We recently bumped into Chris and Monique Fallows from Apex Shark Expeditions. Chris is one of the leading authorities on Great White shark behaviour, and, along with Monique, runs a blog with some of the best shark photos you can find! They've facilitated many international shark documentaries over the years, including the lead show on Discovery's Shark Week 2010 - Ultimate Air Jaws. They send out a regular newsletter, and in it was the beautiful photo above.
Here's what Monique had to say about the storm:
Chris & I are definitely closet storm chasers! Whilst bad weather means we have to cancel trips we do hope that when this happens the weather is bad enough to make it exciting if we have to be stuck on land. Chris spends a lot of time watching the weather and is good at predicting exciting and wild approaching storms by looking at wind and swell strength, direction and height, as well as the intensity and length of the blow, state of the tides etc.
This past Easter weekend a big high pressure system approached Cape Town and with a big southerly swell and spring tide it looked like a Kalk Bay Harbour lashing was in the making. Chris always likens any possible storm to the last 'biggie' of Easter 1993 and ironically this was Easter weekend 2003, 20 years later. It is very seldom that Spring tide, the right direction of a big swell and gale force S-SE winds all line up together but it looked good for this past weekend.
It can be hugely spectacular when all these elements come together. Big winds will build the swell further and as the waves crash against the harbour wall amazingly wild and exciting sights can be seen.
So, after watching the weather predictions for a few days Chris & I were really excited to see what Easter Saturday would bring. The sea did not disappoint as we watched nature at its wildest and dramatic best, with 80knot gusts being recorded at Cape Point with a 4.5m Southerly short period swell, no boats were damaged in the storm. Although not nearly as spectacular in the end as the Easter '93 storm it was still probably in the top 10 biggest in the past 20 years in terms of spectacular Kalk Bay harbour bashings.
To see the Apex Shark Expeditions blog, visit www.apexpredators.com
Some of my favourite posts in their blog:
http://www.apexpredators.com/blog/great-whites-mindless-killers-or-very-...
http://www.apexpredators.com/blog/shark-photos.html