Path to Paradise!

On Tuesday, my daughter and grand baby daughter came to the beach so we stayed for a while after I swam.  It was their last day on Maui and they flew home to California yesterday.  It was great seeing them!  On that day, I was met immediately after hopping on my board, by a large turtle.  I hung with it for a little while as it swam around me and under me.  Paddling down to the boat ramp I ran into the second turtle outside of Kam III!  That was two turtles before I even got to the boat ramp.  Nine additional turtles visited me as well, until that pontoon tour boat roared up again and disturbed us!  On Wednesday, I woke up with a migraine headache, so no paddling yesterday.

Today I got out earlier,  by 8:30 a.m., I really wanted to miss that tour boat if I could.  The ocean was pure glass and it was so smooth paddling down to the boat ramp!  When I arrived there, a kayak was there with four people who had jumped off and were snorkeling.  Then I noticed about five other people also snorkeling in the area where I usually visit the turtles.  I was shocked at how busy it was and I didn’t see a single turtle.  Two of the people snorkeling popped up and asked me if I knew where the turtles were……well I could guess that they were not coming around with all the activity going on!  I paddled over to the other side of the boat ramp and spied a turtle in front of  me.  As soon as I paddled over to it, a turtle popped up on each side of me too, so I was surrounded!  It seemed the snorkelers were still trying to find some turtles, so I stayed on the other side.  Pretty soon the kayak moved on and so did most of the snorkelers so I paddled over to my spot and waited.  Suddenly the turtles started to show up!  I got surrounded by three turtles, and then I was in-between  two other turtles before I knew it!  Then a couple of smaller turtles surfaced and one big one.  The big turtle swam right over to my board and just floated on the surface.  Then it dove under my board, but instead of coming up on the other side of my board, it suddenly stopped and tried to surface under me.  I heard two big “clunks” under my board and then the turtle swam out from under me!  I couldn’t believe it did that!  Then turtle #12 popped up behind me.  A dozen turtles in one day was exciting!  I paddled back in perfect conditions, and my swim was very enjoyable too.  It was a great day! 🙂