5 go Whale Shark Watching

We have now been on St Helena for almost a year, it is hard to believe as in some ways that year has gone very quickly, we have experienced so many things in that time and made new friends, we feel very lucky to be here. in other ways it has gone very slowly as we miss our family and friends.
Summer has finally arrived on St Helena and we are making the most of it! The pool has opened and is a welcome relief after school/work and at the weekends. The kids live outside most of the time and we are now grateful that ‘the country’ is a bit cooler than Jamestown.
Last week we had a bank holiday as the RMS St Helena left on her final voyage, she had served St Helena for 27 years as the only access to the island for passengers and freight. There were parades and events on all weekend.  Now there is airport access she has been de-commissioned. The RMS will be greatly missed by the Island. We will miss the sound of her horn as she arrives, the buzz in town on ship day and the sight of her moored in Jamestown harbour. We were fortunate to be able to take a tour on her before she left as part of the celebrations, Matt and I also attended a cocktail party the ship on my birthday, which will always be a great memory (Matt tried to tell me he had arranged the whole thing!).
The Whale sharks arrived a few weeks ago, we have been on 3 boat trips now to see them and they are one of the most amazing, huge and gentle creatures I have ever seen. It’s quite freaky getting in the Ocean to swim with them, it doesn’t help that the first time I did, I pretty much jumped on top of one, freaked out and promptly jumped back out of the water!!
I have calmed down now though and yesterday enjoyed a swim alongside a whale shark, they are so graceful when they swim, a few Remora fish hanging on to them for the ride. We were advised not to swim in front of them which is fine until they turn straight for you and then it’s a mad dash to get out of the way, not that they would hurt you, but when 12 metres of shark is heading for you it’s probably best!!
Matt got some great video footage on the Go Pro as he swam with the whale sharks, a great memory for us to have (especially as I deleted some video footage by mistake the week before!).
We tried getting Ruby in the water as she was desperate to see the whale sharks and she did jump in off the boat on two occasions, both times losing a fin in the process! She didn’t quite pluck up the courage to swim with a whale shark though. Archie and Isaac haven’t wanted to go in with them, however, the whale sharks put on quite a display even from the boat, so they have at least seen them.
We are going on our mid-term leave in less than 2 weeks now and I can’t tell you how excited we are! We are going to spend 10 days in Cape Town followed by 5 weeks in the UK, we have so many lovely things planned and so many people to see that I know time will wizz by; but we will be making the most of it and will fit in as many people as we can. Cooper will be spending a bit of time with his mummy whilst we are away which I know he will love!

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