wildwahinepaddler

The sunrise was nice.   No cloud cover for the rising sun to play with…… but still very nice.  I could tell there was still some wave activity but the tide was really high so hard to say if that would continue.  By the time I walked back down to the beach….. the lifeguards were patrolling the shoreline.  Another shark had been spotted by a guy paddling with his dog.  Apparently…his dog was in the water when he saw the shark!  Then I found out that my friend who had a shark encounter yesterday while swimming…… was there too when the guy yelled “Shark”!  She paddled in right away.  Well I ended up swimming backstroke (close in…)…. and the water felt great!  Hopefully tomorrow will be a paddling day…..

Beautiful!

It was a lovely colorful sunrise this morning!  It didn’t last very long so I’m glad I got photos.  It was a much nicer day today too….. not much wind and sunny…. yet the ocean wasn’t calm.   The tide was extra high and there was some sporadic shore break.  The ocean was not begging me to paddle!  I instead chose to swim.  It was pretty nice actually.  The water was not as clear as yesterday though.  Later in the morning I was preparing to leave the beach and I saw something very dark cruising the shore out about twenty to thirty yards.  I knew it wasn’t a turtle because it was easily ten feet long and moving much faster than a cruising turtle! I wasn’t sure what to make of it but a beach friend was about to go out swimming so I rushed down to the shoreline to alert him.  He couldn’t see it!  I watched it cruising along heading north.  He went swimming anyway…. in that direction!  Later on one of my paddling friends called me excitedly…… she had come face to face with a shark down outside of Kam 2 while swimming!  This happened right around the time I saw the dark shadow cruising past Kam 1!  She estimated the shark to be around ten feet just like I estimated!  Wow.  She said the lifeguards blew it off when she reported it! How crazy!

It was a nice morning with just a comfortable breeze blowing.  It didn’t stay that way though!  The sky looked stormy and the wind kicked up the ocean.  Yesterday was windy with people getting stung by Portuguese Man o War’s…… I stayed out….today it was just windy and choppy.   I decided to just get wet….. but when I got in the water ….. it was so clear!  I hurried out of the water to go get my mask and fins.   I swam against the wind and current down almost to the end of Charley Young beach.   It was actually very nice.  On the way back…. the wind and current gently pushed me along.  I’m really glad I went in!  The sky still looks stormy so I don’t know what it will be like tomorrow….

Very serene sunrise!  It was a beautiful day too with nice conditions for paddling.  It was much calmer than yesterday so I headed down to the boat ramp.  I ran into a paddling  friend so we went together down to the boat ramp.   It was so nice there!  We waited for awhile for the turtles and only one popped up…one is better than none!  My friend and I picked up trash on the water.  The first thing was a plastic bottle.  I scooped it onto my board.  Well….three little crabs were clinging to it!  Then the crabs and bottle slipped back into the water.  On the way back I picked up the bottle.  Then we saw a Portuguese man o war!  I also scooped up a broken plastic bottle and two little crabs were clinging to the inside of it.  I put the trash between my knees to hold it steady….. then wind suddenly decide to blow!  It blew from the north and the ocean got very rough.   I had to paddle hard to get back!  I managed to get the trash to shore despite the bumpy ride back.  The little crabs were still in the plastic bottle!  I set the bottle on my towel while I put my board on my racks… but  when I looked again the crabs had crawled out!   I don’t know where they went, but now I could throw the trash away.  The wind backed off after I came in from paddling so my swim was nice too.  It was such a nice day!

!&

Beautiful!

Peaceful……

Today was nearly a carbon copy of yesterday.   It was windy and choppy early ( I almost didn’t go out again..)….. and then suddenly the wind backed off and it got really nice for about three hours!  It wasn’t as calm as yesterday but still very nice for paddling and swimming.  The wind is supposed to get back to more normal routines  this week but it’s been weird lately.  I paddled down to the boat ramp and met a friend on the way.  We figured that we had a little time to spend at the boat ramp so we hung out.  Only one turtle surfaced the entire time we were there!  Where are my turtles hiding?  We paddled back in nice conditions and then I went for a swim.   Water visibility was limited down at the reef but I did see a small Puffer fish, several large Trumpet fish, and an assortment of colorful little fish.  I was just getting back to the spot that I exit the water and suddenly a turtle appeared!   It must have been swimming behind me!  I quickly put my mask back on and headed in the turtles direction.  I caught up to it and it was a fairly large male.  I swam with it going north for a while and then it headed out to sea.  I was very happy to swim with a turtle!

Nice!

It was a beautiful sunrise!  The mornings are nice and cool….. I’m happy that it’s Fall!  The strange thing was that it was windy early.   The wind first blew from the north ….. then it turned and started blowing from the south.  I almost just decided to just swim but suddenly the wind backed off and it got surprisingly nice!  By then it was almost ten o’clock!  I grabbed my board and went out.  Wow it was nice so I headed south towards the boat ramp.  When I got down there, one of my paddling friends was there.  We chatted for awhile and saw one turtle ….. but the pontoon snorkel boat cruised in and went right over the turtle!  Luckily it surfaced again!  The boat had a lot of tourists on it ready to jump into the water so we left.  As we passed Kam 3…… another large turtle popped up!  The conditions stayed nice all the way back too.  My swim was nice too.   I saw a little Puffer fish, Rainbow fish,  lots of Yellow Tangs, a big Trumpet fish and some Humu Humu fish.  The water clarity was better than yesterday.  The wind didn’t come in until noon!  I hope it’s nice again tomorrow……