Love those turtles!

Finally….. a morning with perfect conditions for paddling!  I couldn’t wait to get out there to enjoy it.  I started to paddle down to the boat ramp, but on the way I ran into a couple of paddling friends.  We chatted for a minute, and then one of them took off north and the other one took off south….. and I continued on to the boat ramp.  At first, I didn’t see a turtle anywhere, which figured since I had brought the camera and hoped to get some photos!  I sat for a few minutes, just enjoying the nice calm conditions, until I spotted my first turtle.  I paddled over to it and wouldn’t you know it, the turtle had tumors on it!  Oh I really didn’t want to see that again, but this was a different turtle and it’s tumors were not as bad as the turtle yesterday.  It was moving totally normal and it didn’t seem to be struggling to breathe…..at least for now.  Finally the turtles started to surface, but they were surfacing one by one today, except one time two turtles popped up together and I got to sit in between them.  I stayed down there for quite a while and ended up with fifteen turtles and I think I got some good photos!  I headed back because I was concerned that the wind might sneak up on me….but it was smooth paddling and then I ran into one of my paddling friends who was paddling in my direction.  We were commenting on how perfect the conditions were today, and then she looked out on the water and said she saw white caps coming in!  She headed to Kam II and I headed to Kam I, and the wind came roaring in!      It was a workout the rest of the way in, but when I got to shore, the wind backed off.  By the time I went swimming, the wind had roared in again, so I just accepted it and decided to swim against it (north), hoping I could cruise all the way back.  On the way back, a turtle appeared right under me, so I swam with it for a while.  It surfaced and turned to look at me….it was right in front of me!  I just had to pet it’s shell…. so I did.  Then it surfaced again right in front of me, so I petted its shell again!  Oh I love when that happens!  Finally it swam out to sea and I said good-bye to it,  and I swam in.  What a great day with sixteen turtles!!!!!