Turtle party!

It was another gorgeous morning with just a hint of a breeze blowing from the north.  I headed straight down to the boat ramp to avoid the boats and when I arrived, the wind backed off and I was the only one down there!  I was immediately greeted by a big turtle!  Then two more turtles surfaced behind me and one of them swam right next to me.  Then I saw another turtle swimming down under the water so I followed it until it surfaced right next to me!  Turtle #5 and #6 popped up farther north so I paddled over.  I sat right in between them and then a paddling friend showed up.  We were having so much fun with the turtles!  The one turtle that I am nick naming “torpedo head”…… (that shoots it’s head out of the water and zips past us), hung out playing games with us for quite awhile.  We had a turtle sitting between us a couple of times…..and then at one point, we also had a turtle on each side of us!  Also, a turtle triangle!  Suddenly, a turtle swam right up to the side of my board and then partly under it, so I leaned back and patted it’s shell!  I surprised it and it dove under me and then surfaced on the other side.  Then one of the really little turtles showed up twice while we were there too.  My friend decided to paddle back, so I stayed for a few more turtles.  I counted twenty in all for the day!  The day stayed incredibly perfect, so paddling back was great.  Passing Kam III, I ran into another paddling friend and we paddled together down by Charley Young Beach.  The conditions were so glassy and nice that we both agreed it would be hard to paddle in!  She headed back to Kam II, and I headed in for my swim.  The conditions stayed nice all the way through my swim and I ran into a big turtle on my way back!  It swam around me and surfaced right next to me and then dove down and headed out to sea.  The turtle was missing most of its right back flipper……as if something had taken a bite out of it!  I guess it got lucky and was able to get away.  The day was still nice when I left the beach.  I hope it is this perfect tomorrow too!