Serene Sunday!

Wow, it was just this beautiful today!  The ocean was not as glassy as yesterday, but I just couldn’t complain about the day.  Usually on Sunday, there are a lot of people out paddling , but today I about had the whole place to myself!  Maybe since we had some rain yesterday, and it looked like it might be stormy on other parts of the island, some people might have thought it was stormy over here on the south side too.  I sure didn’t mind the emptiness out on the ocean though!  I paddled down to the boat ramp and about half way there, the ocean turned glassy.  It was so nice down there and so empty!  Just as I was leaving the Kam III area, I noticed a turtle swimming right under me, so I followed it, but it didn’t surface.  Then I was continuing down towards the boat lane, and suddenly I saw a big manta ray swimming around!  I was excited because I haven’t seen one of those in a while, so I just followed it around for a few minutes.  I paddled when it moved and I stopped when it stopped….and this went on for quite a while!  Then I spotted two turtles down by the boat lane, so I paddled down and sat right between them!  One of them swam away, but the other one stayed and hung out.  Then I spotted a turtle farther north, so I paddled north.  When I got to it, it ended up being two turtles, then a third surfaced and a fourth surfaced and I had four turtles surrounding me!  I love when that happens!  Suddenly I saw a head popping in and out of the water, so I knew it was “torpedo head”!  Then another head popped out farther south, so I paddled over.  It was one of the little turtles and it dove down and popped up again!  I was really enjoying the super nice conditions, when I spotted a turtle out farther.  By the time I paddled to it, the turtle had disappeared.   It was a great day getting to hang out with a manta ray and a total of ten turtles…..all by myself!  I paddled back in perfect conditions and looked around for some of my paddling friends, but I didn’t see a single one.  It was so nice, so I paddled down to Charley Young Beach and sat for a while just enjoying the scenery.  I knew it was going to be hard to go in today too!  The conditions stayed nice all the way through my swim and I watched some Yellow Tang fish chasing each other down at the reef.  What a great day for a Sunday!