By now, Craig had set up his equipment numerous times after his initial diving course with me over 2 months ago. We were on Moc-Che Deep, a wall dive bottoming out in sand at 100 feet. With nutrient-rich currents passing overhead, the wall is covered in numerous different types of hard and soft corals. Craig, a local land developer/party animal, and I had dove this wall a few times. For us, it was just a “swim through the park”, so to speak. We shared the boat out with another group of divers who had never been here before, so we geared up quick.

After our buddy check was complete, we sat up on the edge of the boat prepared to roll in. I glanced around at the other divers fumbling around with their equipment, and I felt very proud of my ex-student, poised across from me ready to adventure down to the depths with me again….excited as hell!!!

With one glance at Jorge our captain and I knew we were on the mark. “Craig, you ready?”

And with a nod I knew he was locked and loaded!!! “THREE, TWO, ONE- GO!!!” , I ordered.

SPLASH!!!!!

I bobbed up to see the boat glide pass and Craig’s eyes peering with glee out from his mask. I gave him one signal: Thumb Down”. And with that, he knew it was time to let the air out of the jackets and get started equalizing our way to the bottom.

The current was quite brisk today, stronger than he had ever been diving in. In a flash, my mind pulled up the diving history with our friend Craig. We had had a strong current while diving Tortugas reef before, and an even stronger one at the shipwreck, “Mama Vina”. We descended to the top of the reef sitting in 75 feet of water at a “break-neck” speed of what seemed like 100 MPH….but was actually maybe 3 MPH. But when you can’t stop, and it pushes you through time and space; you just hang there and things are flying past you… it can all be a bit breathtaking!

We hung close to the wall, midway down, allowing Craig to work on his photography skills. I went over the top of the wall to be a subject to Craig’s photograph. As he made final adjustments to his camera, I looked out into the sandy bottom and watched the current rip over head picking up the sand in plumes. It reminded me of dust storms often seen out west with the tumbling weeds going by. In currents like this, smaller fish seek shelter behind big barrel sponges and others stay slammed up against the wall. This was great for Craig’s pictures, giving him plenty of different subjects and angle opportunities. He had no idea what was about to become his subject.

We drifted past the first and largest section of Moc-Che wall. I flipped upside down to check on Craig. “There he is, right where he’s supposed to be” , I thought.

The current was really wisking us along now. We were drifting parallel to the other group who had shared the boat with us. Their guide was leading them into shallower water, knowing that one of his divers was low on air. I signed to Craig to check his air pressure. He signed back that he had a third of a tank left. At 100 feet…we could stay about another 8 minutes. The other section other the wall was coming up in sight. Usually the visibility of the water here is 80-100 foot in any direction, but today the currents had really picked up sand and particles decreasing the visibility to about 50 foot..almost reduced in half! And close to the bottom, it was down to less than 15 feet viz!

The other group now at the top of wall, drifted out of sight. I kept my attention to the blowing sands….watching…..knowing that if there were something….something BIG….it too would be swimming just over the bottom. And then out of the cloudy blue appeared a male Bull Shark!!! I clanged on my tank a few times, made a fin sign over my head and took off after the shark. He was swimming against the current and gliding just inches over the bottom heading towards the next big drop-off, “el Cantil”. I was finning across the current a slower pace as to not scare him off. At the same time, I was picking up hands full of sand and tossing them up into the water . I had noticed in earlier dives with Bull Sharks, that they were attracted to the sand that was kicked up by the larger rays feeding. Rays being one of the Bull Shark’s food sources, he was drawn straight to us!

At this moment, time freezes and becomes fast and excited, and is like slow motion all at the same time. I look quickly over my shoulder while continuing to make my way over the sand in chase of the shark…. “There he is, my dive buddy Craig, right where he’s supposed to be.”

Craig had his camera out and ready to shoot the “Big Boy”. He knew I was after a shark. He had heard me tell tales of such large sharks and today was his day. Just then, then shark turned completely around to face us.
I instinctively slammed my hand behind a rock stopping me from drifting. Craig reacted but failed to grab the rock. I extend my body and threw a hand up towards him. He held on while I helped pull him to the rock.

Once I knew he was secure I focused my attention on the shark who had now taken quite an interest in us. “Bearing: 20 ft-18ft.-15ft.”….RED ALERT…Attention: note to Jason…HE’S GETTING CLOSER!!!

Just then, something else caught the 9 foot shark’s attention. He turned and swam downstream back out into the blowing sands. We released our hand hold and drifted together closely behind the shark. “Check your air”, I signed. He gave me an OK sign to continue my “Shark Hunter of the Deep” escapade, and we drift along behind the shark. I saw some flashes going off, I knew he was trying his hardest to capture the moment. Just as our time was about to be up, I finally saw what the shark was after….A little turtle who had obviously lost his way while crossing the stormy, sandy flats from the deep abyss.

