Turtles!

My goodness…..I forgot to post two days of paddling from last week.  I guess it was a busy week!  Thursday was a beautiful day with much nicer conditions than the previous days, and I enjoyed five very friendly turtles down at the boat ramp all by myself!  Then suddenly the wind came up from nowhere…..and I had to really work to paddle back.  Some times that just happens!  On Friday, I ran into a friend down at the boat ramp.  I had the place to myself until a guy brought five stand up paddlers right to my area!  Before they arrived, I had already enjoyed seven turtles all  by myself and then my friend arrived too.  We stayed a little ways away from them….and the turtles were surfacing one at a time…looking around.  We wondered if they were confused with so many people there.  Finally the group left, and my friend and I enjoyed quite a few more turtles, and then she headed south and I paddled back.  The wind stayed out paddling back and I ran into one last turtle between Kam II and III!  It was a really big turtle and it hung around me for a few minutes, swimming around me and under me before disappearing.  The conditions stayed good through my swim too.  It was a really nice day!

Now today was Sunday, and I wanted to get an early start, so I was in the water around 8 a.m. (which is early for me!).  The wind was already threatening and another paddler told me he was just going to stay in the area due to the wind.  I went out and decided I wanted to paddle down to the boat ramp, so I did!  The wind stayed variable, changing from north to south and back, but stayed about the same strength, so it wasn’t a problem.  At the boat ramp, I had the place to myself, which was odd for a weekend day, but I wasn’t complaining at all!  I spotted my first turtle and paddled to it, but it turned out to be three turtles and I was in the middle of them.  Then another turtle surfaced out farther and when I got to it, the one turtle ended up being four turtles, and again I was surrounded!  I love being surrounded by turtles!  Suddenly coming from the south were quite a few paddlers, so I decided to leave.  Paddling back was really pleasant and the wind held, even through my swim!  It didn’t start to get really windy until later and then it was time to go home!  What a nice Summer day on Maui!