How to clear a diving cage

It's a perfectly stupid idea: take a boat out into choppy waters with chilling antarctic currents (waters known as "shark alley"), climb into an underwater metal cage hanging off the side of the boat, throw some tuna heads & entrails into the water, and wait to see some sharks up close. It may be stupid, but shark diving is big business, and its something many, many tourists do when visiting South Africa.

A cold overcast morning in Gansbaai, about 2 hours southeast of Cape Town, Jacqueline and I got on one of those boats. There were about 15 of us total on board. The boat was rocking quite a bit: it took a good amount of coordination to put on our cold, damp, ill-fitting wetsuits, and a couple of the passengers succumbed to seasickness early on (Our captain advised us to please vomit off the starboard side, so as to not splash onto the divers in the cage). It was hard not to ponder things like: "is this really the stupidest thing I've ever done? Or just somewhere in the top ten?"

Almost right away, from the deck, we were witness to two different sharks thrashing as they chased the tuna parts. A large shark tail smacked the side of the boat, sending a wave of water over Jacqueline just as she finished with her wetsuit. We all began yelling and laughing; I'm not sure whether it was out of excitement or nervousness.

The cage fit 5 people at a time; we would all rotate in and out of the cage through the day. After some exciting early encounters, things calmed down a bit. Visibility in the water was poor, and by the time Jacqueline and I had our various turns in the cage, most of the cool Discovery-channel type action had diminished. I had been in the cage about 20 minutes, and I was still feeling vaguely nauseous from all the rocking. I swallowed a wave of salt water while trying to adjust my mask, and that sealed it for me. I barely managed a weak "uh, I think I should get out now..." before blowing chunks right in the cage. Somewhere in my temporary delirium I heard a woman's voice "ewww, that guy threw up...I'm getting out!!" I soon had the whole cage to myself. Ahhh, a little elbow room at last (the woman had been sitting in a stew of cloudy water, seal crap and rancid tuna guts... I find it funny that it was my puke that finally pushed her over the edge).

When I climbed back on board, it occurred to me how bad the rocking was-- people were leaning over the starboard rails, or curled up in corners... of the 15, nine of us had vomited at some point. Jacqueline was one of the lucky few who didn't. The 4-man boat crew did their best not to smirk at all of us.

Tasteless side note-- this is a strange observation, but as I was sitting back, watching and hearing the suffering (and trying not to do any more myself) it was odd seeing how differently the men and women reacted-- most of the men wretched continuously, over and over; they were almost incapacitated by their own never-ending convulsions. Most of the women, however, were like cats-- a quick *BARF* and then they were fine, normal until the next "episode"...