Family Adventure - Day Two (Friday)

Friday morning started very early.  Steve took Kevin to the south end in the Mule and I took Mom, Dad, and Jen to patrol the north end.  After the long, bumpy ride, we arrived on the beach, and eagerly anticipated a new loggerhead nest.  We started the beach by doing a nest inventory on NB12.  There were 40 hatched shells, 59 unhatched or pipped, and 3 dead hatchlings.  Jen felt sad for the little dead ones, and even named them.  Next we turned north and unfortunately never found new nests.  Jen and I began the task of checking our nests for hatchling emergence, depredation, and 45 day screen removal.  She was a helpful partner.  We found several nests that had emerged and removed several screens.  Whenever my Dad thought we'd be stopped for a few minutes, he'd jump off the truck and walk around.  When we neared the end, I dropped my parents off to explore while Jen and I finished patrolling the beach.  When we were done, we set up a beach camp at the large, oak tree skeleton.  Just then, Steve and Kevin returned from their south end adventure.

My sister and I agreed to walk North Middle together.  The tidal creek was flowing pretty fast and still a bit deep, but Jen agreed to walk across rather than mess with the kayak.  We walked through a patch of clay and Jen laughed the entire way over, yet still wary of the bottom.  Over the next hour, we walked to the end and back, not having any activity.  It was nice to catch up with my sister after so long.  When we returned, Jen and I needed to go for a swim.  We rallied the troops and headed for the Atlantic and the familiar wave action we all missed from our summer vacations growing up.  Dad carried out the boogie board.  After a few attempts, and some serious heckling, Dad caught a wave and proved that he still has it.  Kevin tried next, and after falling off the board, gave up.  Steve tried next, and also failed to catch a wave.  I was last, and managed to ride a few, although short.  By now it was lunch time.  We said goodbye to the tree that proved to be probably the best beach spot over miles of sand.

On the way home, I decided to stop at the culvert to give fishing a try.  Steve and I have learned that if the fish are going to bite, then they will quickly.  We baited some fishing rods with fiddler crabs and cast our lines.  I never caught anything (I'm okay with that) so I handed it over to Jen.  After brief instruction to a lefty about using a righty, she sent out a crab.  I don't remember if it was her first bait that worked, but right away she caught a fish.  Both Mom and Dad were next, and both caught blue crabs.  Jen was excited to try again, so she and Steve finished off the bucket of fiddler crabs.  All in all, we drove home with 4 large red drum.

After showers and rest, I took Jen and Kevin on a tour of Middle Place.  After, we got together at the guest house for dinner.  Steve cooked the fish.  We hung around for a bit, waiting for dark so we could head to the beach to look for sea turtles.  Steve and I grabbed some essentials for a night trip, loaded up the family, and we headed for Bradley Beach, again.  By this point we were tired of the long truck rides.  We arrived on the beach, and glad to see how bright the moon was.  We had perfect conditions for a nice night searching for turtles.  I drove us up the beach, searching for a crawl.  After we hit the north end, Steve and I started looking for emerging nests.  We checked over and over, never finding any activity.  We were almost ready to call it a night, when I flipped through the book and found a couple nests nearby that were just approaching 50 days.  We neared NB25 when Steve saw there were hatchlings tracks all around and there were still some stragglers coming out of the nest.  I got back to the family to let them know.  We walked toward the nest, careful to watch where we stepped.  By now, most of the nest had already crawled to the water.  Some stayed by the wet sand to escort hatchlings to the water and to protect against ghost crabs.  I stayed by the nest, watching the last few emerge.  Eventually there were no more so I followed a couple through the dunes and to the water.  The hatchlings' energy is amazing.  We all stood by the water watching the last of the bunch swim off.  It was a really great experience to share with my family.