Purrrrrrrfect Sunday!

I arrived at the beach about 8:30 a.m. and it was perfect and glassy!  I couldn’t wait to get out on my board!  Ten minutes into my paddle, a Kona wind kicked up and I ran into a paddling friend.  She had borrowed a camera from another paddling friend and said she wanted to try to get some photos at the boat ramp.  We paddled against the wind all the way to the boat ramp and it seemed to take forever.  I think there was a south current happening as well, so that was part of it too.  When we got to the boat ramp, the wind backed off and it was so perfect!  We sat on our boards for a few minutes and we didn’t see any turtles. I wondered if it was going to be another day of no turtles, but suddenly I spotted one!  I motioned to my friend and started paddling over to where the turtle was.  As I got closer I could see that it was two turtles and not one!  I paddled up to them and sat right between them…..right where I like to be!  One of the turtles was friendly but the other one dove down and disappeared.  We paddled more north, and two more turtles appeared!  I got to sit right between them too!  One of them was big and friendly and it swam right over to my board.  I almost thought it was going to bump right into me, so I started to try to back paddle, then it dove down and swam under me! It faked me out!  I hope my friend got some photos so I can post them.  Sometimes I think I really need to get a waterproof camera to try to capture some of these adventures on film, but I haven’t quite figured out where I would carry it so I wouldn’t lose it.  The conditions stayed nice and one more turtle zipped past me so I sprung into action and paddled with it!  I was amazed at how fast it was swimming, but it was heading into the boat lane and two boats were heading in, so I backed off.  My friend spotted the pontoon tour boat coming our way too, so we decided to take advantage of the calm conditions and paddle back.  It was so nice, but we could feel the south current and it gave us a boost back.  On the way back, I heard a swoosh behind me, so I turned around to look but didn’t see anything.  Suddenly my friend thought she saw something and so did I so we paddled over to investigate, but we couldn’t find anything definitive.  The rest of the way back we  searched for manta rays, but none were around today.  She headed in and I headed out for a few more minutes, hoping to see whales.  When I didn’t see any, I headed in.  It was so peaceful out there on the water!  The conditions stayed nice all the way through my swim and the south current gave me a push back.  It was a super nice day and just about the time I was getting ready to go home, I spotted two whales in the distance splashing and jumping!  The two boats out there were getting quite a show.  I really love whale season…….. heck I love every season here on Maui!!!!!