wildwahinepaddler

So glad to see my buddies!

Oh yes, it was glorious!  Even though it was intermittently cloudy and the water wasn’t glassy…….I didn’t care, I was just so glad to be out on the water again!  In fact, the ocean was a bit “loopy”, which isn’t actually choppy, but wavy.  I seemed to be the only paddler out, which usually makes me wonder if there is something I don’t know…..but again, I didn’t care because I was OUT on the water!  As soon as I started to paddle, I ran into a turtle right at Kam I and that was a nice surprise!  I paddled north and then made my turn south and there was only a slight breeze blowing from the south.  I wasn’t sure how long I would paddle for my first day back in three weeks….but I just felt so wonderful and strong….so I just kept on paddling!  Before I knew it, I was all the way down to the boat ramp.  I didn’t plan to stay long though, so I hoped to see at least one turtle.  They didn’t disappoint me either…..the first turtle surfaced a few feet away from the nose of my board!  Then a second turtle surfaced behind me, popping up to take a breath of air!  Then two more turtles surfaced and I was, indeed, surrounded by four turtles!  I just sat there in the middle of them for a few minutes as I watched them swim around me and under me.  I was so excited!!!  Then another turtle surfaced off to my left and farther away, and the sixth turtle surfaced out farther.  It all happened pretty fast…..and all in all, it was one turtle at Kam I and six turtles at the boat ramp!  With that, I decided to start paddling back.  The loopy waves that pushed me down to the boat ramp were now in front of me, pushing against me!  It was a workout to paddle back, but I was up for it.  It felt great to be paddling again and the conditions actually improved by the time I went swimming, so that was very enjoyable too!  I’m so glad to be back and feeling great!

Missing my turtles!

Well,  life doesn’t always go according to plan.  Today I learned that I had a “hidden” stitch which had to be taken out because it was firmly stuck inside my skin.  I ended up needing it to be cut into in order to get the stubborn stitch out….which caused some bruising and a cut.  I asked my doctor, “But what about paddling tomorrow????”  To which he replied, “Give it a couple to three days and see how it recovers”…… oh crap, I really wanted to get out on the ocean tomorrow!  I sure hope it recovers quickly!!!  I really miss my turtles!

Saturday sunset!

Well I heard it today from my doctor…..only one more week out of the ocean!!!!  I can’t wait to get back in the water.  The sunset was very nice tonight!

Nice sunset!

It was a nice evening down at Kam I….. I am really missing the ocean and paddling!!!!!!!

dolphins!

I’m sorry I have been MIA lately….but I am recovering from some surgery and will likely be out of the water for a little while.  I will still try to do some posting, but it might not be as exciting as paddling!  Of course it won’t be,  but I posted this photo that my paddling friend took of the dolphins on one of those magical days.  Last evening I saw the most interesting documentary on the Discovery channel while I was resting on the couch, called “Mermaids”, and I found myself becoming very emotional.  Apparently there was a sea creature that washed up on a beach in Washington and two young boys discovered it.  The government tried to talk the boys out of what they say they saw, which was a human like creature with fins.  One of the boys had a phone and got some footage which he did not tell the government guys he had.  It is haunting footage to be sure!  Anyway, the scientists had a decomposed body of some kind of sea creature and they took it a part and tested the parts and put together a figure of what the sea creature probably looked like.  The scientists didn’t want to admit it, but they finally all agreed that it was a mermaid creature and they were astonished!  They did a lot of digging of information and personal accounts of fishermen telling stories of seeing human like creatures with fish tails.  They looked at all of it, and along with underwater sounds that were not whales or dolphins……yet they communicated with the whales and dolphins through sound….and what they found was astonishing!  Most of the scientists left NOAA because all of their files and research was confiscated in the middle of the night and all of them knew what they had found.  You really must watch that program because it was amazing!  At the end they showed a group of fisherman with nets, and the dolphins would steer the fish into the shallow water and allow themselves to be caught in the net, while the fishermen pulled in the catch.  They trusted the fishermen that they would release them, which they did, and then waited patiently for the fishermen to share the catch with them, which they did!  It was amazing to watch these beautiful, intelligent sea creatures working together with humans for a common goal and trusting the humans!  The scientists believe that the mermaids travel with migratory whales for safety and hunt with dolphins.   I know my personal experiences with the dolphins has been amazing and I was amazed with the concept of mermaids being real!  Some of the program was about the Navy sonar and how it is harming whales, dolphins, and mermaids (since this is what the scientists believe has caused some of them to wash up on beaches).  Now I am really against the Navy using sonar!  If you get a chance, be sure to watch this program, you will be as amazed as I was…..and maybe even shed a tear as I did.  Until next time….

Beautiful day!

Well it seemed like the picture perfect day, and it was a beautiful day, but five minutes into paddling,  a wild Kona wind whipped up!  It’s amazing how quickly the conditions can change.  I wanted to paddle anyway, so I decided to tough it out!  Then I ran into a paddling friend, and we paddled together south.  It seemed that we paddled and paddled, and we weren’t really getting very far!  The wind was crazy and the ocean was all white caps, but we kept on paddling.  My friend said that a turtle was hanging out by the catamaran,  just off Kam I, and sure enough when we got to the catamaran, there was a turtle hanging out on the surface!  I paddled out to it, and it popped its head up a couple of times to look at me, then floated around for a few minutes and then disappeared.  We continued towards Kam II, and the wind was backing off slightly, but then roaring in again.  We kept on paddling, then my friend spotted a turtle out from Kam II.  I paddled out to it, but it disappeared.  Then she spotted another turtle out in front of us, but by the time we were able to paddle to it, the turtle had disappeared.  We made it to the end of Kam II, and then it seemed like the wind might change direction, so we turned around.  We were surprised that it wasn’t super easy to get back, but the wind from the south and the wind from the north were competing with each other and that just caused chop in the water!  As we paddled into Kam I, I spotted a turtle down in the water, but it just seemed to be sitting near the bottom and not coming up.  By the time I came in and put my board on my car, the wind had really backed off, so I got to swim in perfect conditions!  You just never quite know what you are going to get, and sometimes the conditions are just a mixed bag. It was great to be out on the ocean anyway on such a beautiful day!

