Honu!

After some very windy days…..I was anxious to get back out on the ocean.  Since today is the Fourth of July, I expected a lot more people at the beach than usual, which also usually means there is no parking in the parking lot, but I got lucky and someone was leaving!  I got into the water by 8:30 a.m. and it was perfect.  I paddled south towards the boat ramp.  To my surprise, there was hardly anyone down there!  I had the place to myself!  The first turtle that surfaced, popped its head up a couple of times and then disappeared, then I sat for a while hoping that more turtles would appear.  It was a joy to just sit out there today since the conditions were so nice, but finally I spotted a turtle out farther so I paddled out.  As I cruised up, I realized that there were actually two turtles there, so I sat between them! One of the turtles dove under my board and was swimming back and forth under me!  Then the other turtle swam over and popped its head up a few times to look at me.  Three turtles were it for the day, so I paddled back in nice conditions.  Sometimes a couple of friendly turtles is just as neat as seeing twenty turtles.  The ocean was so nice, I hated to come in, but I also wanted to swim in case the wind came up.  Suddenly a big dark cloud moved in over the beach and it started to rain!  I went for my swim, but the combination of the water visibility not being that great today, and the cloud overhead, made it dark under the water.  I don’t really like not having good visibility when I swim so I stopped right before the reef and swam back.  Before long the wind moved in and it was time to leave, but what a great morning for the Fourth of July!!