Here come the turtles!

It was another beautiful day on Maui today!  Calm conditions were the order of the day and no wind.  Some VOG was still hanging around but a lot of it did blow away.  Paddling down to the boat ramp was a joy and hardly anyone was out paddling.  It always makes me wonder why no one is out…..like I  missed the memo or something!  The conditions were really perfect though!  I saw the VOG hanging on the mountain and the island of Lanai was not visible either, so if the trade winds don’t come in, the VOG will most definitely get worse.  At least today was perfect!  I sat for awhile down at the boat ramp and no turtles were around.  I thought about leaving and then two turtles popped up, one on each side of me!  I told them, “it’s about time you guys!”  One of the turtles kept going under and popping its head up and then I realized that it was the turtle I affectionately call “Torpedo Head”!  It completely circled me and then dove under.  A paddling friend cruised up on us and a few more turtles surfaced.  I recognized another turtle too, it’s the one I call “Spot”!  Spot swam right next to me for a little while and then dove under.  My friend yelled that there were three turtles farther north so we paddled over.  I cruised up between them and yelled, “Am I in the turtle triangle?” and my friend yelled yes!  Then another turtle surfaced and ended up between my friend and me, instead of the other way around!  It was so glassy and nice down at the boat ramp and we had all the turtles to ourselves.  By the time I counted fifteen turtles, we decided to paddle back.  We paddled down past Kam I and hung out for awhile to chat.  It was going to be hard to make that paddle in since it was so very nice, but my friend headed to Kam II and I headed in at Kam I.  Then I heard my friend yelling that there was a manta ray out there!  I whipped my board around and headed out in the direction she was pointing and there it was!  I think there might have been two, but I only really saw one big one.  I followed it for a while and then it disappeared down below.  I headed in, happy that I got to see a manta ray today!  My swim was nice too, but the water is still not very clear so I decided not to go to the reefs today.  Suddenly, a turtle appeared under me so I turned around and swam with it!  It took me way down past Kam I……swimming just under me and then coming up in front of me, begging to be petted!  I got to pet it several times when it surfaced in front of me and then I playfully tugged on its flipper twice!  It was so funny.  It pulled away briefly, then turned sideways and looked back at me and just floated there.  It was so fun to get to play with a turtle for such a long time!  Then we hit some really kicked up water and I lost sight of it so I swam all the way back to my starting point.  What a great adventure!!!!!  I love turtle play days!