Wiley's Birthday Present
27 May 2012
Merry and Wiley - Sunny, 80+,
I got up early on the morning after arriving to Green Turtle and hurried Wiley over to Brendal's dive shop - at the end of our dock to find out about his gift - a trip on a dive boat with the renown Brendal. It turned out that we could dive on that day if we gathered our gear and met them at 9:30. We scrambled to eat breakfast, get our gear together and we were off. Brendal and his son B.J. (Brenal Jr.) were to be our guides and there were five other divers with us. We motored out between Green Turtle Cay and Manjack Cay to dive on the Caverns.
Brendal guided our first dive. He is also a musician - which we enjoyed listening to at our last stay at Green Turtle. He has the usual large Bahamian smile, loves people, and a good laugh. His son is following in his footsteps. He is a fabulous diver and pointed out many things that most divers breeze past - like the fish cleaning stations - tiny shrimp, arrowhead crabs, etc. He dives slowly so that you don't miss anything and is always keeps track of all of the divers. Additionally, he made sure we didn't miss seeing the large Tarpon, the Eagle Rays, and finally the Black Tipped Reef Shark. Wiley had really wanted to see large fish underwater - especially Shark and he was thrilled. Brendal kept pointing to the shark and waving him toward me - and then later told me - don't worry they are man eating sharks not woman eating sharks!
On our second dive B.J. guided us and once again we saw some of the same creatures as on the first dive but in addition we saw a VERY LARGE BULL SHARK! Wiley got within 5 feet of it. The Bull Shark did not move away from him but rather just kept on his usual path. We certainly were insignificant and after all we were in his territory.
Needless to say - Wiley loved the dive so much he signed us up for another the following Wednesday.