I screwed up my courage and went on a two tank dive to swim with the sharks. I did it with a group and a dive master. Nancy and eight other cruisers came for snorkeling and there were 4 of us for the dives. The dive boat was a power cat that took us to Kicking Rock but first we went into a cove where we the divers did a 10 minute checkout to be sure our weights and equipment worked. About 40 minutes later we got to the dive site and put on all our equipment. We needed thick neoprene dive suits because the water is very cold from the Humbolt Current which comes up from South America. Once we were in, no time was lost and we were going down to 60 feet. The visability was not great and as we descended the water got really cold. We did see Galapagos Sharks that were maybe 8 feet long. They weren't interested in us and stayed maybe 30 to 40 feet away. One of our group was very frightened and had great trouble regulating his depth and before anyone knew what happened he was nowhere to be found. He was my buddy and I was quite upset. Our dive master and we waited a few minutes for him to reappear and when he didn't we continued on. To my surprise he didn't go up to the surface to find him and bring him back. Not real strict supervision here! We surfaced maybe 20 minutes later and I had some trouble swimming against a strong current to get back to the boat. I couldn't get my breath. Our buddy had surfaced, couldn't reconnect, and the boat had spotted him and picked him up.

After lunch, we went to swim with the hammerhead sharks. I was told they didn't like eating divers either. I would have been happy to return but put on my gear and went over the side again. Down we went and there they were! These were bigger and I could only see them vaguely as the water visibility was maybe 40 feet. By this time I was very cold and tired and just content to stay with the group and wait it out. We finally surfaced and again on the surface I had some difficulty catching my breath. I finally realized that what I was experiencing was asthma and that my new antihypertensive medicine was making it much worse than I had experienced previously. By the time I got out of the water I was cold, beat and happy to be going back! We don't have an underwater camera and that's now on our list to purchase when we get the next opportunity.

We plan to move the boat to Santa Cruz tomorrow, which is 45 miles to the west, and we have been strongly urged to put a stern anchor out because this harbor is unprotected and a large swell is anticipated. More to follow!