The shark encounter Peter never saw
Triathlete Peter Larcombe is remarkably calm for someone who has just had a near-Jaws experience.
In fact, just a few hours after a mercy dash by fishermen saved him from a Great White shark in Fish Hoek, Larcombe, 58, said the adrenalin shock still hadn't kicked in.
Probably, he said, because he had not seen the shark while he was swimming, or while he was being rescued, or afterwards.
After the shark warning siren went off and cleared the water of all other bathers, people watched in horror from the beach as the shark came within metres of the oblivious Durban visitor.
His close shave with the Great White happened on Monday during a 2km training swim.
In Cape Town for his daughter's 21st birthday, he has just swum in the SA Masters Championships in Malmesbury.
He set out for the buoy at Fish Hoek at around 11.30am, and was deep into his swim when he first saw a small fishing boat launch from the beach.
He thought nothing of it, nor of the sirens he'd been hearing.
"I'd vaguely heard the sirens, but I'd heard it all morning, as they're working on the train line, and the siren had gone off quite often. I didn't know there was a siren to tell people to get out the water."
It was only when he saw the fishing boat heading straight for him that he thought he was in danger. Which he was, of course, but not, as he thought, of getting a fine for ignoring the siren.
A crowd had now gathered on the beach, waiting to see whether the boat or the shark would get to him first. Larcombe, however, was still oblivious to the danger.
"The whole beach was in a panic, I'm the only one who wasn't," he said.
It was only when the boat was about 4m away, and he heard the fisherman shouting at him to jump in, that he realised he was the target of a shark.
"Luckily I'm used to pulling myself up the side of a pool, so my arms are strong. I swam between the oars, pulled myself up and rolled into the boat."
The boat had rowed between him and the closing shark.
"They tell me there are three sharks who regularly swim in the bay - the 6m 'Dopey', my 5m one (Dozy) and a 2m baby (Speedy)."
Larcombe expressed his thanks to the shark spotters and the fishermen.
"It's not the closest I've come to death - that was a few inches - but it is the second closest at four metres," he said.
His next swim, he says, will be at Newlands pool: "I hear the Sharks only visit Newlands once a year, and then they get beaten ..."