It was a beautiful morning on Maui with a breeze blowing from the south,  just enough to keep it comfortable.  I paddled north first like I usually do, and then turned to paddle south.  Just as I was passing Charley Young Beach, two spinner dolphins flew out of the water in front of me and dove back into the water!  I almost fell off of my board!  I couldn’t believe it!  I paddled in their direction and they led me out farther, and then they just stopped and started swimming on their backs and playing around!  I looked around and there wasn’t a single other person near me, and then I noticed two more dolphins out a little farther so I paddled out towards them.  They also were swimming on their backs and just fooling around!  So there I sat in-between two sets of two dolphins, all by myself!  Well, a few minutes later the dolphins all disappeared so I waited patiently to see where they were surfacing, but I didn’t see them anywhere.  I continued paddling south, but my day was made already with the dolphin encounter!  The Kona wind kicked up a notch and it was some effort to get down to the boat ramp.  When I arrived there, two other paddlers were already there, so I sat down on my board to wait.  Quite a few minutes went by and there were no turtles, so the other paddlers moved on.  A few minutes later, my first turtle popped up right next to my board!  Then I noticed a snorkeler swimming in my direction and she yelled to me, “You don’t know it, but there a bunch of turtles right under you…. I mean right under you!”  I smiled and waited, and then three other turtles surfaced around me, followed by two more, and then one more…..so I was surrounded by six turtles!  The snorkeler swam north away from me, and one by one, three more turtles surfaced!  I was sure she would probably swim back where I was with all the turtles, but she didn’t, so I had the place to myself!  One by one, nine more turtles surfaced and some of them were really friendly and seemed to like hanging out with me.  By the time I had counted 18 turtles…..I decided to take advantage of the south wind and paddle back.  It was a bit bumpy with the wind, but I paddled back rapidly with the wind at my back.  When I came in, the wind backed off, but when I went for my swim, it had kicked up again, so I got a good workout!  With four dolphins and eighteen turtles, I would say that this was a very good day!!!!