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Helen and I went to Hornby with our friend Dan, who's family has a cabin near Whaling Station Bay. Our vacation was fabulous and we went snorkelling/freediving every day we were there. The water there was a bit cooler than usual on the first few days (still warm enough for a single steamer) but remarkably clear. Visibility at the surface was about 20 feet. Lots of fish too!

The big highlight of the trip for me at least was that I got to see my first sixgill shark! Sixgills are a very deep water shark that live all over the world. However, they are only known to come up to diveable depths (~100ft) in two locations. One is in Alberni Inlet and the other is just off Flora Islet which is off the southern tip of Hornby. The local dive resort really works the sixgill angle. In fact this year there is a barge off the coast where they charge rich Americans over $4000us a shot to go down to look for the sharks in a submersible. Well I figure I saved a whole bunch of money. We used Dan's dinghy to go to Flora and I managed to see a shark without even scuba gear!

The diving was a bit disconcerting at the time though because it was quite windy and there were white caps forming. The surface visibility was also poor and didn't clear up until past 30 feet. I used my 80 foot float line as a descent reference and anchored it with an extra weight belt just off the first mooring buoy that the dive boats use. The water was rough enough that I kept losing sight of the buoy on the swim out. The current was also pushing me beyond the buoy so by the time I finally anchored where I wanted to I was not relaxed. I was also pretty much by myself since Dan & Helen were sticking to shallower and calmer water about 25m away. By holding on to my float line and closing my eyes I was able to relax and make modest decents.

This was my third year freediving for sixgill sharks. The first year was a few months after Dan Hodgins had given me a freediving lesson in Cayman. That year I was making it down about 60 feet. The next year, maybe 65 to 70 feet. Over the past few months diving with Eric & Co. I've managed double my range to 140 feet. But back on Flora though, I still kept stopping in the 60 to 70 foot range. It was just as well though since I had virtually no safety. Once I bottomed out though I felt comfortable just hanging mid water and scanning the ledges below me for any kind of movement.

On about the fourth or fifth descent I got lucky. As usual I kept my eyes on the descent line and wall until about 60 feet to keep streamlined and from there started to look where I was going. (I wouldn't want to accidentally bump into a ten foot shark!) When I looked up and passed the rim of the next ledge there it was almost right in front of me. I almost couldn't believe my eyes because I've been looking for these darn things for so long. I would say it was about 7 feet long and less than 10 feet below me, heading lazily along the next ledge down. It was darker than I expected since all photos I have seen have been from the side and I was mostly above it. Sixgills have pronounced lower jaws, no dorsal fin and a long tail fin. I could see the lighter skin of the corner of its jaw and from my angle it looked like it was smiling as it cruised below me. I didn't approach any closer and it kept to its course as if it didn't notice me. My gauge read 69 feet. I watched it cruise out of sight along the wall and headed up.

At the surface I started yelling "Shark! Shark!" and was whooping it up. Dan was close enough for me to tell him about the dive. Just then he had a close to nature experience as a seal surfaced just in front of him. He'll tell you that it's very unnerving to have a large gray sea creature surface in front of you when being told about sharks in the area.

I made two more drops after that. The bottom was just as it had been before, very quiet and no sign of any sharks. After we got in to shore for lunch the winds calmed and the sea flattened out.