wildwahinepaddler

muscles!

Okay, I realize that this photo is not an ocean photo, but I was just noticing the muscles in my arms today.  Paddling is such a great work out since you are working your arms, legs, butt and abdomen.  Paddling also makes you strong and builds endurance.  This is only one of the reasons I love paddling!  Today was another perfect day with just a little more overcast than yesterday which made it cooler.  It was 8:30 a.m. when I got in the water, so I wanted to paddle straight down to the boat ramp to avoid the boats.  I ran into a paddling friend, so we paddled together  down to the boat ramp.  The ocean was so glassy and nice and when we arrived at our destination, no one else was there!  I spotted my first turtle closer to shore so I paddled in.  I could see a turtle head popping  in and out of the water and as I got closer, I realized it was the turtle I nicknamed “torpedo head”!  Then my friend called to me that she had several turtles by her, so I paddled out.  When I got to her, there were five turtles, so we were surrounded!  Then I spotted two more turtles and paddled over to sit in between them.  My friend decided to head back so I stayed behind.  A turtle was swimming under me, so I followed it until it surfaced!  It seemed that the wind might be coming in, so I decided to head back too.  A man and a woman were paddling by Kam III…….and as I was passing….I noticed a big turtle right by me.  The man yelled, “There’s a turtle right next to you!”  and the woman said, “oh they come right up to her”.  It’s so funny, but that turtle surfaced right next to my board, so close I could pat it!  Then it circled me and then dove down.  Ten turtles for today…not bad!  I paddled back and caught up with my friend, so we paddled together down by Charley Young Beach.  The conditions were so nice, it was going to be hard to go in.  I also saw my husband swimming by us and he waved!  The conditions stayed really nice all the way through my swim and there were a few Humu Humu fish at the reef!  What a nice comfortable day!

Turtle party!

It was another gorgeous morning with just a hint of a breeze blowing from the north.  I headed straight down to the boat ramp to avoid the boats and when I arrived, the wind backed off and I was the only one down there!  I was immediately greeted by a big turtle!  Then two more turtles surfaced behind me and one of them swam right next to me.  Then I saw another turtle swimming down under the water so I followed it until it surfaced right next to me!  Turtle #5 and #6 popped up farther north so I paddled over.  I sat right in between them and then a paddling friend showed up.  We were having so much fun with the turtles!  The one turtle that I am nick naming “torpedo head”…… (that shoots it’s head out of the water and zips past us), hung out playing games with us for quite awhile.  We had a turtle sitting between us a couple of times…..and then at one point, we also had a turtle on each side of us!  Also, a turtle triangle!  Suddenly, a turtle swam right up to the side of my board and then partly under it, so I leaned back and patted it’s shell!  I surprised it and it dove under me and then surfaced on the other side.  Then one of the really little turtles showed up twice while we were there too.  My friend decided to paddle back, so I stayed for a few more turtles.  I counted twenty in all for the day!  The day stayed incredibly perfect, so paddling back was great.  Passing Kam III, I ran into another paddling friend and we paddled together down by Charley Young Beach.  The conditions were so glassy and nice that we both agreed it would be hard to paddle in!  She headed back to Kam II, and I headed in for my swim.  The conditions stayed nice all the way through my swim and I ran into a big turtle on my way back!  It swam around me and surfaced right next to me and then dove down and headed out to sea.  The turtle was missing most of its right back flipper……as if something had taken a bite out of it!  I guess it got lucky and was able to get away.  The day was still nice when I left the beach.  I hope it is this perfect tomorrow too!

paddling!!!

After two days out of the water,  I was ready for a day of paddling!  I got out by 8:30 a.m., but a north wind was already blowing.  I headed straight for the boat ramp, not knowing what the wind was going to do.  Halfway to the boat ramp….the wind backed off….and it got really nice and glassy!  I was happy about that, and even happier when I arrived there and no one else was there.  I immediately spotted my first turtle directly in front of me!  It didn’t stay very long, but I had already spotted two more turtles out farther south.  I paddled right in between them!  One of them disappeared, but the other one was very friendly.  Then there was a lull…..and suddenly a big turtle surfaced behind me!  Then another lull!  I started to wonder if that was it for the day, until I spotted two more turtles farther north.  By the time I paddled to them, a third turtle surfaced and I was in the turtle triangle….then a fourth turtle surfaced and I was surrounded!!!  Then one of the really small turtles popped up and had to check me out.  I try not to move in quick movements when they surface since they are easily spooked.  Then a big turtle surfaced and I was sad to see it had tumors on it.  Luckily the tumors were not on its head or by it’s mouth….but it had quite a few on its neck and right flipper.  Thankfully all of the rest of the turtles looked very healthy.  By the end of my day at the boat ramp, I had counted thirteen turtles and I didn’t have to share them with anyone!  The conditions were still ideal, so I headed back.  The day was so nice, so I paddled down to Cove Park and hung out there for a while just enjoying the scene.  It’s hard to come in when it is so perfect!!!  The conditions stayed nice all the way through my swim too and the reef was clear so I saw lots of tropical fish darting around!  When my swim was over, it was really hard to come in.  The water is especially warm right now and I heard that a whale had been spotted by the Big Island already.  Soon it will be whale season again!  I sure hope I get to paddle with whales again this year……last year was great!