Coming to visit!

This is a photo of a paddling friend watching a turtle swimming over to visit me!

Today my whole day was already made in the first twenty or so minutes of paddling when I was heading south and a spinner dolphin surfaced right in front of me!  There were two people in canoes who were also paddling in my direction and I could see that they were paddling with a few other dolphins too.  I whipped my board around and started paddling in that direction too!  Suddenly one of the canoe paddlers yelled, “There are two coming directly at you!”  And he was right!  Two dolphins swam straight at me and dove under my board and came out on the other side!  I’m not sure how many dolphins there were in all, but the canoe paddlers kept going and I saw another paddler paddling furiously to catch up with them.  I stopped and started to turn south, when up popped one of the dolphins right next to me!  Then two more surfaced in front of me and I sat there surrounded by three playful dolphins!  They swam and played around me and I actually was talking to them!  I was saying, “Oh dolphins, don’t you want to just stay with me???”  I couldn’t believe that three had actually stayed behind the others and visited with me.  WOW!  Oh how I love the dolphins!  When they finally disappeared, I paddled south and the wind had picked up, so it was a paddle against the wind all the way to the boat ramp.  I didn’t mind the workout and the day was just beautiful.  When I got to the boat ramp, though, it was so crowded between jet skis, boats, three catamarans and a group of stand up paddler beginners with what appeared to be an instructor!  It was too crowded for my taste, but I hung around for a few minutes, and only one turtle surfaced.  I think there was way too much activity down there for the turtles today!  Oh well, my day had already been made by the dolphins, so I paddled back, hoping the wind would not change directions.  Luckily, the wind continued to blow north and I paddled back with the gentle hiss of white caps, pushing me from behind!  It was very enjoyable to listen to the sound of the white caps hissing….. it’s actually very peaceful when that happens.  I made it back and the wind stayed the same, so it was a swim against the wind too, but by the time I turned around to swim back, the wind died down and the ocean got glassy.  It sure was another one of those really nice summer days at the beach!!!!!

Lovely day!

I finally got back out on the water today.  The south swell had the conditions messed up for a few days….but today was beautiful and calm!  I paddled down to the boat ramp and I was the only one there.  The day was so nice and it was such a pleasure just sitting out on my board and enjoying it, but the turtles were nowhere to be found.  I stayed down there for longer than I planned, and just as I was going to leave, I spotted two turtles out farther.  I paddled out to them and sat between them!  I was closest to the turtle on my left, so I just hung out there with it.  It was very friendly!  Then two more turtles popped up and they were friendly too.  I hung out with the three turtles for quite a while and it was so quiet…..just the sound of them surfacing and taking in breaths of air!  I love it when it’s like that.  After awhile my thoughts started to drift to concerns about the wind, and if it was going to come in and when.  I paddled back in perfect conditions, though, and it stayed perfect all the way through my swim too!  It was just a beautiful and perfect day!!  I really needed one too!

Beautiful day!

I had every intention of paddling today.  Even this photo shows you how perfect it looked at that moment…..yes at that moment.  By the time I was getting my beach stuff out (and was lucky enough to get a parking spot right off the bat), I noticed that the red flags were out and sure enough, in came the shore break from another south swell!  I decided to watch it for a few minutes and it was definitely there and then the wind came up and there were white caps as well.  It was a beautiful day however, so I opted to respect the red flags (and my desire to not get caught in one of the shore break waves), and walked the beach and then swam back strokes since the visibility was also affected by the swell.  Oh well, there is always tomorrow and it will definitely be less crowded than Independence Day!  We sat on the beach and just enjoyed the day.  Happy Fourth of July!

Looking towards the West Maui mountains

Well,  it looked like it was going to be calm….but when I arrived at the beach, it was already getting windy.  Not only that, but when I entered the driveway at Kam I, the only available parking spot had a guy standing in it….”saving” it for someone to park in!  UH OH….he didn’t know who he was dealing with!  I opened my window and told him to move and he told me he was saving it for someone.  I told him, “You can’t do that!”…which he replied, “why not?”  I pulled up right to his body and yelled out my window, because you are not a car!  He moved out of the way and I parked and proceeded to get my beach stuff out of my car.  Then a guy with a Summer Pals t’shirt comes up to me and starts telling me that they can save parking spots, to which I said, “No you can’t”.  Then I walked towards him and asked, “Which Pals group is this?”  He told me Pukalani and then rattled off his name so I couldn’t understand it!  Oh, they are so going to hear from me at the Summer Pals office, oh yes they are.  So not such a good start to my day, and the wind was already starting to blow from the north, but  I went out anyway.  After all that hassle, I guess I had to!  Anyway, it was windy,  so I paddled north against the wind to Kalama Park and turned south.  Then the wind backed off while I was paddling south, so I kept paddling.  When I got into Kam III…..the wind kicked up in a frenzy…..and since I was not interested in getting caught in the wind, I decided to forgo the boat ramp today.  Luckily, one turtle popped up in the choppy water, right next to me….but that was it.  I paddled back in windy conditions, and by then, overcast skies too.  It even  looked like it was raining in the direction of Makena.  I made it back in, and by the time I went swimming, the wind backed off again, and I had a really nice swim!  Some days are just like that, even in paradise!