Total enjoyment!

When I got down to the beach, there were whales out in the water!  A mother and calf right in front of Kam I and two other whales farther north.  The two farther whales were spouting and the mother and calf were just hanging out!  I rushed to get out in the water.  I paddled straight out today which is not the usual path for me, and on my way out a turtle popped up in front of me!  I paddled quite a distance from the boats, but I never saw the whales out there!  A paddling friend paddled out even farther, but I could see white caps from where I was and the ocean was a lot bumpier out there too, so I decided to move in closer to shore.  The conditions were really nice in closer so it was smooth paddling all the way down to the boat ramp!  Just as I was passing Kam III, two turtles surfaced so I stopped to visit with them for a few minutes.  I knew it was getting later but I wanted to go to the boat ramp anyway.  I was the only one there and the turtles were everywhere!  I was having a hard time keeping up with counting them since there were so many.  I lost track of how many times I sat between turtles and ended up in the middle of turtle triangles, and I was surrounded most of the time I was there!  A couple of times I just laid down on my board and let my arms fall into the water and even though I closed my eyes……I could hear the turtles surfacing and splashing around me!  At one point, a turtle slid right under my hand and it stayed there as I patted it!  Then it just clunked its shell right up against my board a few times.  Then it must have ducked its head under the water, because when it surfaced and blew out its air, it actually spit on me!!!!!!  It was so funny!  I also named a new turtle today.  I had seen it a few other times and it had a stumpy tail as if it had been chewed off, so its name is now “Stumpy”!  I also saw Bumpy today too!  There must have been at least twenty-one turtles at the boat ramp and two at Kam III, and the one at Kam I…. so that was a total of twenty-four turtles for the day!  I’m so glad the turtles are back!  I paddled back in perfect conditions and it stayed nice all the way through my swim too.  It was just a really great day!!