great day for paddling!

I got a late start today and almost decided not to paddle, but I sure am glad I ended up going out!  What a gorgeous day and perfect conditions, I couldn’t have ordered a more perfect day.  After I paddled north and made my turn south, I ran into a paddling friend, so we paddled together down to the boat ramp.  She had already been down there once and saw one turtle, and since it was after 9 a.m. already,  I wondered if we would see any more turtles. Paddling down to the boat ramp was very enjoyable and the cloud cover today was very interesting to look at.  A mixture of fluffy clouds, wispy clouds, and long shreds of cloud decorated the sky.  Down at the boat ramp we saw two kayakers who were snorkeling off their kayaks and there was a turtle by one of them.  We didn’t see any more turtles, but decided to just hang out for a while since it was so nice.  Suddenly the turtles started to surface!  Some of them were so close to our boards and it was fun watching several of them swimming around under the water.  I counted 8 in all for today!  We stayed down at the boat ramp for about 30 minutes enjoying the turtles and then decided to paddle back just in case the wind kicked up.  We got lucky and the wind never did come up!  It stayed perfect all the way through my swim too.  The water is very clear and warm right now and I saw an  assortment of tropical fish down by the rocks and reef.  The icing on the cake today, though, was running across a small Spotted Eagle Ray on my way back and I got to swim with it for about 15 minutes!  What an unexpected treat!