Mermaids don't exist unfortunately but no matter when you get to spend some time in the water with a

real Mauimaid as I did today. I wanted to get some photos as well as water submersion testing done on a

new flashlight and she helped me out. We paddled up to turtle canyon on the wave skis and had hopes of

finding some turtles basking on the beach. There were no turtles out so we took advantage of the empty

cave and beach and left the surf skis high and dry so we could swim out to the turtles without having to

take them in tow.

We headed in to a second turtle cleaning station and came upon three very small spotted eagle rays.

They probably had a wing span of 1 foot.

Swimming back to the beach, we noticed that our wave skis were no longer alone. The tide was coming

in and I felt bad that the skis might have kept the turtles from going further up the beach but perhaps

they were just out for a short bask.

I had a cloth for wiping the water drops off the dome port of my camera but it was up in the wave ski

and I didn't want to disturb the turtles right off the bat so I did the best I could and kept dunking the

camera in the ocean. Most of the shots did have water drops and some of the better compositions were

useless because of the blurs. The smaller turtle got smacked by a wave shortly after we arrived and it

decided to head back into the water.

The tide was still coming in and I figured it was just a matter of time for this larger gal to either head

further up the beach or go back into the water. As it was, she hung around for quite a while and made

eye contact with Margaux a few times. For the most part though, her eyes were closed and she showed

no concern with our presence.

The wave below came up the beach quite a bit and I guessed it was time for the turtle to make a

decision.

I backed way off to give the turtle some deciding room. It opted to head back out.