Here come the turtles!

It was another nice morning on Maui, with patchy clouds, and a breeze blowing from the south.  I paddled north for a few minutes and then turned into the wind.  It wasn’t blowing too bad, so I ventured down to the boat ramp.  When I arrived there, the boat ramp was crowded!  There were three stand up paddlers, three kayakers, and two snorkelers….. it was more crowded than I like it to be, but I paddled over closer to the boat ramp and spotted my first turtle.  It was a big turtle and quite friendly too.  Then two more turtles surfaced towards the back of me and I was surrounded!  I tried to stay as far away from the rest of the people as I could, but I had to follow turtle #4 when it started to swim.  That led me to 5, 6, and #7 turtles and then a snorkeler popped up in the middle of that!  She must have seen them from under the water and swam up, but she was right in the middle of the turtles and right in my way!  I paddled more south and spotted turtles #8 and #9.  I paddled over to them and sat right between them!  Then I spotted turtle #10 and paddled over to it.  It was a big turtle and very friendly!  Suddenly I heard a familiar voice, and it was a paddling friend telling the tourists that there is a huge fine for harassing the turtles.  Then turtle #11 surfaced right by me!  The next thing I knew, the red pontoon tour boat was roaring in with it’s snorkelers…..I couldn’t believe it was that late.  I decided to be grateful for the eleven turtles and paddle back.  The wind was still blowing from the south, so I hoped to get a push back. Then I spotted turtle #12 out from Kam III, so I had to go and visit with that turtle too!  It was nice paddling back, even though the white caps has started to break,  creating a hissing sound from behind.  By the time I got out for my swim, the wind had backed off and it was calmer, but when I came in, so did the wind!  All in all, it was a great day in the water!