Hurricane Season Is Officially Upon Us

Another week has gone by and Steve and I are finally catching a break.  Early last week, I helped Steve finish the repairs to the truck.  The next morning, however, I broke down on the Mule.  It had been having fuel issues - carburetor, fuel lines, fuel pump and filter.  We're not sure what the real problem was, so when we did repairs, it involved cleaning every part we could.  Since then, the Mule has been performing much better, and I'm finally reassured that I won't putter to a stop 6 miles from home.  By mid week, I had been feeling stressed about home life, so by Friday, Steve and I needed a trip to town.  We raised our spirits by a sushi feast at one of Savannah's best restaurants.  

Our nest inventories have been going well.  Our hatching success is near 70%, a very good number.  Today, Steve had a nest (NB91) where 100% of the eggs hatched, though he found one dead hatchling.  Almost a perfect nest!  Yesterday, Steve found our first wild nest.  There were egg shell fragments scattered around a hog crater.  I've been able to narrow the wild nest to two reported false crawls, though we'll never know.  Unless we find another wild nest, our nest total for this summer is 216.  We're getting more of our DNA data back, and so far have been able to see the nesting activity of 13 different females.  I'm already able to see patterns of behavior.  When we get more data back, I'll update with more information.

Blue crab on the beach this morning, overshadowed by the rough skies and seas.

Even though it's located hundreds of miles offshore, Hurricane Danielle has brought interesting weather.  The beaches are very windy, the waves are big and sloppy, it's pleasantly breezy around home, and thankfully, the humidity has dropped.  On an uncertain note, Earl (Tropical Storm?) is gaining strength.  Its present course will definitely bring strong weather to Ossabaw.  We're hoping it stays far enough east of here that we're not evacuated, and our remaining nests are safe. 

Current track for Earl...

White Turtle

Thursday came and was supposed to be a "day off" as our other boss Adam came to work some of our beaches.  In our heads, Steve and I decided that it'd be best for him to run the north end so we could sleep in.  We hoped to sleep in and catch a 10:45 AM low tide to get the bandaged Mule to South Middle.  We left the Mule at the dock for him, along with a note describing the plan.  None of this mattered, as Adam called us from the boat ramp at 6:30 AM.  Now both of us are awake.  The day off concept was out the window.  Adam came by the house to inspect the Mule before we ditched it on the beach.  He said it was okay, so he soon left for the north end.  Steve and I laid around the house waiting for tide.  

Steve left, taking an entire hour to drive the Mule to Bradley Beach, twice as long as a normal trip.  He was careful not to put any extra stress on the welds or the rusty frame.  Once on South Middle, it'll be flat, straight driving.  He met up with Adam, discussed some nest stuff, and took off south, across the two low creeks.  In the meantime, I drove the truck to the south end.  I patrolled South while Steve patrolled South Middle.  As I was checking the nests for emergence, I found one little hatchling stuck in a small hole.  I thought it was dead but when I picked it up, it was very active.  Excited to save the little thing, I looked up and found that the water was farther than I've ever noticed.  Lucky for the turtle that it didn't have to walk the distance alone.  Typically when I hold a hatchling, my thumb is on the carapace, and a finger is on the plastron, centered so the flippers can move freely.  Since the turtles don't feel the ground below them, they switch to swimming mode, which is more like flying when in our hands.  I was worried the turtle would unnecessarily use up energy during the long walk, so I cupped my hand around its face.  The darkness calmed it down and it sat peacefully in my hand.  After our long journey across the sand flat, I found a spot to set it down.  This release was my most fun so far.  The water was shallow and calm so I as able to walk behind the turtle for some distance with a clear view of its swimming.  Eventually I couldn't see it surface anymore, so I said goodbye and walked back to the truck and soon left the beach.  


Our timing was perfect as I pulled up while Steve was crossing the creek with the bicycle.  This timing also worked out well as we pulled up to the house just after Adam.  We spent some time talking about the island, turtle stuff, and some hunter stuff when the hog boys arrived.  Adam left around 1:30, and we took the rest of the day off.  I used some of the time to rework my resume.  Steve and I have to start looking for work as we're coming to an end here soon.  