Lovely day!

Oh yes, it was really perfect today!  I was eager to get out on the water  today since tomorrow I have to spend the day getting a repair on my car.  Everything looked perfect, until about ten minutes into paddling, a wind kicked up from the south!  I had to paddle against it all the way down to the boat ramp and I wondered if it was going to get even more windy.  When I arrived at the boat ramp, the wind backed off and it was back to being perfect!  How lucky!  No one else was there either, but it seemed that turtles weren’t around either.  I waited for quite a while until finally the first turtle surfaced.  I hustled over to it and it was friendly!  Then there were no turtles again for a while….until I spotted two turtles out farther.  I paddled out to sit between them and I recognized one of the turtles as being one of the babies, since it was so small!  It was inquisitive…..and it dove down and swam under my board.  Then another lull….until one more turtle popped up to greet me!  Then I ran into a couple of paddling friends and they told me that the other day one of them had a twelve-foot tiger shark following him down by Charley Young beach!!  Wow…..and he said he reported it to the lifeguards who acted like it was no big deal!  I’d think it was a big deal if a shark was following me, wouldn’t you?  Then I decided to paddle back since not much was happening at the boat ramp, but just as I started back, I ran into a big turtle and so I hung around with it for a few minutes.  That was only four turtles for the day!  As I was passing Kam III, I ran into another paddling friend, so we chatted for a few minutes and paddled north.  Suddenly a turtle appeared, and then another one, and then another one!  Now I was up to seven turtles.  The conditions stayed so nice that we paddled all the way down to Cove Park, but on the way, the guy that owns one of the boats called to me and asked if I wanted a cocktail!  He was having a Labor Day party on his boat!  It was so nice out on the water that it was hard to come in, but I wanted to swim while it was nice.  On the way in, another big turtle surfaced and then dove down.  I watched it swimming near the bottom.  The water clarity is perfect right now!  Then I continued to paddle in and suddenly I spotted two very bright blue fish, so I followed them around for a while and then suddenly there were four of them!  I don’t know how long I followed those four fish around, but I really wanted to see if I could identify them.  They were too bright blue for Ulua’s…..but I just don’t know what type of fish they were.  It stayed nice all the way through my swim and just started to get windy again about the time I left.  It was a very lovely Labor Day!!!

sunday sunset!

It was an amazingly beautiful sunset and I almost missed it!  It didn’t look like it was going to be anything special and it appeared that the sun was going to set behind clouds and behind the island of Lanai, but that didn’t happen!  By the time we got home from the store, the sky was on fire and we enjoyed it from our cul de sac.

The morning was equally as nice.  Mostly overcast skies and glassy conditions with some wind blowing out of the south.  I paddled directly down to the boat ramp to avoid the boats coming in.  I was surprised that for a Sunday, no one else was at the boat ramp….so for awhile I had the place to myself.  I spotted the first turtle towards the boat lane, directly in front of me, so I paddled to it.  It was a large turtle and quite friendly!  Next I spotted two more turtles out farther, so I paddled out.  I sat in between them for a few minutes as they lazily floated in the water next to me!  The wind backed off and the conditions got even nicer.  I paddled in for the next turtle and it was one of the little ones I have been seeing, then another little one popped up next to me too!  They are so cute and spunky.  Farther north I spotted another turtle so I paddled in that direction and ended up with three turtles instead of just one!  One of them stayed around and swam the length of my board and then dove under me and came up next to me!  Two other paddling friends arrived at the boat ramp so we chatted.  Four more turtles surfaced around us, so that made twelve turtles for the day, but one of my friends paddled back with me and another turtle surfaced outside of Kam III.  That was thirteen turtles in all for today!  The conditions stayed nice on the rest of the way back and it was nice for my swim too.  It was  quite a pleasant day for the second day of September!

