Message in a Bottle
My "Messages in a Bottle" ramblings started out as informal accounts to my family and friends of my trips and encounters on my travels as a cameraman. Some were then featured in the local village magazine back home in Norfolk where my parents are based. I thought to include them here as they are a pretty humbling reminder of my journey to where I am today quite frankly and full on very fond memories.
They may not be in any particular order or follow any particular thread but follow real accounts from what I can remember best.
Free to Roar Once More
Californian Bull Sealion - La Paz Mexico
My journey, like all my travels, began as I packed up the last of my underwater filming and dive equipment in my adopted home city of Kota Kinabalu (KK), East Malaysia and drove to the international airport. A series of long flights took me from the island of Borneo through Taiwan, onto Los Angeles and then into Mexico. There then followed a world record 12 hour immigration and visa wait before I could proceed with my final internal flight to the Mexican seaport of La Paz on the southern tip of the Baja California. Finally a 30 minute minibus ride brought me to Club Cantamar dive resort, my hosts and guides for the next few days of underwater filming. I looked at my watch, it had been nearly 56 hours since I left KK and I had slept all of 1-2 hours maximum on the cramped flights. I quickly unpacked before crashing out on the clean sheets of the bed.
The next morning I rose quickly and completed the final prep of my filming equipment before heading to the dive boat. To date I have many thousand filming dives under my weight belt however each and every new dive adventure has me as excited as if it was my first and that day was no different. Even with the best planning and research into every trip and film project you just never really know what you will finally encounter and what will transpire before your very eyes and camera, nature is nature after all!
I shook hands with my dive guide and discuss the best filming possibilities before we quickly decided upon a nearby Californian sealion colony. The 30 minute boat ride out was a pleasure all in itself as we were accompanied by playful spinner and bow-riding bottlenose dolphins. Fin whales lazed in the crystal clear waters to our port side and billfish and stingrays jumped in the distance, as the local fishermen say “everything seems to jump for joy in the Sea of Cortez”.
At last I was at my final destination and donned wetsuit, fins, mask and dive tank before slipping into the water. My dive guide lead the way over to the edge of the sealion colony where male and female Californian sealions were either basking in the sun on the nearby rocks or playfully swimming around the waters edge. Once in the water sealions are truly beautiful, balletic and graceful however there is no mistaking their underlying muscular power. I adjusted my camera settings and was already filming when I noticed a large Californian sealion that seemed to be entangled in an old anchor rope. The rope had become wrapped around his midriff and trailed behind him threatening to become entangled even further. My dive guide tried to approach and cut the trailing rope, from the bull sealion’s body, with his dive knife as it continued to swim around us. However after repeated attempts my guide could just not get hold of the rope to make the necessary freedom giving cut. Suddenly the bull sealion dived and headed straight at me, and my camera. I had a split second to make a decision and whilst still filming with my right hand I reached out as the bull passed by, within inches of me, and grabbed hold of the trailing rope with my left. What then followed was a short underwater speed tow with my camera and I being pulled along behind the now enraged bull sealion. On realising the extra weight of the unwitting hitchhiker (me) the bull sealion burst from the water in a single powerful porpoise jump, and I realized it was now or never and pulled with all my might on the rope. The sealion crashed back into the water and as the clouds of air bubbles cleared in its wake I watched on as bull sealion steamed off in one direction leaving the rope behind to float in the water, with me still holding on with my left hand and filming with my right. The whole event was caught on camera as well as being burned indelibly upon my memory. As I was gathering up the offending rope the bull sealion returned and rather than thank me fro his renewed freedom he squared right up to my face, bared all his teeth and roared his displeasure from all of 1ft away. Enough was enough for one day I thought and returned happily to the dive boat with my guide, some pretty incredible film and one of my most memorable marine encounters to date.
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