It was another gorgeous day on Maui today.  Mostly sunny with a slight breeze blowing from the south and a calm ocean.  It was ideal conditions for paddling and I got an early start, so I was ready to get out there! I enjoyed paddling down to the boat ramp and I got lucky today being the only one down there.  Initially I didn’t see any turtles, so I sat down on my board to wait.  Suddenly I spotted my first turtle out in front of me!  I paddled over to it and just as I got there, it dove down and disappeared.  I guess it wasn’t interested in me today!  Then I saw a turtle floating on the surface out farther, so I hurried over to it.  As soon as I got over to it, two other turtles surfaced on my right and one on my left, so I was surrounded!  I lost count of how many times I ended up sitting between turtles and right in the middle of them, but they were all so friendly!  They swam right up to my board and swam under me, and even around me so many times!  It was so calm and quiet, just me and all those turtles!  By the time I had counted 29 turtles, I stopped counting.  Then they seemed to all disappear so I started to paddle back, then all of a sudden, five turtles surfaced all around me and I was surrounded again!  Two turtles were behind me and the other three were around the front of my board!  They stayed and hung out with me for so long I couldn’t believe it!  Then it was time to say good-bye to the turtles and paddle back.  The conditions were still ideal and I had smooth paddling all the back!  The wind had still not come in by the time I went for my swim, so it was ideal swimming conditions as well.  On the way back, I ran into a school of about ten Ulua’s, so I hung around with them and swam with them for a while.  Two of them were about as big as a dolphin!  I don’t see them very often, so it was quite a treat.  Actually, the whole morning was a treat!  I just love days like this!