November
Dates for Mozambique: 8.4.-22.4. 2013 an d 10.5.-24.5. 2013
30.11. 2012
End of the month again. It goes so quick, we might as well give it an abreviation. EOM, maybe ? Anyway, there is nothing much exciting to report from Protea Banks.
Diving has been mediocre lately, no current, vis 10m and hardly any sunshine. Sharks are also pretty scarce at the moment. But it will improve soon as it always does….
23.11. 2012
Weird conditions the last couple of days with reverse current and damn cold water. Top half 22C and bottom half only 17C. Therefore the bottom is crystal clear with lots of potato bass and 22 Raggies in and around the caves.
Midwater is very murky but we had a small group of about 20 hammerheads. Briefly saw a tiger.
Baited dive had 5 black tips.
As so often we are running against the wind these days. Starting at 6h00 in the morning to ensure we get at least two dives in before it gets too wild. Sunday again seems hopelessly blown out….much needed rest day…
20.11. 2012
After another whopper dive day yesterday where we truely encountered an estimated 1000 hammerheads plus ( !!!) we had a rather disappionting day today.
First dive produced about 20 hammerheads and the second dive no sharks at all.
Vis was down to below 10m, current very slow and water pretty cool.
I am reporting this to show that mother nature can also have an ugly side. In order to avoid disappointment we always recommedn strongly to plan several dive days for every dive site, no matter where in the world.
Tomorrow conditions will change again….
18.11. 2012
A perfect day for diving. Sunny weather, no wind, calm seas and visibility of about 20m. We did three dives today and each dive had over 1000 hammerheads. I know this is hard to believe, but there were hammerheads just everywhere throughout the 40+ minute dives. We even had a school of Duskys which i ever only saw recenly before.
I had a tiger shark, lots of black tips and a Great Hammerhead as well.
Today was one of those rare days which will be remembered by all involved.
16.11. 2012
After a quiet shark day yesterday we are back to normal today. Vis 20m, gentle current, weather overcast and watertemp 22C. 50 – 80 Hammerheads, 1 Zam, 7 Black Tips, 5 Guitarsharks.
Baited Dive : 1 Zam, 1 Dusky and 4 Black Tips. Sharks came very close the the divers but were beautifully relaxed. Super dive.
8.11. 2012
All the hammerheads of the oceans are meeting on Protea Banks these days. We see hundreds and really thousands of animals. It is outrageing.
We’re floating in the water and are mesmerized by these sharks. We don’t want the dive to end, it is just such a happy feeling…
7.11. 2012
What a hammer of a day. We dropped in at the Southern Pinnacle of Protea Banks and straight away encountered hammerheads. This carried on throughout the dive. Hammers and more. At some stage there was one Great Hammer which was a monster of a shark. Came within 5m of our group. Vis was 25m.
Besides this we had 1 dusky, 3 black tips, 3 eaglerays and 11 guitar sharks.
Afterwards we discussed the possible number of the scalopped hammers. Most divers agreed that it must have been at least 2000 animals. My theory is this :
Every minute of the dive we saw at least 100 hammerheads. We dived 45 minutes, so take a few minutes off , we saw about 40 x 100 hammerheads= 4000.
No-one will ever know the right number, but it was a lot !!!
Second dive North Caves of Protea Banks. 4 raggies left, 1 x tiger shark and 1 x black tip.
3.11. 2012
Although we all knew that there are several hundred hammerheads on the Southern Pinnacle of Protea Banks, the divers decided to dive the Northern Pinnacle with the Caves. It was surely a dive for real divers with screaming current which, combined with wind, pushed the boat close to one kilometer just while we kitted up. But everybody made it safely to the caves and exactly to plan back to the boat. The divers were extatic about the beauty of the under water land scape on the North Side. They saw 4 raggies in 25m vis. Water temp was a pleasant 22C.
2.11. 2012
Finally we could manage to get out to the reef for the first time this week. The sea was still a bit wobbley but the vis was not bad at 20m, temp 22C and a light current. First dive on the Southern Pinnacle of Protea Banks had 150 scalopped hammerheads, 3 great hammerheadsm 5 black tips, 4 guitarsharks, 1 school of barracudas and good, old billybob steinberg, our potato bass.
Second dive was a Baited Dive. The guys had 6 black tips on the bait and 18 hammerheads slowly moving past checking out what the hell these diver were up to again…Great day of diving.