It's All About The Turtles!!!!

It's getting close to D-Day ... Darn it we have to leave day!!!!  One last long snorkel trip off Kamaole Beach Park across the street from my condo, is the first choice of the day.  I gathered my 2 foot long bright yellow Scuba Pro fins, mask and camera and headed out with Patty and all her gear!!  The water is getting a little chilly in the morning, but concentrating on getting your gear on makes it not so noticeable.   We head out to Turtle Town with visibility of about 25 feet.  It didn't take long to run into Big Mama!!!  This big girl is over 3 feet wide and probably as long as Patty is tall!!!  The green on her back is algae.

As she was swimming along, I tried to keep up, circling around her ... they look like they are flying underwater.  Of course, she left me in the dirt, but not before I snapped a few images.  You will probably be happy that my little point and shoot in it's underwater case, doesn't process images very fast  at all ... resulting in only a few pictures!!!  Don't worry ... I checked on Miss Patty often as I was swimming away!!!!!  She did a great job keeping up!!!

I followed Big Momma for several minutes as she headed back into the rocky shoreline at breakneck speed, always looking through the camera viewfinder ... and occasionally at the coral to be sure I didn't scrape myself.  All of a sudden, she made a sharp right turn, leaving me face to face with this guy!!!  I almost ran into him!!!  It is not so much the illegal aspect ... and it is illegal to touch them ... as it is the fact that humans have oils and germs on their hands that can affect the turtles drastically.  So as tempting as it is ... PLEASE don't touch them!!!  I back pedaled furiously ... missing the greatest picture!!!!!  But it's okay ... it's locked in my brain, at least for the next two weeks!!!

Turtle butt!!!!  Having come up for air, this SECOND smaller turtle, gulped down a breath and headed back down.  After swimming around for awhile, they settle on the bottom, usually in the same spot every time (which is why I know where to find them!!!) and rest for 30 minutes or so.  Then they come up for air again.  Most people don't know this, so they try to swim down to where the turtles are.  I just  wait for them to come to me.  While on the bottom small fish clean the algae from their shells.  If not done, they can actually drown from the heavy weight.   The water here is a little cloudy ... it helps images a lot if there is a sandy bottom.  Images taken closer to the top are much clearer because of the light.

I saved the best for last.  This younger guy came up for air as I waited.  Not as skittish as Big Momma, he and I floated side by side while he took three big gulps of air.  As much trouble as it is to haul the big camera and underwater case around, I think it would be worth it to get 20 images of this instead of one or two!!!

While he was gulping air for his return trip to the bottom, I was able to get around in front far enough to snap this image!!  You only have about 20 seconds to get all the images you can, and what you get is never enough!!!  

I'm fascinated by these amazing creatures and just can't believe I get to swim with them!!!  I'll be back next year guys!!  Hope you are still hanging around!!!!

The rest of the day was spent glass hunting ... no big finds.  We took lunch and sat on the beach while getting sand blasted from the wind.  A little sand in your sandwich helps digestion!!!  We watched a couple of locals spear fishing in the shallows.  One guy came out with a two foot long octopus dangling from his belt.  Finding nothing worth writing home about, we went back to the condo for some sun by the pool and pan seared salmon!  It just doesn't get better than this!!!!!