Lovely!

Yesterday I wasn’t feeling well so I took the day off from paddling, but today I really wanted to go out on New Years day!  I got up early enough and headed down to the beach.  It was so nice down there!  It looked like a perfect day for paddling.  The beach was so empty and I figured that the tourists were sleeping in after New Years Eve parties!  The skies were mostly sunny and the ocean calm, so paddling down to the boat ramp was really nice.  It seemed like very few people were out on the ocean too, but I didn’t care!  When I got down to the boat ramp, there was a kayak and a stand up paddler there.  They were very close in by the shore, so I stayed out farther.  The turtles made me wait, and wait, and wait……then finally one surfaced so I hurriedly paddled over.  The turtle hung out for a few minutes and then dove down, but at about the same time two more turtles popped up behind me!   Turtle #4 popped up and dove down three times just like “Torpedo Head” does, but this turtle was so much smaller.  Then a really small turtle surfaced and swam near my board.  Farther north, I spotted two turtles floating on the surface so I paddled over and cruised up between them.  Then a third turtle popped up and created a turtle triangle!  One of the turtles disappeared and then reappeared and they were still in a triangle!  It was about time for me to head back when I noticed a turtle swimming underneath me.  I stopped to visit but it never surfaced.  Nine turtles were a nice treat for New Years Day!  I paddled back and the wind seemed to be coming up.  Passing into Kam I, I ran into a paddling friend who had just come out.  We were chatting for a few minutes when the wind DID come up!  We said good-bye to each other and went our separate ways.  I was heading in when all of a sudden a big gust of wind almost blew me off my board!  Then my hat blew off before I could cinch the chin strap and I managed to catch it, but in doing that I almost lost my paddle and then almost fell off my board!  The wind was really gusting in spurts as I paddled in.  I was glad I was almost in when all this happened!  The wind got stronger and didn’t back off, so I had a rough water swim!  The water wasn’t very clear today either as well as being choppy, so I didn’t bother to go to the reef.  Swimming back  against the wind was a chore!  The wind continued to blow and that made it tricky to hoist my board up onto my racks.  I had to hang on to my board tightly or it was going to blow out of my hands!  I was so glad when I finally had it tied up securely on my car.  The wind started blowing the sand on the beach too, so it was time to go home.  The day started out with such nice conditions, but quickly deteriorated into clouds, wind and white caps!  Hopefully tomorrow will be better….but still not bad for Jan. 1st…..we’ll take it!!!