It was a beautiful morning with perfect conditions for paddling.  Everything was so calm, so I thought it would be a mellow day.  I paddled down to the boat ramp, running into a paddling friend as I passed Kam II.    When I got to the boat ramp, I was the only one there and it was perfect! I saw my first turtles out farther, so I paddled out to them.  The two turtles didn’t stick around, so I paddled a bit more north where I ran into two more turtles.  One dove down and disappeared and the other one was friendly.  Then I paddled in a little closer and two more turtles popped up, one on each side of me!  Six turtles were good for me, so I headed back in the same perfect conditions.  Just as I was paddling into Kam I, I ran into another paddling friend.  She had seen a big Manta Ray in the area, so I wanted to look for it.  We chatted for a while and drifted almost down to Kam III!  We paddled back by Kam I, and she spotted a turtle.  We hung around with it for a few minutes and it popped it’s head out and looked at us.  That made seven turtles for the day, but then my friend said there might be dolphins out farther.  We headed out to take a look, but it ended up being Manta Rays!  We followed them out pretty far and we were led to more Manta Rays.  At one point I was surrounded by them, with one on each side of me and one in front of me!  Then there were more of them and twice I ended up sitting right in between two of them!  They took us on quite a ride and it was amazing!  They are so big and graceful, but they can also move quite fast.  A few times I had to paddle pretty fast to catch up to them!  We totally lost track of time but the conditions were holding nicely.  I am not sure how many Manta Rays there were in all, but it was such a treat to get to paddle with them!  It had been a while since I saw even one and then to get a group of them all in one morning, was amazing.  It was a Manta Ray fest to be sure!!!!  It was getting late, so we paddled in.  I got out for my swim before the wind came in, but on the way back the conditions were bumpy.  It was a great day out on the ocean!