Caribbean Sea – Between Cuba and Florida

In the movie NYAD about Diana Nyad and her 110-mile solo swim from Cuba to Florida with the help of friend Bonnie Stoll, the Academy Award winning husband-and-wife team of Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin directed a dramatic scene of a shark encounter during her crossing.

In reality, a curious oceanic whitetip shark approached Nyad’s flotilla during the 19th hour of her 2011 attempt in the deep royal blue sea across the Straits of Florida. The casual approach of the shark kickstarted a fast-acting protocol that her support team had drawn up on dryland.

The shark surfaced and then swam 2-3 meters under the surface a few hundred meters behind Nyad and her mothership, the Voyager.

Nyad’s shark diver team immediately leaped into action upon sighting the shark, without yelling or pointing or alarming Nyad. The shark protocol was created by Luke Tipple, an Australian marine biologist and consultant on nature productions for television, usually involving sharks or marine life. 

The shark’s distinctive white tips reflected off the canvas of royal blue as it approached the flotilla of support boats from the rear. My heart was racing even though the safety team of shark divers knew precisely what to do with the 4-5 foot shark cruised non-menacingly in the clear waters. The team knew it was time for immediate preventative action.

During the pre-swim planning sessions on dryland, Tipple had explained what was to be done during shark encounters, but now was a time for action. There was no time to talk, just act.

As depicted in the movie, shark diver Rob MacDonald of West Palm Beach, Florida sprang to action with nothing more than a stick covered with at the end with a tennis ball. He dove into the water to attempt to steer the whitetip shark away from Nyad, even though the encounter was not imminent. There was no bravado, just a quiet, quick-thinking professionalism like a Secret Service bodyguard jumping in to save a high-level politician. MacDonald, supported by his colleagues Drew Johnston and Jonathan Rose, showed no hesitation and no worries. He just dove in the sea with a heightened state of alert.

MacDonald entered the glassy flat water under cloudless skies with his long free diving fins and a 1-meter-long pole with a soft tennis ball stuck to the end to it. He moved as calmly as humanly possible in the water, almost stealthfully. With his eyes locked on the shark, he kicked smoothly with his fins and snorkel positioned above the water’s surface like a periscope, and his long pole clutched at the ready.

While I was as nervous as can be, watching and learning from the team’s movements, I realized this was not an inhospitable encounter that was going to erupt to an attack or a more improbable feeding frenzy. Rather, the shark versus swimmer encounter was merely an expression of temporary positioning and, perhaps, a bit of territorial rights. “I don’t want to hurt the sharks. The sharks are our friends,” explained MacDonald. “We just want to keep the sharks away from Diana. I never saw any aggression from the shark. While I approached the shark, it was so beautiful. I wish I had my camera. The shark never lowered its pectoral fins or arched its back. When a shark does that, then it is ready to attack.“

As the shark continued to circle underneath, MacDonald continued to go on offense on the surface of the water. Johnston and I were on a inflatable raft trying to give MacDonald an extra two sets of eyes in an attempt to keep track of the constantly moving shark. It swam in and out of our vision. As the shark moved, so did MacDonald. He shadowed its movements, back and forth. As the shark circled, MacDonald circled towards it. Like a silhouette, the shark and man mirrored each other’s movements. This was not some dramatic television reenactment; it was real life unfolding – slowly but methodically – before our eyes.

After the preliminary circular rounds of looking at each other, the shark suddenly up towards to the surface while MacDonald dove down to meet it. It was like two heavyweights squaring off in mid-rink.

While Nyad was swimming steadily towards Florida still positioned parallel to the Voyager, MacDonald dove below the surface like a protective mother bear. I could not believe what I was witnessing as the shark was clearly visible under the surface heading towards MacDonald. He kicked his fins in order to face the shark head-on, never letting the shark out of his sights. The two faced off in the silent arena underwater, each respectful but unnerved by the other. As MacDonald continued to delve below the surface, what seemed like way too long for a safe outcome, it became increasingly difficult to exactly see what was happening.

