Beautiful Halloween Morning!

It was a beautiful morning on Maui, but the wind was already starting to come up.  I paddled north until I smelled cane smoke and saw it blowing over from the valley.  I really hate cane smoke and it makes me cough, so I quickly turned south and paddled away from the smoke.  Luckily I got away from it and paddled down to the boat ramp.  When I was passing Kam II, I ran into a paddling friend who had just been down at the boat ramp, and she told me she saw some turtles there.  When I arrived, there were a few other paddlers in the area, mostly passing through.  I paddled down to the spot I usually go to, and didn’t see a single turtle.  I had time so I just hung out enjoying the day.  The wind had backed off and it was really nice down there too.  All of a sudden, turtle #1 surfaced on the right of me, and then #2 surfaced on the left of me!  Then the rest of them began appearing one at a time.  Another paddler joined me when she saw the turtles and before we knew it, five turtles surfaced at once and we were surrounded!  I was afraid the other paddler was going to fall right off her board, she was so excited to be surrounded!  By this time I had counted eleven turtles.  The other paddler left and I was all by myself again, until turtle #12 showed up and it was a big one.  There was a guy snorkeling near by and he came up behind us and spooked the turtle.  It panicked and took a dive under my board, splashing me as it tried to get away from the snorkeler!  Suddenly turtle #13 surfaced and hung around with me for a few minutes, popping its head up and down.  I was just about to paddle back when turtle #14 popped up right next to me!  I was having another great turtle day so after the turtle disappeared,  I decided to paddle back.  There were a few bumps to paddle over on the way back, but it was fun!  The conditions stayed nice all the way through my swim too.  Happy Halloween!