wildwahinepaddler

Glimpse of Makena Big Beach

This is a photo I took climbing up the rocks at Makena.  Makena is beautiful, but the shore break can be deadly.  Makena has some of the best snorkeling and is one of my most favorite spots to snorkel or take walks along the road which runs down the middle of the lava fields.  It’s like another world down there!   Today was another beautiful day on Maui, with the wind blowing from the north.  I paddled south with the wind at my back and before I knew it I was almost past the boat ramp!  There were two paddlers and a kayak already there when I arrived.  I stayed north of them and waited for the turtles.  It took awhile, but finally three turtles surfaced but they didn’t stick around.  I decided to wait it out.  I can usually wait longer than most people, so the others eventually left the area.  Then the turtle show began!  I spotted two turtles so I cruised up right between them.  The turtle on my left disappeared, but the turtle on my right was very friendly!  Then we were joined by two more turtles and I was in a turtle triangle!  Then I was off to sit between two more turtles.  While I was sitting there enjoying the turtle show, I noticed a big turtle swimming in my direction.  I watched it coming closer and closer to the side of my board and expected it to dive under at the last moment, but instead, at about two inches from my board, it pushed its head up and opened its mouth so wide I could see right into it!  It was only taking a big breath of air…..but my reflex was to move away from that big mouth…. since turtles can bite!  I lurched to the right of my board and almost fell in!  It was so funny to be the one startled today.  I have never had a turtle act aggressive towards me or act like it might bite, but it’s funny how your reflexes take over before you even have a few seconds to process what is happening at the moment.  Maybe I have been reading too many shark stories lately!  Anyway, the turtle then dove under my board and popped up on the other side of me.  I was having a great time with the turtles and had just counted twelve for the day, when I decided to head back.  Just outside of Kam III, I ran into three paddling friends.  We chatted for a few minutes.  They had paddled north first and then paddled down towards the boat ramp.  Suddenly a turtle surfaced and was swimming right towards me again!  Just as it got to me, it dove down and swam directly under me and then popped its head out of the water.  That made it thirteen turtles for the day!  The wind had died back and the conditions were really perfect…so I knew it was going to be hard to go in.  It was nice all the way through my swim too.  I had three blue and silver fish visit me and then I watched the fish at the reef.  Then as I headed back, I ran into a turtle so of course I turned around and swam with it down almost to Kam II!  The grand total of turtles today ended up being fourteen!  On my swim back, I noticed something moving in the sand on the bottom, so I stopped to investigate.  It was a crab trying desperately to move a rock!  It was so funny.  I watched it try every side of the rock, but the rock wasn’t budging!  I’m not sure, but I think it wanted to hide under the rock and that wasn’t going to happen!  The things I see while paddling and swimming can be pretty funny sometimes.  The conditions ended up staying nice and the beach was still nice when I left.  Great day!

turtles, turtles, everywhere!

It was another nice day on Maui today,  just like yesterday, except the sky was overcast and a Kona wind was blowing.  The wind made the ocean surface a bit kicked up, but it was also glassy, if you can believe it!  The glassy “chop” was creating some interesting colors on the water of blue and gray shimmer.  It was kind of trippy!  Just as I was getting out there, a turtle popped up right in front of me and it was on the move, so I paddled after it until it disappeared.  Paddling down to the boat ramp was very enjoyable.  The overcast made it so much cooler too.  There were quite a few paddlers out today and some of them were paddling in the same direction as I was, so I was hoping they were going to keep going and not stop at the boat ramp.  As I paddled into the boat ramp area, I could see two turtles up ahead!  I paddled towards them, and as I got closer, it was three turtles…..and then four turtles, so I paddled right up into the middle of the four turtles!  Then a fifth turtle surfaced too, so that was five turtles within a few minutes.  At one point, I was happily sitting between two turtles and another turtle popped up right next to my board and startled me!  There were so many turtles everywhere I looked and some of them came up right next to me!  Before I knew it, I had counted eighteen turtles at the boat ramp, then on my way back, I ran into a turtle at Kam III!  Altogether, that was twenty turtles for today.  The conditions stayed nice and the sun came out a little more, so my swim was very enjoyable too.  Unfortunately, the prediction is that the VOG will be returning with the Kona winds, until the trade winds return to blow it all away.  I hope it doesn’t last very long!  I look forward to another perfect day of paddling tomorrow……

perfect day!

