Lots of turtles!

So yesterday was such a perfect day with just a hint of breeze blowing from the south.  The VOG was light and a little bit of cane smoke mingled with the ocean breeze, but other than that, it was a really nice day.  I paddled directly down to the boat ramp….but as I got nearer to it, I could see quite a few people there.  There were kayakers, stand up paddlers, snorkelers, and even a scuba diver!  There seemed to be zero turtles around and I wasn’t surprised with so much activity happening.  I sat there enjoying the day when a turtle suddenly popped up next to my board and then swam around to the nose and then just hung out there!  It was so funny.  Then two kayakers came paddling up by me and I decided that it was too crowded there for my taste!  I paddled farther north, closer to Kam III, and I was just about ready to leave when the turtles starting popping up!  First it was three,  then more surfaced until I had eight turtles all around me!  The turtles kept surfacing and everyone else was farther down by the boat ramp, so I wondered if they would see all the turtles and move to where I was.  Thankfully, no one seemed to notice the turtles and before I left the area, I had counted twenty-three turtles for the day!  That was great since I thought maybe there would be no turtles at all.  What a nice day!

Now today was a nice day too, even fabulous, with no wind blowing making it rather hot paddling down to the boat ramp.  I ran into a turtle, though, as soon as I started paddling out at Kam I and  I stopped and hung around with it for a few minutes.  Then past the boat, I ran into another turtle!  Two turtles and I had only just started to paddle!  That was a good sign.  When I got down to the boat ramp, I immediately spotted two turtles and paddled in between them.  They were so friendly and I was talking to them!  Another turtle popped up behind me and then I heard someone say my name….it was a paddling friend I had not seen for a while so we sat and chatted for a little while.  More turtles surfaced and she told me that she had seen quite a few turtles already that morning.  After she paddled in, I stayed around and was surrounded a couple of times…..once by four turtles and once by three turtles!  Then two local girls paddled over who were borrowing boards and they were thrilled by the turtles coming so close.  They wanted to ask me a million questions…..Have you seen any sharks?   What else have you seen?…..we chatted for a while and enjoyed the turtles and the nice conditions, then I spotted the pontoon tour boat coming in and quickly said good-bye to the girls and moved on.  A nice breeze started blowing from the north which made paddling back much cooler.  The conditions stayed nice for my swim too.  On my way down to the reef, I came across a turtle swimming north so I turned and swam with it!  At one point, it came up and surfaced right in front of me!  I swam with it for awhile and then turned south again.  Down at the reef I saw a big Puffer fish and two Unicorn fish!  I haven’t seen Unicorn fish down there for quite a while.  Then on my way back, I came across a Spotted Eagle Ray and followed it for a few minutes until it headed out to sea!  I am always in awe of the wonders in the sea and feel so blessed to be able to experience those wonders almost every day here on Maui….