It was an easy day for me. I started by traveling south in the truck, enjoying NPR news and air conditioning. When I got to the double kayak the smoke from the nearby brush fire was thicker than usual (if we haven't mentioned this before, there's been a smoldering ground fire caused by a lightning strike burning there for about a week now - hopefully it won't spread to, and consume, the nearby pavilion). I untied the kayak from the palm tree used to keep it safe from storm runoff, put my turtle kit in the back, bungee-ed it down and drug the water laden boat down to the creek. Setting it into the water and grabbing the paddle, I winced as I sat down - another morning starting off early with a wet ass that I'd enjoy the rest of the day. After paddling up and around the creek, I arrived at the ATV, un-bungee-ed the orange turtle box from the kayak, re-bungee-ed it to the ATV, and winced again, as I sat down on another wet seat. It's nice to get wet when it's hot and you jump in the ocean, but when it's 6:30am, a wet butt just isn't any fun.
I didn't find a single crawl on South Middle patrol. I checked on our nests, and on a few plover chicks that are getting bigger everyday, and headed back. After getting back to the truck, I decided to hike into the woods a bit to see if I could find the exact location of the fire. I couldn't. I did manage to find a few spider webs as I walked right into them, having to peel away the silky threads from my face and resist the heebie-jeebies each time. When I got back to the truck I realized I'd found something else: 50 or more tiny ticks were all over my legs. Too small to pick off, I sprayed myself down with 40% DEET attempting to kill them. Instead, they just climbed higher. With them now on my thighs, and threatening my more sensitive parts, I had to take action. I stripped down and jumped into the creek, drowning the little nymph ticks and avoiding Lyme's disease for another day.
Half an hour of adventure turned torture later, I was back to work. I patrolled South Beach, and located my one and only crawl for the day. It was a relocation, with 102 eggs. Kate called then to inform me she would be wrapping things up on her end of the island in about an hour, then head down to me. We'd planned on trying some more fishing, this time at the south creek - we'd even packed a lunch. Unfourtuanatly, we didn't pack the beach umbrella, and as I waited for Kate's arrival, I began to roast in the mid-90 degree (heat index around 110), as I attempted to fish. After almost an hour without a bite, I decided to call it quits. Since I couldn't get a signal on our phones, I just drove north, hoping to find Kate heading south.
We did meet up on the road, and agreed to head home, after a stop at the causeway to check on crabs, and try a few casts to see what was biting. When we checked our trap, we found seven blue crabs, the most we've ever caught at once. I guess the patch job on the trap did the trick. Kate gave the hand line another shot, but the crabs weren't biting as much as before. I think she did get one or two though. I tried a little fishing with the minnows we caught yesterday and much to my surprise, landed a nice red drum. They're a real fighting fish, and it took awhile to tire him out and bring him in. Kate got the net and soon he was in hand. We stayed a little while longer, just long enough for me to catch a second red. As I was working it on the line, Jim arrived with a group. We needed to move our truck and Mule for Jim to get past. I couldn't put the rod down with the fish still pulling, but he was nice enough to wait. His entire group of kids watched as Kate and I pulled up the second fish.
While I have caught a few fish out here, these two are the first big enough for an actual meal. Gutted and cleaned, they are now quietly marinating in the fridge. Tonight we will have two fillets from the first fish, along with our eight or so blue crabs. Tomorrow we'll have the other one. Yum.
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