It was the last day of our scuba diving Open Water course and I would probably rank it as one of the top 10 days in my life. I still can’t believe it really took place, it did indeed feel like it was a bit too good to be true and I feel extremely privileged and lucky to have experienced that day.

I was up at 5:45 because we were going to get out on the water before the wind started getting too strong. We were going down to 18m, to see a shipwreck. The ship had actually been a part of the D-Day attacks in Normandy under WW2. It was time to do something I had never done before…again…

Here’s Helena and I getting ready for our dive

There were a bunch of guys who had just qualified to become instructors at the dive ‘club’ where we were taking our course, so they were going to come with us on the boat. After getting all our gear together and setting out the boat, all 14 of us were ready to go!

After a quick briefing on the boat, the count went 1, 2, 3 and back we rolled into the water.

We definitely weren’t, but we really felt we looked quite professional 🙂 

We had to go under water quite quickly after we rolled into the water and so down, down and down we went and suddenly my computer read 18 metres!

Once we got down, our instructor, Carel, made us do one more skill before we could explore the wreck. We were to take our masks off completely. We still get to breathe from our regulators while we take our masks off, but there’s something about removing that mask which is very uncomfortable. So it took a lot of courage to remove the mask from my face and I was feeling a bit panicky. The important thing when you’re under water and you’re feeling a bit uncomfortable or feeling a bit of panic, is just to take deep and long breaths. So I was clinging on to Carel trying to regain my breath and suddenly every thing was fine again. After that moment, I just enjoyed every moment of my dive, seeing some of the following animals 🙂

There I am with an enormous jellyfish (Carel knew the name of all the things we saw under water, but a bit complicated to remember so I’ll just stick to enormous jellyfish) 

Here’s a special kind of nudibranch 

The orange and white ‘thing’ is a nudibranch and so is the purple and yellow ‘thing’. Nudibranchs are those snails and slugs that live under water

A fish with an awesome eye

A funny looking worm

Carel’s amazing photography skills! 

After a great 30 minute dive down at 18m, up we went to change our air tanks and then down we went again to do some more exploring on the shipwreck. We stayed down for another 30 minutes before we were out of air.

We then went back to land and had a small break because we had been asked to come with on a shark dive!!! It isn’t normally a part of the course, but Pisces Divers were so kind to us that Helena and I were allowed to tag along. We were going to dive with sharks; no cage, no special protection, just me and the shark – ahh!

But oh my, was it so aaamazing!! 

Yes, we were this close to the shark!!! 

The kind of shark we swam with is called a 7-gill spotted cow shark.

I still can’t believe this big looking shark swam right in front of my nose! 

We saw about 10 sharks, and lots more sea creatures. After about 30 minutes, we were getting low on air, so unfortunately we had to go up. I could’ve swam with those sharks for ever and ever – it was just such a truly amazing experience!

How cool to see ‘cow shark‘ under the ‘Comments’ section! 🙂 

I hope I can get in a couple more dives here in Cape Town before I leave, because I’ve already fallen in love with scuba diving. Despite the cold water, everything about scuba diving is so fun, thrilling, and exciting!

We had officially passed our course and it had just been such an incredible day! A big thank you to Pisces Divers and Carel for the unforgettable experience; it’s a day that won’t ever be forgotten and I hope I get lots more joy and great days from scuba diving!

– Anna