Wednesday 11 March – swimming with a whale shark

We were up at 4:30am which was a bit of a shock, we were picked up by a local boat at 5am. This local company had come highly recommended on our NFL App and Rowan’s communication with him was excellent. He had asked us if it was ok for a family of 4 to join us which we said was fine, and then another couple, so there were 10 of us in the end. The big wooden boat was very well kitted out and full of cheerful staff. We were picked up last, the family and couple were all tucked up in blankets with heads on pillows, it was still pitch dark. We motored for nearly an hour and came to an area with a whole lot of squid boats out, I think they look like the water boatman insects with their big outriggers on either side held up with loads of ropes to the mast. We saw one boat flashing its lights and we were soon heading towards it. With the first light coming through we could see the big gaping mouth of the whale shark, the fishermen on the boat were chucking out krill and what looked like chopped up fish with a hose of water. The shark just hung there with his mouth open, it was huge about 8ms long. It wasn’t long before Rowan was first in, the guy in charge was saying we could wait for better light and there was no rush. I followed Rowan shortly and we had a magical time with just the two of us and this big beast, we couldn’t help but get really close to it, he was totally unfazed by us. I was slightly less relaxed about getting so close initially, but soon realised it was absolutely fine. Rowan’s photos are amazing, the shark was so big it was seldom Rowan could fit the whole shark into the frame. The shark would hand vertically down with the food pouring into his mouth and then every so often he would do a circuit. Grant and Judith came in and quite a while later the French family came in, who rather spoilt the magical moment as the kids screamed and yelled which meant a lot more commotion with so many in the water. But the shark seemed totally undisturbed about all the swimmers. It was slightly disappointing there was only one, but in many ways it was easier to focus on. The water was so murky you could only notice him when he was about 10ms away. We finally dragged ourselves out, the smell was getting a little fishy and no shower on board. The boat provided some strong local coffee, fruit and snacks. It was an amazing experience even if a little canned as these sharks are obviously used to being fed, just hope it has not long term effects on their migration and breeding. It really was worth all the effort to get here. Around 8:30am the driver asked if we would mind him going to rescue another boat with tourists on whose engine had failed, they were only 5 minutes away, they got towed to our fishing boat where they got tied on so they were not drifting. It was a smaller boat with about 20 people on it, we were pleased we were not in the water with all of them. The fishing boat was apparently going to get the failed engine started. I would not have wanted to be those guests, it all looked a bit ropey, I hope they got back ok. The Belgium couple with us said they recognised most of the people from their hotel, and they had nearly gone on that boat. They had a lucky escape. It is pretty remote out here.

We set off back to PolePole, the driver wanted to take us for a swim at some coral, but our time is running short and Rowan wants us to get a bit further west today. It was a big dogleg down to get here. We were back on PolePole just after 9am. Engines on and we were off motoring out of the Sumbawa bay heading west. We had light squalls and showers every now and then which we appreciated as it cooled us down. We finally got to some little islands just off the main land where we tucked behind for the night. We could see the big volcano of Lombok in front of us. There was a nice breeze blowing which kept us cool. Once again we were all in bed early after that really early morning start.