Wow, it sure was a perfect day.  Calm conditions and just a breeze blowing from the south were the order for the day!  Just as soon as I hopped on my board and started to paddle…..a big turtle popped up and it sat between me and a paddling friend, just hanging out!  Then a second turtle surfaced to my left.  That was two turtles already for the day and it was just starting!  I paddled blissfully down to the boat ramp and I was the only one there.  A turtle greeted me as I paddled into the boat ramp area!  Then two turtles surfaced, one on each side of me, and two more turtles surfaced in front of me!  I was surrounded and happily so!  The rest of the time I was there, five more turtles surfaced to visit……so that was ten turtles at the boat ramp and two turtles at Kam I.  Then, as I paddled back and was passing Kam III…..two more turtles surfaced, so I stopped and hung out with them too!  It was such a perfect day and the wind had turned north, but still just a comfortable breeze.  I paddled down to Charley Young Beach and then turned towards Kam I and on my way in, I ran into the two turtles that I saw when first paddling out!  I’m pretty sure they were the same turtles…..so my turtle count for the day was fourteen turtles!  The conditions stayed perfect all the way through my swim and the visibility was much improved down at the reef.  I saw a baby Puffer fish, a Yellow tang, and a Rainbow fish….and when I was swimming back, I ran into a turtle, so I swam for a while with it!  When it headed out to sea so I continued swimming back…..and then ran into another turtle!  Of course I had to turn and swim with it too!  My swim became a long one due to the turtles showing up…but I didn’t mind at all!  I don’t think these were the same turtles as before because they were smaller, so my turtle count went up to sixteen for the day!  It was great running into the turtles during my swim and the wind stayed out until I was about to leave.  What a perfect day!!!!!

Turtle kind of day!

Yesterday it was so nice to have no vog……and then there was some smoke in the air from cane burning……I sure wish they would put an end to the cane burning!  Luckily it was just hanging around the base of the mountain and eventually it did blow away.  It certainly was a day for turtles though!  I ran into a paddling friend on my way down to the boat ramp so we paddled together.  She spotted the first turtle….and then two turtles surfaced right by me!  By the time I had counted ten turtles, my friend had to leave, and I stayed until I had counted over twenty turtles for the day!  Today when I arrived at the beach a breeze was blowing from the south and it had the surface of the water kicked up.  It started like that yesterday too, so I hoped it would back off.  Sure enough, about five minutes into paddling, the wind backed off and the ocean got glassy and nice!  The skies were mostly clear and the whole top of Haleakala was clear too.  It was just a really nice Fall day!  I paddled down to the boat ramp and it was actually kind of hot without a breeze blowing at all.  I was surprised that I was the only one at the boat ramp since it was a weekend day, but I wasn’t complaining.  Just as I was paddling into the area, I spotted two turtles, one on each side of me, and then a third popped up in front of me so I was instantly in a turtle triangle!  This happened to me two more times in a row and that was nine turtles within just a few minutes of each other!  The turtles kept popping up and some of them circled me and swam under me too!  By the time I counted twenty turtles, I decided to paddle back.  Just as I took off, three turtles surfaced all on my left side and were on the move, so I kept paddling!  When they stopped, I stopped too, of course!  Then I saw two more turtles surfacing near three other stand up paddlers that had just entered the area.  In all, that was twenty-five turtles for today!  The conditions stayed glassy all the way back and my swim was very enjoyable too.  The underwater visibility is still not that great due to the swell of the last few days, but hopefully by tomorrow it will clear up down by the reef.  When the visibility is not good, I don’t hang out at the reef!  All in all, it was a beautiful day on Maui!

oh hello!

While yesterday was a blustery, choppy day…..today was very nice!  There was a north breeze, which was good because it was slowly blowing all the VOG out to sea.  I could finally see Lanai, Molokini, Kahoolawe, and the West Maui mountains today!  I paddled directly down to the boat ramp.  The breeze was nice but I wasn’t sure if it was going to stay just a breeze or turn into a wind.  I spotted my first two turtles just as I was paddling into the boat ramp area, so I paddled to them.  A paddling friend who was paddling out of the area, yelled at me that there were two turtles behind me too!  I was surrounded!  It was a great turtle day and I only had one snorkeler to compete with, and he ended up being really nice.  He got to see lots of turtles hanging out by me and he kept me posted on the ones that were under my board!  There were several turtle triangles and at one point, I had four turtles all around me and the snorkeler yelled that I had two more behind me again!  Yup….surrounded again!  I told the snorkeler how much I love just sitting in the middle of all the turtles, so he said he was going to leave me in my “reverence”!  He swam away from me and I realized that there had been at least twenty turtles today!  The conditions were still nice so I decided to paddle back.  Only the breeze had become a little stronger…almost a wind….and I got a good workout paddling against it!  I ran into two more turtles outside of Kam III too!  I got back and the day was still very nice and my swim was great too.  It ended up being a good day with lots of turtles and very little VOG!!!!!!  Maybe the VOG will be completely blown away by tomorrow if the north winds continue….just maybe!