Turtles on Oahu!

First of all, this is a photo of a turtle on the north shore of Oahu.  They come right up on the reef and eat the sea weed off of the rocks, and they don’t care who is watching!  I love visiting this spot whenever we are on Oahu.  It has been so windy on Maui…..and it was windy on Oahu too, so I guess we are just in some kind of strange wind pattern right now.  It was a beautiful day, but the wind was already blowing from the south so I geared up for a tough day of paddling.  I took off on my board and got down to Charley Young Beach when I realized that I never put my leash on!  I’d probably be just fine, but you know “Murphy’s law”…. so I thought it would be just my luck for something weird to happen today  and I wouldn’t have my leash on my ankle.  Begrudgingly, I paddled to shore and put my leash on.  I headed back out and thought it best to paddle against the south blowing wind as much as I could, so I paddled down to the boat ramp.  It was so much work!  It seemed to take me forever to get there, and just as I was entering the area, so was the pontoon tour boat!  The ocean was pretty choppy, but they dropped off their snorkelers anyway.  I almost turned around and paddled back, but then I decided to stick around instead.  I brought a camera along too, so I was hoping to get some photos.  Luckily the boat did not have many people going snorkeling,  so I ended up doing some competing for the turtles!  They had the advantage of under the water…..but I had the advantage of above the water, so I could see the turtles surfacing.  I spotted a turtle farther south, so I paddled to it.  When the snorkelers saw me paddling…..they started swimming, but I always got to the turtles before they did!  Despite the rough conditions, I experienced the full array of turtles.  I sat between turtles; I sat next to turtles; twice I had a “line” of turtles before me of three turtles both times; and I found myself surrounded by a couple of turtle triangles too!  At one point, I looked behind me and two turtles were right there…..then two turtles surprised me and swam right past me on each side of my board!  I even outlasted the tour boat, and when they left, more turtles popped up.  The wind was getting stronger and the ocean rougher, but the turtles continued to surface.  Every time I thought, well I should head back, two more turtles would surface beckoning me to stay!  Finally, I just had to go back….I really had pushed the limits with the wind situation.  I think I counted over twenty turtles for the day, with, I am sure, more turtles that were trying to coax me to stay even longer! I was so lucky too, because the wind didn’t change direction, so I literally “sat back” and flowed  with the gentle hiss of the white caps behind me and rode the wind swells all the way back to Kam I.  Just as I got back, the wind backed off for just a few minutes and then roared in for the day!  My swim ended up being a rough water swim, but the water is nice and clear so with a snorkel, even a rough water swim is a still a good swim!!!