

With the boat settled out at sea, we practiced gearing up and descending in the cage. Down on the left, up on the right, 4 people at a time, and conveyer belt your way over as people get out. It’s not a full scuba experience, which was the best of both worlds, IMO. You got to be fully submerged, and could stay under as long as you wanted, but had the security of oxygen coming right from the boat, and the ability to get out in moments if you wanted.

The hardest part was that the water was COLD. Like Atlantic Ocean, COLD. Without taking your time going in, the brain freeze was real. And moving around while you were underwater caused water to trickle in through the seams of the suit (the back of the neck was a particular icy shock).

But, here’s the good news (or the ‘GREAT’ news) … it was SO WORTH IT. The waters were chilly, but also SHARK INFESTED. Like, seriously teeming with sharks.

Ok, here’s one more …

Over the course of the day we saw 7 different sharks, 3 of whom were new to the research team. Many of them paid our ship multiple visits and circled around and around for our viewing pleasure (the chunks of seal on offer may have had something to do with that). But regardless of their rationale, the research team confirmed that this was a significant amount of shark.

My day went a little something like this:

• Take a turn in the cage. Hope to see a shark up close. Through cloudy waters, observe that the bait and ship’s go-pro are moving vigorously, indicating that there are sharks nearby. See no sharks up close (except for one, not that close).
• Stand on the deck to point and squeal as the research team announces incoming and visible shark activity. Lean over the side of the boat to see them up close, and take many, many photos.
• Climb up to the top deck of the boat (my fave!) and help spot incoming sharks. IMO, the viewing was the best from up here, particularly in the shimmering afternoon sun.

Jillian’s day went something like this:

• Spend as much time in the cage as possible. Enjoy a front row seat to a solo performance of a shark swimming many, many laps in front of their face.
• Squeal from main deck as sharks appeared. Get to know the sharks by name. Sweetheart, Jude, Santiago (aka #3). Participate in the naming of Tuesday, one of the new members of the known-shark club.
• Eventually lose feeling in fingers and toes, put on dry clothes and visit me for the views from the top.

We helped!

We saw sharks, and it was pretty amazing. But what made this trip so memorable was learning about the work the team was doing to help them.

When we booked I hadn’t fully clocked that this wasn’t really a tourism play. The 10 tourist spots that were available each time the boat went out were primarily to fund research. This group was already responsible for deploying a non-invasive tagging system and it was amazing to hear about the findings they were generating. Just like us, they were there to see the sharks.

The intrepid crew were great at making sure we were having fun and comfortable, but with so many sharks in the water, they were also pretty busy!

They recorded data, named new sharks and took so much footage that we can’t wait to see.

They also told us that we were among less than 100 people who had gone cage diving in this area with Great White Sharks. Who knew? YOLO, indeed.

It was a great (Great White!) day!

Happy, freezing and pruning (but also with freakishly soft skin – note to self, investigate salt water plunges!) we had seen more sharks than we could have imagined, and it was time to head back to shore and make our way to a celebratory feast.

Full of sun, salt and seafood, we called it a night!

And that’s a wrap…

For our final day, we packed up our post-shark glow and made our way back to Halifax.

It had been a perfect adventure. A Shark Tale, one might say. 🦈