wildwahinepaddler

Nice rainbow!

After days of windy conditions, some stormy seas and overcast….I got out on the water today and what a treat to have a rainbow while I paddled out!  It was clearly raining all over the ocean, but it was out farther, but I went out even though I was pretty late.  It was windy and somewhat choppy, but I was glad to be out paddling.  I took a chance and paddled all the way down to the boat ramp.  The skies threatened rain and I only saw a couple of turtles, so I decided to head back.  It was choppy all the way back, but I did see several whales out in the distance!  By the time I came in from paddling, the wind backed off and the sun came out a little bit, so my swim was perfect!  It was good to see my fish again down at the reef!  Hopefully tomorrows conditions will be better, but it’s always a good day out on the water!

Lovely sunset!

It has been so windy for the past few days!  I am ready for the wind to get back to a more normal pattern so I can get out paddling.  The water visibility is supposedly clearing up too.  I did watch some whales spouting at sunset and saw a couple of breaches out at the horizon.  Hopefully things will get back to normal soon!!!

NIce day!

It was a spectacularly beautiful day on Maui today!  The air was clear of the VOG, thanks to the recent rain and wind, and the island of Lanai was even visible today.  The mountain was clear as well.  The wind started to blow and the ocean was rolling, but I went out anyway.  There were not many paddlers or kayakers out today either, so I was on my guard.  It was work paddling down to the boat ramp, but I have to admit, it was fun paddling on the rollers!  Due to the recent storm activity, the water has no visibility, not even at the boat ramp where it is almost always clear.  I got down to the boat ramp and there wasn’t a single turtle to be found.  Of course that always makes me wary when the turtles aren’t even hanging out!  I only stayed for a few minutes and then headed back to Kam I.  It was work paddling back too and the ocean was just NOT very friendly this morning!  When it is like that, I am on alert and there is no down time hanging out anywhere.  I was glad to be out, though, and the day was so beautiful!  I had to time my way in since there was a slight swell that was tossing some people, but I made it in okay.  I knew the water visibility was nonexistent…but I wanted to swim!  I couldn’t see anything, and by the time I got down to my usual turn around spot,  I swam right back.  The water always feels so good though!  Hopefully tomorrow the conditions will improve!

Nice morning!

Except for some VOG in the air, the conditions were perfect for paddling and swimming today.  The sky was clear with no wind and it was even clear on the very top of Haleakala!  It was 9:00 a.m. by the time I got out but it was looking just like yesterday so I paddled down to the boat ramp.  On my way out, some ladies were on floats and they were chirping about a turtle swimming underneath them!  Then I spotted one surfacing up ahead of me.  It was smooth paddling all the way down to the boat ramp and  when I arrived, there were a  few other paddlers there already.  I stayed north of them and pretty soon I spotted a turtle so I paddled over to it.  Then a few more turtles surfaced and I counted five turtles all around me and one under me!  I saw Bumpy a few times and also Lizard.  There were turtles everywhere again today and the water was so calm and clear!  At one point, I looked down and watched five turtles swimming and sitting near the ocean bottom.  Then two more turtles surfaced in front of me and I cruised up in-between them!  I was having a great time with the turtles and I was sitting in-between two large ones, with one on each side of me when a tourist couple on stand up boards paddled by me.  The woman pointed and said, “Look!” and I said that I had two buddies, one on each side of me.  Her partner said, “Before you know it, you’ll be naming them!”  I laughed and said that I already have named them!  Then I told the couple the names of the turtles and described why I named each of them.  The turtles stayed right by my sides, popping their heads up here and there and the woman said that the turtles seemed to know me!  I laughed again because that’s what I think too.  I had counted at least twenty turtles when a paddling friend arrived at the boat ramp.  Then the pontoon snorkel boat pulled up by me too.  We stayed around for a  little while and I was happy to hear one of the boat crew giving the snorkelers instructions to NOT dive and chase the turtles.  It is one of the things I never liked about that boat and it’s snorkelers, but now they are apparently instructing them to behave so that is a good thing!  The crew told my friend and I that if we were ever thirsty, that they have plenty of drinks on board.  Well, that was nice!  We might just have to take them up on that offer one of these days.  The day stayed so nice and it was smooth paddling back too.  My friend went in at Kam II and I paddled on to Kam I.  I was looking forward to my swim and it was a great swim too!  There were lots of fish down at the reef and the water was so refreshing.  It really was a perfect day!!

Path to Paradise!

Well,  I got a late start this morning and almost didn’t go down to the beach.  The day was looking pretty perfect, though, so I got my rear in gear and went down anyway.  Boy am I glad I did!  Even though it was almost 9:30 a.m. before I got out on the water, it was so perfect.  The skies were mostly clear and sunny and the wind wasn’t blowing either….how lucky!  I paddled straight down to the boat ramp and when I got there, I counted five stand up paddlers and a kayak already sitting in my spot!  It was so late that I wondered if I would see any turtles and I was sure the boats would be roaring in at any moment, but did I ever get lucky today!  All the boats were really late coming in and there were a ton of turtles. They were everywhere!  The turtles were popping up all over.  At one point five turtles all surfaced at once and I was surrounded!   I saw “Bumpy” a few times, too, and I also saw “Spot” a couple of times!  The conditions were so perfect I couldn’t believe it.  I counted over twenty turtles and then a paddling friend cruised up and we saw a few more!  Finally, the boats started to make their way in so we decided to paddle back.  We ran into a turtle at Kam III and then several more turtles at Kam I!  I couldn’t believe how nice it was staying!  My friend headed back to Kam II to go swimming and I headed in at Kam I.  My swim was just as perfect and the water felt so nice!  I hope the conditions stay like this for a few more days!  Not bad for the middle of January.

