Here turtle, turtle!

It was a nice day on Maui today, but a wind was already blowing from the south.  I got out earlier today hoping to avoid the wind,  but it was already blowing.  I paddled against it down to the boat ramp.  Initially it wasn’t too bad, but soon the wind strengthened and it got choppy.  By the time I got to the boat ramp, the wind backed off and it was so nice!  I ended up being the only one there for a while and I paddled right up into a turtle triangle…nice!  Then one of the turtles disappeared and I was sitting in-between the other two….but then two more turtles popped up and I was surrounded by four turtles!  Some of the turtles today were so inquisitive.  One turtle popped up behind me, then swam by the left side of my board up to the nose….and then dove under me.  I could see it swimming under me because the water was so clear!  Then another turtle joined that one and I watched the two of them swimming back and forth under my board.  Just as I had counted eleven turtles, a paddling friend showed up and turtle #12 surfaced by us!  He and I watched a few more turtles surfacing and then he moved on.  I stayed until I had counted sixteen turtles!  Then I heard my name being yelled and looked north and it was my paddling friend.  He was saying,”Mary…..the wind just changed directions!”  And since I had not been paying attention, he was right.  I started paddling back just in case the wind got stronger, but when I got to Kam II, the wind backed off again.  Then I ran into another paddling friend, so we chatted for a while and paddled together down to Cove Park.  The wind stayed out and the conditions were really nice which made going in very difficult!   My swim was equally as nice and I watched Trumpet fish and Humu Humu fish hanging out down at the reef.  I didn’t see any turtles during my swim today.  The wind tried to come in again and then backed off….as if it couldn’t decide what direction it was going to blow.  I hoped it was going to blow from the north because there was still some lingering VOG obscuring the island of Lanai, but so far, the wind wasn’t cooperating!  Oh well…..it was still a very nice day for paddling!