Wetsuits are not the most flattering piece of fabric ever created, just saying. But true, it did keep me warmer than the J.Crew bathing suit I was wearing under the spandex-tight, meant-for-a-taller-person wetsuit. I was less nervous than my mother (It was the fourth time she texted me: "If you don't feel safe, don't go!") even though she was the one sunning on a striped towel on the Nantucket Beach and I was about to go shark cage diving. We (Katie, Jane (her madre), ML, and I) were all zipped up, waiting for the bait to attract the Great White sharks...dun dun dun. Be scared. Ha, jokes, you don't need to be scared--the four of us would join four other curious people in a metal cage attached to our 30-person boat and from there the "unknown" would take place. And by the "unknown" I mean we would bob above the water and when a shark would jet towards the floating bait near the cage a man on the boat would scream in an undeniably Afrikaans accent "Shark on your right!" And down we'd go--our heads fully submerged under the water, our eyes bulging in the hope of catching a glance of sharks' ferocity that has been portrayed in so many movies.
You may foolishly be thinking "Gosh, Katie's so brave. I could never go shark cage diving!" You flatter me. I purposely wedged myself between Katie and ML so I wouldn't be on the edge of the shark cage--at least then I could insure that I'd have some kind of buffer if the worst occured...sorry, Katie! Within 10 minutes of floating in the 12 degree water and after a mini underwater photo shoot in our scuba gear with ML's snazzy waterproof camera, I heard "Shark! Shark on your left" through my water-clogged ear. I clutched the designated hand bar and sunk my head underwater. I couldn't see a thing--the visibility in the water was terribly fuzzy and filled with random airbubbles. Then suddenly the shark's tail whipped the side of the cage and dove by the front of the cage, just missing the bait by a few inches! It was at least 12 feet long and wider than two barrels. It's pointy teeth could have been featured on a Crest commercial--they reflected the beams of light while the shark's jaw flexibly swung open like a backyard fence.
We reinacted this process 12 times in 30 minutes! This water was literally swimming with sharks. Back on deck, un-wetsuited and in dry clothing, a cheese and tomato sandwich brought me back to reality: I'd just been face to face with 12 sharks and the only thing protecting me were a few metal bars.
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