Wow…. it couldn’t have been a nicer day today.  Mostly sunny skies and perfect paddling conditions!  There was a slight breeze blowing from the north, just enough to keep it cool.  I  got a late start today but I paddled down to the boat ramp anyway.  It was a smooth trip and when I got there, I was the only paddler around.  As usual, I didn’t see any turtles at first.  Then  the turtle show began!  Two turtles surfaced, one on each side of me, then turtle three, four, five and six popped up too!  Then I looked down into the water and could see several turtles just swimming around under the water, and I could see a couple of them just sitting on the reef!  It looked like they were sleeping, but maybe they were just resting.  I am not sure how many turtles there were in all, because just as I was really enjoying myself, a tour boat came over to where I was and dropped off a dozen tourists to snorkel.  This is the thing about a lot of tourists…..they splash, yell to each other, and then some of them dive down and chase the turtles!  This is exactly what happened too.  I stayed just out from where they were snorkeling, and I could see some of them chasing the turtles.  I was about to leave when up popped two turtles, one of each side of me!  I paddled a little further out, and three turtles joined me.  Maybe they were trying to get away from the tourists!  I continued to move away from the tour boat, and two more turtles joined me.  Finally it was getting late and I wasn’t sure how long I stayed down at the boat ramp, so I started paddling back.  It was perfect paddling back with the breeze still keeping it cool.  I was amazed that the wind still had not come up by the time I went for my swim!  The water was clear and warm and felt so great.  I swam down to the rocks and coral reef and spotted three Ulua fish cruising the area.  Then I saw a small Spotted Eagle Ray  and started to follow it.   It was moving away fast, and then I saw a guy snorkeling and he was chasing the Ray!  I decided to just hang around and see if it was able to ditch the snorkeler, and pretty soon it showed up and the snorkeler was gone.  The Ray swam with me around the reef for about 15 minutes… it was not trying to get away!  Suddenly a turtle cruised by and I swam with it for a few minutes while it checked out the reef.  When I came back to the spot where the Ray was, it was nowhere to be seen.  I swam back and was amazed to have had such a sea creature day.  The conditions stayed incredibly nice and by the time I left the beach, the wind was still not in.  What a day!