For a split second we stayed with the shark and poor turtle. Heaven only knows what happen to the little turtle after we left. Craig and I headed up to the safety stop. As we hung there, motionless, killing three minutes to off-gas…..we exchanged huge smiles! Finally after listening to all my stories, Craig had been face to face with one of our largest predators of the coast here, the ellusive Bull Shark. Once we broke the surface he started raving about what an amazing experience….with good reason. He was so revved up over the dive, it was incredible! “Only on Discovery!”, I reminded him, “Very few people get to witness them in “stealth” mode…hunting like that!”

The sun hadn’t even come up, and I had been half dozing in the front seat of a freezing transport van headed down some of the roughest roads from hell. Until finally we arrived in Chilquila, the port town where boats and ferries depart for Isla Holbox. Just another trip which I was the guide on. And a sleepy one. But I knew I would spark to life as soon as we were on the water.

Why would anyone want to wake up at 3 am in the morning to make a trip from Playa del Carmen, across the Yucatan to the North, and go to Isla Holbox? Isla Holbox is a national park and game reserve. The island itself offers tidy accommodations on very quiet white beaches. In the interior of the island, it turns into saltwater flats where you can see baby spotted eagle rays, flamingos and various other types of wildlife. You can even fly fish here for bonefish and permit. But the real excitement lies offshore. Roughly 30 miles towards Cuba and we run into and area where two major currents converge creating a thick plankton belt. Here you can find schools of sardines and shrimps near the surface. Now…where you find these three things you will also find their three biggest predators….dolphins, manta rays, and of course….WHALESHARKS!!! and lots of them! Massive 45 footers to 8 foot babies. And they all are feeding together from dawn until about 12 pm. So you had to get there early!

We jet across a bay to the outside or windward side of the island. This is where the park check-in pier is. And boy was it a bustling pier at 8 am in the morning! Our Mexican contact “Elvis”…no kiddin’… a Mexican with the legal name Elvis… helped get us checked in and some coffee then we were off. As we got under way, I hand out water and croissants for breakfast, and Elvis informed all the guests about the whalesharks and the Do’s and Don’ts with the gentle beasts. After about 2 hours of skimming along in the green, flat Gulf of Mexico I went to the spotters tower with my camera. This was a birds-eye view where I could spot not only schools of fish or creel but I could see manta rays swimming under the surface.

“Dolphins…9 o’clock!!!”, I shout. The captain slows the boat and turns the nose to the right. There were probably 8-10 with a couple of young males jumping and playing…It was quite a sight!!! After maybe 20 minutes of watching them I reminded the guest we still had bigger things to see. We turned the boat back towards the East and powerful twin engines roared to life. I took my perch again and took out the camera. I knew with those dolphins, the whalesharks wouldn’t be far behind. And just like that out of the blue, to the left and to the right there were multiple fins leaning out of the water. Sometimes two or three together. The captain slowed the boat down immediately! You wouldn’t want to hit one of these giants in a boat ant any speed! Elvis helps everyone into their equipment as I video a whaleshark as long as our 32 foot boat passing with in feet of the bow swimming around to the stern. If there was anyone still half dozing on the boat…they were up and wide awake now!

Over the next three hours, me and my guest enjoyed swimming right up next to the world’s largest fish. I would go with 2 guest at a time to snorkel over and view the shark up close and personal! Since this is a national park, most the whalesharks have tags with numbers on them. There have been roughly 500 whalesharks tagged. Some even had satellite GPS beacons tagged to them. I was surprised and honored when Elvis asked me for footage of the tags for research use. I was helping the animals in an indirect way and the people who study them.

But the best part of my day was seeing the smiling faces on everyone, regardless of nationality, having fun together. The experience shared by all will be remembered by all forever. And the ride back wasn’t bad either. After swimming my butt off with a video camera in hand…holding my breath, diving under the whaleshark…for three hours….I would fall asleep back by the humming engines on the 2 hour ride back to Isla Holbox. We all made a quick bathroom break and we were off again. Back across the bay to the awaiting transport van where Elvis bid us all farewell, and we piled into the van. Everyone completely destroyed from the day’s activities, we all fell asleep for the 3 hour ride back to Playa del Carmen. Back in the cozy town of Playa, we all said our good byes, knowing that with us we took the memory of one of the greatest adventures of our lives.

Join me on a Fantasea Dive whale shark tour!