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Larry's LogFinally, at around 10pm, we saw a turtle starting to come out of the surf near us. She was making her way up the beach but hadn't cleared the surf when she turned around and went back into the water. Frances said he thought the beach at that particular point might have been too steep so she would try to find a more level spot. It was high tide when we first came onto the beach and at points, we got our feet a bit wet going around the trees and bushes growing close to the beach. There were steep areas, but we were very disappointed at loosing our first turtle. Frances said she would probably come up again fairly close so 5 minutes after she went back into the water, he told me that he would walk down the beach a bit and flash a couple of times if he saw anything. OK, I would let the others know and keep an eye out in his direction. About 5 minutes after he started off, I saw a flashlight blink a few times. I called to the others and we walked (almost ran) down the beach. Sure enough, Frances had found a turtle, a different one from the one we had seen since she was already well into her egg laying. Fantastic! She was about 5 feet long and had already been tagged on her back flippers and was already laying eggs in the hole she had excavated. At this stage, they go into a trance-like state and Frances said we could take flash pictures and not disturb her. We all took shots of the eggs coming out as our guide lifted the rear flipper so we could see the dozens of eggs already there and the 3-4 at a time still being laid. We took pictures of her head and we even posed with her. Evidently, this doesn't bother them while they're actually laying the eggs, but might cause her to abandon the nest if done before or after the eggs are deposited. So we were careful to listen to Frances as to when pictures were OK. It was a truly unique experience to see this phenomenon and I think we all felt privileged to be there. We all watched as she laid her eggs and then covered the nest with the sand she had just excavated. She was very careful about filling in the nest and tamping it down at the right pressure. She then used her front flippers to camouflage the spot with flying sand. After that, she slowly, laboriously made her way down to the water. As she reached the surf line, Frances again said that we could take flash pictures since she could feel the water and wouldn't get confused. Again, the darkness was punctuated with artificial light as we tried to capture the moment. I knew that we would all remember it. We had seen this kind of thing on TV or in National Geographic, but this was real, not staged and we had to experience it on the turtles' terms, not ours. After she lumbered into the water, we hoped to see the full process. We had spotted this turtle after she had picked her spot and dug the nest. Luckily, after just a few minutes, Frances saw another turtle that had just come up on the beach and started to dig her nest. We all walked (ran) towards her and watched the process as she started to dig. It took her about 40 minutes before the nest was deep enough and of the right shape before she started to lay her eggs. The entire process, from climbing onto the beach to returning to the water takes about 2 to 3 hours and this turtle was taking her time, making sure the nest was just right. It's amazing that they do this without ever seeing the hole, since it's done with the back flippers only and they never turn around. We watched again as she started to lay her eggs, fill in the nest with sand, camouflage it and slowly make her way back into the water. By this time, the moon had risen and it was a beautiful night, with no rain clouds and a bright moonlight to illuminate the beach, so we really didn't need flashlights to see the shape of the turtles. Just as the second turtle had slid back into the water, we spotted another just starting to come out of the water. In that light, she looked like a large rock that was coming out of the water and moving up the beach. We were careful not to disturb her with any lights until she had picked her spot and started to dig. We watched the full process again. Each turtle was checked by Frances for a tag on the back flipper and if they had a microchip implanted in the front. He also measured each one while they were in their "trance." Each one so far was a return visitor so further tagging was unnecessary. It was getting late so we decided that it was probably time to go. As we went down the beach, we saw another 2 turtles, for a total of 5 for the night. Not bad for so late in the season. It was now low tide so walking along the beach was easy and the almost full moon made it even easier. Frances said that at the height of the season, he had seen up to 100 turtles on a single night. Of course, he was patrolling all night. We were only staying until about midnight. The trip back with Jesse was fine except we got a flat tire in the middle of nowhere. Fortunately, he had a spare (and a cell phone just in case) and we were back on our way in 20 minutes. We got home by 2am and just crashed. But it had been a terrific day. Wednesday we slept in. Diane got up for the daily 8am net but then went back to bed. I got up a bit later and after breakfast, I started updating the logs and doing some boat chores. We had made plans to go to meet Paul on Autumn Wind for lunch. His wife, Vivian, had gone back to the States to visit and he was by himself. We had met them in Martinique and they are a very nice couple. After a leisurely lunch, I took the wind generator to the manufacturer so he could do the modifications. On the way back, I stopped and talked for a while with Tom from Mima since I had left the dinghy at his marina. Driftwood, Pearl and Amphitrite were also at that marina and I saw Eric and Pete also. I played a quick game of chess with Wally (I won) and then went back to the boat. We had made an appointment for a contractor to meet us at 3 to give us an estimate to make an awning and do some other canvas work. He was a "no-show." We had heard that this was a problem here and we were finding it to be true. Oh well, we had other vendors to talk to. In my absence, Diane had made arrangements with Paul, Stephanie and Tom to go for Chinese food. Paul had rented a car and said he would take us all to a place he had found. It was a tight fit but we managed and the restaurant was really very nice. It was a restored Victorian mansion, a kind of odd setting for a Chinese restaurant, but the food was good and we had a good time. Paul dropped Tom and Steph at their marina and then we went back to ours. We were on different docks so we thanked Paul again and went back to Destiny. |