It was the last day in Maui. I always see a turtle when snorkeling or diving at Black Rock. But this trip I hadn’t seen one at all. I did my last snorkel, the vis wasn’t great and not much was happening. As I swam back toward shore I was thinking, “I guess no turtle this trip.”
When I got back to about 4ft of water, I stood up and reached down to take off a fin. Something bumped my left shoulder. I turned, and there it was right in front of me! I scrambled to get the camera recording, and followed this turtle around in the surf. There were people all around but it didn’t seem to mind. I don’t think anyone else realized it was there. I’ve never seen a turtle that close to the beach, just swimming around, not caring at all who else was there.
If I had been just a couple of feet over, or I came out at a different time, I may have missed it completely. But I was where I needed to be and the turtle literally bumped me to make sure I knew it was there, and swam with me so I could get some video.