It was a beautiful day for the beach today.  A slight breeze was blowing and the conditions were calm.  I encountered my first turtle down at Cove Park again today, and this one was friendly so I hung out with it for a few minutes.  As I was paddling down to the boat ramp, I ran into a paddling friend so we paddled together.  We ran into a turtle out in front of Kam I, and she saw another one closer in by the buoy.  Then we came across another turtle by Kam II!  Down at the boat ramp, we were the only ones there.  Just like the other days, there were no visible turtles, and then suddenly they started to surface!  They were coming up two and three at a time, and then two other paddler friends joined us for the turtle fest.  Some turtles were in between our boards just checking us out and they didn’t seem to have a care in the world!  There were so many turtles, I lost count, but I know there were more than a dozen.  Just like yesterday, the tour boat caught sight of us amidst the turtles and came in to drop off the snorkelers.  We paddled away from the boat, and my friend said, “Hey, there they are!”, and some of the turtles had come with us.  We were having a great time when it seemed like it was getting windy so we decided to paddle back.  Just as we started to pass Kam III, I looked over to my left and a big turtle was swimming with us as we paddled!  I yelled to my friend to look at the turtle, and as we both were looking, it pushed out of the water and extended its neck so far out that I thought it was going to jump out of the water!  It seemed to be making a big effort to look towards us, and then it dove down.  We were both shocked!  I don’t think I have ever witnessed that before.  We continued to paddle back against the wind that had come up and my friend thought she saw the fin of a Manta Ray.  After two hours, I was ready to come in, but not before I saw one last turtle out in front of Kam I!  The wind died down by the time I was ready to swim, so I got perfect conditions for swimming too.  Some days are just like that!