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headed up to vidal on friday after checking the weather report . dived in a strong SE with iffy water . dropped mike off at inside Oscar's . he missed a small snoek but got out after 20 min as water was churning . We were heading out to a do a few drifts off the point when he spotted a whale shark . after the usual " you swim with it , no you go " he jumped over and asked for a camera . i told him i would rather pass him a gun as pelagics often catch a free ride on the bow wave of the whale shark . again he shouted for a camera and again i told him i should rather give him a gun . next thing i know he is screeming for a gun . i threw him his 1.2 m freedivers railgun and saw him chase after the shark . he swam over it and put a shot through a Iggy that was swimming 1 m off the whale sharks pectorial fin . After a short fight he landed an iggy of 15.3 kilos ! last time i ever give up an oppertunity to swim with a whale shark ... headed in soon after that as conditions were not great .  vidal sat - viz not great at inside oscar's so trekked to Leven . really good viz on the outside but with a slight reverse current . not many fish around at all . i missed a snoek and saw 3 either cuta or snoek . mike got a 7kg cuta on the outside ledge . a brindle tried to eat it then a shark had a go at it . plenty sharks around ... managed to get a few good photos of 1 ... from about 3m away ! 3 other boats in the area with one or two fish between them . including rob allen on his boat . viz was top to bottom on the outside . not much happening so mike and i headed out to sea trollling . water was amazing , that deep purple tropical stuff . jumped off and took a few underwater shots that should come out cool . headed off to the point and drifted in 25m . top to bottom . wher we headed in we chatted to guys that were also diving leven . they headed to deep oscar's and found fish . shot 1 cuta around 10kgs , lost a wahoo and shot a 56kg sailfish !!! it swam up to his flasher ... looks like we headed in the wrong direction . thay were hasseled by a few hungry tigers though . sharks - plenty around but did not hassel us too much . we saw a huge grey , zambie and even a fat female raggie on the inside about 2 km from leven point . paddy - always a joy watching him launch , but this time all went ok . he did a bit of patch work on his hull on friday and claimed that it was as strong as ever . when we went to the point he headed for deep oscar only to find that his patch work was not so great . his fuel bottles were floating in his hatch ! he limped into shore and half an hour later water was still running out the hull . RIP DUC 221 . All in all a great time . The sea on Sat was amazing . Purple in colour and as calm and glassy as can be . Pity we did not head up to Deep Oscar's as there could have been a chance of greatness ... Sav
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