Windy!

I missed paddling yesterday since my car needed some regular maintenance done, so today I was raring to get out on the ocean!  When I got down to the beach, though, it was already starting to get windy!  I went out anyway.  I ran into a paddling friend as I headed into the Kam II area and she was going to paddle north because of the wind.  I decided to paddle south like I usually do, hoping that the wind would back off.  Just as I was passing Kam II, I ran into a big turtle!  Even though I was concerned about the wind, I stopped to visit with it. The wind was at my back the whole way down but it did back off while I was at the boat ramp.  There were two kayakers already there, so I paddled farther south.  I had to wait a while for the turtles, but then they started to surface!  There were so many of them!  Suddenly I was surrounded by four turtles and I thought the kayakers would come paddling over, but they didn’t.  Then a big turtle popped up by me and I recognized it!  It was my new buddy, “”Bumpy”!  It surfaced three times to visit me.  I also saw “Spot” today!  I was sitting between so many turtles I couldn’t keep track of them!  I was pretty sure I had counted about nineteen turtles when another paddling friend cruised up.  We chatted for a few minutes and then more turtles surfaced!  Suddenly I spotted three turtles so I paddled over quickly and it was a turtle triangle!  A couple of other paddlers moved into the area too and my friend decided to paddle back.  I stayed for a little while, until the pontoon boat with snorkelers on it showed up.  I always cringe a bit when I see that boat, but actually many of the crew on that boat are very friendly and often ask about my turtles by name!  After the snorkelers started jumping into the water I knew my time there was over, so I paddled back.  As I passed through Kam II, I ran into a paddling friend and stopped to chat with her.   Before I knew it, the wind blasted in and it wasn’t going to let up!  My friend paddled in at Kam II and I trudged on back to Kam I, struggling against the wind.  It was a work out but I didn’t really mind.  It stayed windy and my swim ended up being a rough water swim!  The water was so clear and it felt so good, so I didn’t mind the wind.  Swimming back was a challenge however!  The wind was not going to back off either.  I hope it’s not windy early tomorrow!!

my buddies!

It was a pretty perfect day for paddling….although not as perfect as yesterday.  The skies were somewhat overcast which made it cooler but harder to see anything in the water.  I got a late start so I paddled directly down to the boat ramp.  I was the only one there and a turtle was waiting for me when I arrived!  Then another turtle surfaced near me and when it swam by me, I could see that it was Lizard!  Two more turtles popped up and one of them was really small, and the larger one had a bump on his shell near his head.  It wasn’t a tumor, but more of an irregularity of its shell.  The same turtle visited three more times, so I  named it “Bumpy”!  There was a lull with no turtles and then they started to come up again.  One of them I could tell was “Torpedo Head” because it shot its head out of the water a few times around me and then disappeared.  I sat between turtles and got surrounded by four turtles at one point!  Before I knew it, I had counted sixteen turtles for the day and headed back.  The sun was trying to come out and it finally did by the time I went for my swim.  The water felt so nice!  No whales today, but I kept an eye for them anyway.  Who knows what tomorrow will bring??

whales approaching

While I was getting ready to go down to the beach, my husband came back from the beach and told me that there was a whale sitting outside of Kam I and a guy on a stand up board was sitting right by it!  Oh boy, I sprung into action and tried to get down there as quick as I could, but by the time I got there the lifeguards had called in the “cavalry” and the Dept. of Land and Natural Resources guys were arriving as I got there.  Soon they were yelling at people who were out by the whales and pacing the beach with binoculars!  I could see a paddling friend out there, so I paddled out by her. We were far enough away from the whales…..but close enough to see them and hear them!  Soon we realized that it was a mother whale nursing a good-sized calf.  Typically when they nurse their babies, they come in closer to shore and they nurse for a while.  While we were watching the whales, a Coast Guard boat sped into the area and then a second boat roared up,  apparently to “guard” the whales!  Well, as the first boat came in, the whales tried to get away from it and came farther south and in closer by us!  After watching them for about 45 minutes, I continued paddling down to the boat ramp where I was greeted by a turtle right away.  Then two more turtles popped up!  One other paddler was out farther than I was, but it didn’t seem like she was having any turtle luck.  I spotted a turtle in further so I paddled in.  Then a really little turtle popped up beyond that one.  The larger turtle swam right up to my board and then popped its head up!  For about 60 seconds the turtle and I just stared at each other!  It was so funny!  Then it dove under my board.  The day was so perfect and by the time I counted eleven turtles, I decided to paddle back to see if the whales were still there.  Conditions were ideal for paddling and as I neared Kam I, I could still see that the Coast Guard boats were still in the area.  I paddled on and parked myself not far from the boat to watch the whales.  The mother whale was still nursing her calf, but had moved farther out in the ocean.  Every now and then I could see and  hear them blowing out of their blowholes and see the large back of the mother whale above the water’s surface.  The whales had now been in the area for about three hours!  I paddled in so I could go for a swim.  The day stayed extremely perfect and my swim was wonderful too!  By the time I came back from swimming, the Coast Guard boats had left the area, so the whales had finally moved out to sea.  It was a great whale day….but I also enjoyed my eleven turtles too!!