He was in over his head – and loving it

I learned scuba diving at the request of my daughter Philipa when I was 60 years old and fell in love with it. As a thank you, I invited her on a cage dive to see great white sharks at the Pacific island of Guadalupe, Mexico, with sharkdiver.com. Standing in the cage, I saw my first shark swimming by, so close that I could almost touch him. I was 64 years old then and I never imagined how this trip would give my life a totally different direction.

When I sold my ranch in upstate New York a couple years later, I started to book dive trips where sharks were included. My first shark dive without a cage was in the Bahamas. Jumping into the ocean, knowing that there were at least a dozen Caribbean reef sharks down there, was a bit weird. But I jumped in anyway.

The sharks were inquisitive but never aggressive. I fell in love with those beautiful, amazing and highly developed animals. I started to read every book I could find and started my own Web site, sharkprotect.com. I am now an avid shark protector and am now on the Board of Trustees of the Shark Research Institute in Princeton, N.J. I give presentations about sharks in schools and colleges to tell as many young people about the importance of sharks in our oceans.

After 120 shark dives, I am still in love with sharks and take every opportunity I get to dive with them.

– Jupp Kerckerinck zur Borg, Millbrook, N.Y.

via Travel experiences shared | theadvertiser.com | The Advertiser.

New Year’s Day Dive

Don’t let your first dive of the New Year be in COLD water!!! Come join us in Hatteras on New Years’ Day, 2009 for a two tank Gulf Stream Dive on the Proteus/Dixie Arrow for only $125 per diver.

The buoy temperatures are registering between 68 and 76 degrees! Call today and register!! Spaces are limited.

Atlantis Divers 804/320-7000

“On March 26, 1942, the Dixie Arrow was traveling unarmed and alone, approaching Cape Hatteras, enroute from Texas City, TX to Paulsboro, NJ with 96,000 barrels of crude oil. The U-71 had spent the night waiting near the Diamond Shoals Light Buoy hoping to intercept targets. With the breaking dawn, the u-boat captain, KK Walter Flascheenberg, was about the order his boat to the bottom when he spotted the masts of the approaching tanker on the horizon. He manuevered his boat against the zig-zag course of the Dixie Arrow trying to get the tanker between the U-71 and shore.”

“At 0858 EWT, 3 torpedoes slammed into the starboard side of the Dixie Arrow and in less than 1 minute the tanker was mortally wounded and engulfed in flames. The first torpedo hit at the midship deckhouse, destroying it and killing most of the deck officers. 60 seconds later the 2nd and 3rd torpedoes hit just aft of the deckhouse and cracked the tanker in two.”For more information on the Dixie Arrow, visit: http://www.nc-wreckdiving.com/WRECKS/DIXIE/DIXIE.HTML