I could literally feel my heart pounding inside my chest as I worried what would happen next.

Like two locomotives on the same track, something was about to give. Fortunately, the shark clearly sensed a formidable denizen in the Caribbean depths. Like two enemy jet pilots swooping at one another in a wartime combat in the skies above, it looked as if MacDonald and the shark had locked onto one another in the depths below. I held their breath and stared at the abyss for both shark and man trying to make out what would occur deeper under the surface. Johnston and Rose were at the ready, but not alarmed.

Mano-a-mano was replaced by mano-a-apex predator.

While the shark’s pectoral fins remained static, MacDonald went vertical and spread out his limbs, making himself appear larger to the shark. He made a forward thrust with his soft pole in front like a knight with his lance out. “That (move) was enough to convince it to swim off. I never hit it. The shark just dove down to 60-70 feet and it headed off in the opposite direction of Diana.”

The safety team had effectively separated the swimmer from a curious predator as Nyad kept stroking on, protected by a stoic and clearly heroic shark diver.

MacDonald climbed nonchalantly on board to the cheers and smiles of the crew…and readied himself for the next encounter.

I learned that it was important to appear big by going vertical and spreading out the limbs.

Yonaguni Island – Okinawa, Japan

This experience – as an observer – was vastly different than a similar experience when I was the actual swimmer in the water.

Frankly, I should have been more nervous and scared when I was the swimmer, but I was strangely not. I felt much more calm and confident in my own shark diver team from Yonaguni Island in Okinawa, Japan when sharks were in full sight.

In October 1994, I attempted and completed a solo 29 km circumnavigation of Yonaguni Island, the westernmost part of Japan in Okinawa – located a lot closer (110 km) to Taiwan than Tokyo. But I swam with a local shark diving team on my escort boats. The men lived on the island and were comfortable with the vast number of schools of hammerhead sharks that lived in the local waters.

The silver bodies of hundreds of hammerhead sharks circled below me and his two escort boats, each manned with look-outs stationed at the bow and stern. It was disconcerting, but I had confidence in the crew. “The two crew members never took their eyes from me and the water below. They stood at attention throughout the swim – their discipline and stoicism was very comforting to me throughout the swim. Because I could clearly see the hammerhead sharks – hundreds of them circling and circling below – I had every reason to worry. I was, but I still felt protected as I swam as close to the boat as possible.

At first sight of the sharks, I admit that my heart seemed to be beating out of my chest. Frankly, I wanted to eliminate the sharks from my consciousness. So I didn’t want to look down at them – but I also wanted to keep them within my line of sight as I was told. Fortunately, the distance between the sharks and me was pretty far – perhaps 50 meters or more – probably much more, I told myself. The water in Okinawa is so clear, they were probably much deeper than that. The distance provided a visible barrier in the warm waters – and the sharks were circling, seemingly much more content among themselves than they were in rising to the surface and dealing with boats and me.”

Silently and gracefully moving in natural habitat, the hammerhead sharks majestically roamed their natural territory, deep down below – apparently oblivious and thankfully uncaring about me. I was churning well above on the surface as fast as I could possibly swim.

Along the circumnavigation swim around Yonaguni Island, there were also all kinds of schools of fish and turtles casually gently gliding below throughout the 7 hour 8 minute 29 km swim in one of the world’s most renowned spots for hammerheads.

With tricky currents throughout the swim especially around the western and eastern ends of the tropical island (Cape Irizaki and Cape Agarizaki), there was as much to navigate around and along the coastline as well as around the roaming pods of hammerheads.

“Down below, there were plenty of sharks, but on the surface – when I was not staring at my escort boats and support crew, I was mesmerized by the spectacular coastline with its oddly-shaped caverns, caves and rock formations.”

Getting to Yonaguni Island requires a flight to a major airport in Japan and then another flight to Naha, the capital city of Okinawa. From there, a boat or a flight on small aircraft can put the swimmer on a jewel of an island.

