Diving with Great Whites

In 2004 to celebrate our 40th wedding anniversary, Peter and I went cage diving with great white sharks off of Guadalupe Island. Guadalupe is a volcanic island located 150 miles off the west coast of Mexico's Baja California Peninsula. Great white sharks gather here each year before migrating to an area in the Pacific Ocean dubbed “the White Shark Cafe” by Barbara Block, renowned marine biologist with Hopkins Marine Station.

Over the years of diving with Peter, I was always the last person to get in the cage during a film production and my dream was to have days in a cage to be up close and personal with great whites. The trip was wildly successful. It was thrilling to see three, sometimes four, sleek, gorgeous great white females cruising within feet of our cage.  At one moment I was easily able to reach out and touch a great white – head to tail it felt smooth like leather and, going the other way, rough as sand paper. Some day I would love to go again!