activity tailing off

Another ripper of a day, weather-wise. We started out early this morning and got ourselves nicely stuck on a sandbar in the Mzimvubu Estuary. The large swell four days ago shifted tons of sand over the thin barrier beach into the estuary. This has made the passage through the estuary to the sea very tricky indeed. Luckily a crew of Ukrainians, courtesy of Scuba Addicts of Umkomaas, helped us push off. A big thank you to you guys. Passage through the surf is also very tricky because of the shallow sand banks in the surf zone. Rod, however, is a master at launching and it wasn’t long before we were out.
The sardine run activity calmed down an awful lot today. Our research has shown that gannet feeding activity is highest immediately following cold fronts, when strong winds present feeding difficulties for them. Following the severe double front, and then another one for good measure, last week, we’ve had excellent sardine run activity, but it has been gradually decreasing every day. We’re almost looking forward to the next blow, in the hope that it’ll stir things up again. There’re plenty of fish around – they are visible on the fish finder and the common dolphins are forming lots of small feeding pockets. Our best baitball today contained about 40 common dolphins and plenty of birds – they were really churning up the water with the bubbles from their dives. There were also quite a few sharks, mostly bronze whalers. Water clarity was an issue, though.
Included below are some images taken by John Costello (who owns the Outspan Inn) of Rod skippering his boat through massive sea last Monday. Justin can be clearly seen clinging on to the rails up front, no doubt feeling like he’s in a roller coaster ride.