I love these turtles!

Okay, so I didn’t hear my alarm until it had been on for forty minutes…..and now I would be late for paddling.  Even worse, I could  already see white caps out on the ocean from the shore, and  feeling the wind already.  I went out paddling anyway and paddled to the north, but the wind was actually blowing from the south.  I turn around and now I am paddling against the wind….but suddenly I see a turtle under the surface.  I stopped paddling and the turtle swam around me and under me, but then never surfaced.  I continued paddling south and got to the end of Kam II…..and then remembered what happened last Monday with the wind!!  Okay, last Monday wasn’t pleasant, so I decided to just paddle around the area to get my workout in.  Then suddenly the wind backed off and I couldn’t see the white caps now, but it was too late to paddle down to the boat ramp.  Oh, I really needed to see the turtles today, but it just wasn’t going to happen.  I came in and the wind stayed out, so it looked good for my swim.  I start swimming in the direction of the rocks down by the end of Kam I…..and suddenly a huge turtle appears under me!  I swam with it for a few minutes and then it started to surface right in front of me.  No kidding, it came up right in front of me with its shell facing me…..so what did I do?  What could I do?  I gave it a shell rub, that’s what!  Then it dove down and came up again, right in front of me, so I did the same thing! It really seemed to be enjoying it.  Then it swam to one side and looked at me!  The turtles head was about two feet from my face!  Then it started to swim, so I swam with it.  The turtle stayed right under me and then came up just in front of me.  Suddenly, I decided to try something, so I carefully put my fingers on the ridges of its shell right above its flippers on each side.  I thought the turtle would probably startle and swim away…..but it didn’t!  It swam gently along pulling me!  I was in shock!  Turtles are stronger than we give them credit for and clearly this turtle had decided that I was not a threat!  This lasted for a few minutes and then the turtle started moving out to sea, so I let go.  I could still see it swimming along out farther!  Well this was quite an amazing adventure, and I probably could get in trouble for doing that, so I would just deny it happened, but those of you who know me, will know what to believe!!!!  Thank you my turtle buddy, you must have known how much I needed that today!