Honu!

The south swell dropped and the water is slowly clearing up, but the day was pretty perfect!  I paddled down to the boat ramp and was happy that I was the only one there.  The turtles were much friendlier today with the water being clearer too.  My first turtle surfaced near the boat lane so I paddled over.  It popped up and looked at me, but didn’t stay long.  Then I spotted two more turtles out farther so I paddled out to them and was able to sit right between them for a few minutes!  Other turtles surfaced one at a time, until four turtles surfaced all at once and surrounded me!  I was having a great time until four kayaks full of tourists showed up and then five other stand up paddlers.  It was getting a bit more crowded than I am comfortable with, so I headed back.  Sixteen turtles was good enough for me!  I paddled back in nice conditions and then ran into a paddling friend heading into Kam II and we also saw a turtle there.  We chatted for a while and then paddled north until a south wind kicked up and she decided to turn around.  I was heading back when I heard someone yelling to me from one of the boats that is anchored out off of Kam I.  It was the guy that owns the boat and he was asking me if his girlfriend could try out my board, so I paddled over and climbed into his boat.  It was getting choppy as she tried hard to stand up, but she kept falling into the water!  Her boyfriend was out in the water trying to help her stabilize the board, but it was pretty choppy.  She was able to paddle back to the boat, so I got my board back.  He has a nice little boat with plenty of room under the deck for three people to sleep…nice!  I paddled in over the chop and then went for my swim.  Except for the wind coming in, the day was really nice!

Check this you tube video out!!!  Lots of turtles!

lovely day!

Despite there being some cane smoke in the air, the day was quite lovely.  I paddled south to get away from the smoke and I hoped there would be some wind to blow it all away before I paddled back.  The ocean water was not very clear because there was a bit of a swell coming in and it was not very clear at the boat ramp either.  Even though I was the only one at the boat ramp……the first few turtles I spotted were spooking easily and were not very friendly.  This is quite unusual so I was wondering if it might be due to the water not being clear?  They did seem on edge and not as friendly today as they usually are.  My last six turtles were friendly though, and I sat between a couple of sets of two turtles and even ended up in the middle of a turtle triangle!  I was surprised that I counted sixteen turtles, plus one I saw swimming under me while paddling past Kam II.  Even the really little one was out and about and also the turtle with the big head that shoots it out of the water and then goes under!  He played tricks with me all morning……popping up in front of me and going down, then popping up next to me and then going down, and so on!  On the way back, I ran into a paddling friend and we reminisced about our Sunday dolphin experience…..Sunday was quite a day!  Then I spotted one more turtle hanging around Kam I before I paddled in.  My swim was nice too and although the white caps were out there, the wind had still not come in by the time I left the beach.  It was a lovely day!

I love turtles!

The day started out pretty overcast, but it wasn’t windy at all.  The conditions on the ocean were perfect and glassy, so I was eager to get out there!  It was pure joy paddling on the glassy water and the overcast skies made it cooler, so my trip down to the boat ramp was great!  It seemed no one else was around  when I arrived, so I pretty much had a perfect day there all to myself.  I immediately spotted a turtle down by the boat land, so I hustled down there, only to have a boat take off and scare it away!  After the wake from the boat settled down, it was perfect and glassy again.  I sat back on my board to wait for the turtles, and they started to surface one at a time allowing me to visit with each one of them!  Then two surfaced at the same time and I paddled over to sit in between them.  This went on for quite a while until I had counted fifteen turtles!  I was very happy with that but then suddenly five turtles surfaced all at once for a nice grand finale!   I loved it.  Then out farther one more turtle surfaced and I paddled out to it.  That made twenty-one turtles for today….wow!  The conditions were still nice except a wind from the north had emerged, so I paddled back over some consistent bumps.  I wondered if it was going to get windy, so  I was glad I was almost back.  As soon as I came in, the wind backed off and it was glassy and calm again.  It was nice when I went swimming too, but just as I was ready to come in, the wind came up again.  The wind just couldn’t decide what it was going to do!  The skies got more cloudy and out in the distance over the ocean, it looked like it was raining.  As I got ready to leave the beach I was thinking how nice it would be if we actually got some rain.  It’s been quite dry lately and we could always use some rain!  It was still a really nice day for the beach….