Baby turtles!

I just ran across this photo I took in Mexico of baby turtles.  They are so cute!  I’ve never seen any turtles this small here on Maui.  The smallest turtle I’ve seen here had a shell about 8 – 10 inches long, but that is still pretty small!  The conditions were nice this morning with patchy clouds and calm seas.  I ran into a paddling friend on my way out, so we paddled together for a few minutes and chatted.   Then I paddled down to the boat ramp and when I got there, two women on stand up boards were sitting near my spot.  I paddled more south, nearer the boat ramp, and sat down on my board to wait for the turtles.  I waited for a while and then finally spotted a turtle out farther so I paddled out to it.  It was nearer to the two other paddlers, but they didn’t seem to notice it.  Then another turtle popped up by me!  I had one turtle on each side of me and the other paddlers still didn’t seem to notice.  By the time a third and fourth turtle surfaced, I realized that the other two paddlers were more focused on chatting, so I hung out with the turtles!  The turtles kept coming up one or two at a time, and turtle #5 had a tumor on its neck!  I really don’t like seeing that.  The skies stayed a bit overcast and a little wind kicked up from the south making the ocean surface ripply. The other paddlers moved on and after counting about twelve turtles for the day, I headed back to Kam I.  Finally the sun came out strong on my way back and the wind backed off, so my swim was very nice too!  I saw two interesting things on my swim…..a Trumpet fish so long and fat, it looked like an eel squiggling along the ocean bottom….and a small fish with horizontal stripes measuring about 8 – 10 inches long was swimming along the bottom and then stopped and buried itself in the sand!  I have no idea what kind of fish that was since its body was long and not round like a flounder.  The water felt so wonderful!!  I hope its nice again tomorrow….