Galápagos Islands, Ecuador in the Pacific Ocean

Bob Placak went on a family vacation to the Galápagos Islands (Archipiélago de Colón) several years ago. “The ocean was so beautiful. These islands are magnificent. With so much wildlife on land and in the turquoise blue waters, the Galápagos are a paradise, especially for open water swimmers.”

During one of their excursions to Española Island, Placak was enraptured by the gorgeous water and asked his guide how far their boat was moored offshore. “About a mile and a half,” was the answer. With his goggles in hand, the founder of the RCP Tiburon Mile told the guide of his background as a competitive swimmer.

Placak recalled the conversation, “I asked her all the requisite questions about tides, currents and marine life. I asked her about sharks and if there have been any attacks. She said yes to both questions, but such attacks were indeed rare.”

The allure of swimming in one of the most gorgeous marine environments in the world was too strong to ignore for the former UCLA All-American butterflyer. “I started out and the water was so crystal clear. I could see about 75 feet down. I was having a great time. I was escorted by 10-12 penguins and a few sea lions while giant turtles, stingrays and other brightly colored tropical fish swam beneath me. After a mile, I figured that I would push the pace and get a good final half-mile workout in.

As I started to get going, I came up on a reef. In the shallower water at a distance of 35 foot, I saw a 7-foot Galápagos shark. It was moving slowly. I stopped. And then another appeared. I stayed calm and kept my eyes on them, but they started moving erratically. Ahead of me, behind me, then disappearing and reappearing. I knew I was in a tough position. But I managed to stay calm and knew that I was not going to go down without a fight. But the two sharks kept moving around me, fast.

Their fins were out of the water, and then the next moment, they were diving and swimming, circling around me.”

As Placak was eggbeatering vertically, he kept his eyes glued to the sharks as they darted in and around the reef and popping up in different locations. Also almost unbelievably, he remained calm, analyzing the situation instead of panicking. “I was about a half mile from the boat. I knew it could be what would seem to be the longest half-mile swim of my life. I was about a mile offshore, so that was out of the question. So I started to wave to the boat in the hope that maybe, someone on the boat was watching. I didn’t know if they were looking my way, but I had to get help fast while I stayed calm and watching those sharks.”

In fact, the tour guide Tanya Helmig never let her eyes wander from Placak once he left shore. Placak’s wife Graciela who witnessed her husband waving without splashing the water around him recalled, “Tanya was on her binoculars the whole time Bob was in the water. Once she saw Bob waving his arms, she radioed to the boat and they immediately sent a boat to intervene.”

It was just in time to resolve Placak’s predicament out in the open ocean. “It was just me and those two [sharks]. There could have been more, but I didn’t see any. I didn’t know when or how or what I would have to do – punch or kick. I realized that I could get hurt, but this was not going to be the end of me. It was like walking down a dark street at night and suddenly you turn a corner and meet two thugs. Well, I had swum into the territory of these two sharks. I was the visitor.”

Placak did the right thing by stopping and going vertical, by treading water. He became larger relative to the shark when he shifted from the horizontal position swimming freestyle to the vertical position doing eggbeater. As shark experts recommend, he kept his wits about him and never took his eyes off the sharks. His heart rate decreased – rather than increasing in panic – when he stopped swimming to assess the situation. Fortunately, his guides were also diligent and immediately came to his help. “They got to me within 5 minutes and I hopped in that boat and they drove me to shore. In retrospect, it was quite a lifetime experience.“

But the shark encounter was not the end of his ocean-faring vacation. “Later that afternoon, I was the first one in our dive. I didn’t want this experience to stop me from enjoying what the Galápagos offers. The boat, The Integrity, and the guide Tanya are so wonderful. As a swimmer, I have traveled the world, swimming, sightseeing, and watching all kinds of competitions, but the Galápagos with their history, mammals and scenery, are truly something unique.”

© 2023 Daily News of Open Water Swimming “to educate, enthuse, and entertain all those who venture beyond the shoreline“