It was a beautiful morning on Maui with mostly blue skies and patchy clouds, and a wind blowing from the north.  I wondered if the wind was going to come in early, so I paddled against it for a while but then turned around and headed south.  Just as I was passing Kam I, a big turtle swam past me!  I quickly turned around to follow it, but it didn’t have any time for me today, so I continued paddling south.  When I got to the boat ramp, a paddling friend was already there.  She was trying to get some photos of the turtles, but a boat came roaring into the boat ramp area and interrupted her.  After the water settled down, I saw two turtles up ahead of me, so I paddled towards them.  I sat right between them for a few minutes!  Then two more turtles surfaced out farther, so we headed in their direction.  I got to sit right between them too!  Next thing I knew, another turtle surfaced and I was surrounded!  We saw a couple of paddlers heading our way and they had some snorkelers with them.  One of them was another paddling friend and her friends.  We all stayed in about the same spot and the turtles were popping up all around us!  The women snorkeling said there were quite a few turtles just sitting around on the bottom too.  One friend left, and so I paddled over to another spot to have some alone time with the turtles.  Up popped five turtles, all around me, so I had counted about seventeen turtles that surfaced, including the one I saw at Kam I!  Next thing I knew, the pontoon tour boat had pulled up with its snorkelers, so that was my cue to head back.  The conditions were very good until I hit Kam II, and the wind started to kick up from the south, but I got in before it got crazy.  By the time I went swimming, the wind had backed off again.  Just when I got out there, I spotted a turtle swimming in my direction!  I turned around and followed it for a while, but it wasn’t surfacing.  Poor thing had some tumors by both eyes so I wondered how well it was seeing.  I swam down to the rocks and reef and visited the fish and the wind was still backed off.  What a nice day it ended up being!!!