Our Friday routine resumed some normalcy.  That afternoon, Steve worked on the truck.  It needed the ball joints replaced.  During the removal of wheels and hubs, Steve learned that one hub needed to be replaced so he was unable to complete the job.  This means that we'll be working together in the Mule until the parts are purchased.  While he was busy getting dirty, I helped Amanda do some work at the horse stables.  Later, she returned with an equine vet.  I stood in on the exam that afternoon, getting to hear first hand about the horses' conditions.  It's a relief for all of the horse caretakers to know how they're really doing.  I returned home around 7 to find Steve working on his resume.  Soon we'll be able to send them out.


Saturday Steve and I worked together.  We had two normal nest inventories on Bradley.  On the south end, Steve went to South Middle and I went to South.  I had one inventory, it was horrible from the first couple scoops of sand.  The nest was full of decomposing hatchlings, with large maggots to boot.  This was the first nest with maggots, and I still wonder what insect fouled my nest.  Slowly, I removed them, and piled them in groups of five.  Eventually I reached the egg shells.  All in all, I ended up with 79 dead hatchlings, 85 hatched egg shells, and 14 undeveloped eggs.  A bad nest.  Steve was lucky I let him ride South Middle. 


At home I resumed work on a necklace.  Steve helped me bring my beads over and I've been very happy to have them.  Steve rested in front of his laptop playing games.  Early afternoon we retired to a movie, that turned into another movie.  


Feeling rested, for a change, Steve and I got ready for a second day working together.  I rode the bicycle on North Middle.  I had one nest inventory on NM7, a 70-day nest.  We hope that we just missed the emergence, but that was not the case for this nest.  Steve had to relocate this nest after it had been severely depredated on night 1.  I counted exactly what he put in: 19 eggs.  Only one had developed, and just barely pipped.  I buried the eggs in the swale and continued riding the bike and checking nests.  Steve and I agreed to meet 1 hour after he dropped me off, so I had time to play.  When I neared the south end, I propped up the bike on a dune and walked the rest, searching for shells, old seeds, anything I can use to make jewelry.  I eventually looked at my watch and realized I had to get back.  Once I dropped the bike off, I organized the old screening material that has been piling up.  After I crossed the creek, Steve pulled up in the Mule.  He held his hand out to show me a sand covered hatchling.  He couldn't tell, but it was a white (amelanistic) sea turtle.  The little thing was very lethargic.  I took it to the water to rinse it off and see what it could do in the water.  I found that there was still a small yolk sac attached and decided that it wasn't ready to be sent off into the wild Atlantic just yet.  I took it back to the dune and dug a hole in the sand.  Rather that let it become fish food, the hatchling gets to decide if it can even crawl out of the hole if it just needed more time.  It's all part of it, though I hate making the decision of how they should die. 

 

We ran the south end together since I hadn't been shown the tricks to get the bandaged Mule to both turn on and off.  I had an inventory on SM20 that had two live hatchlings.  The rest of the nest did pretty well.  Steve started an inventory on a nest he thought hatched, but when he dug, he only found unhatched eggs.  Rather than search for hatched eggs and disturb possibly live eggs, he covered it back up.  We'll wait for more evidence and probably, day 70.  On the way home, I took some pictures.  

Bicycle Madness

"Somebody has a case of the Mondays."  That was two days ago when everything seemed against us.  Kate did the South Beach patrol, without South Middle due to the loss of our ATV.  I went to Bradley, and timed my patrol so that I could rush south, across two tidal creeks at low tide and hit the north end of South Middle.  There I  checked the few nests we thought might emerge, then rushed back across to patrol North Middle, and then finally (and just barely) crossing back over to Bradley.  As I was driving north, Kate called to ask me if the storms she saw to the north were upon me.  I said "not yet", and that I couldn't talk, I had to drive fast.  It was a mad race to beat the tide.

Once I was back on Bradley, I took a five minute breather.  I looked north and saw thunderclouds building.  A few raindrops hit me, but nothing bad...yet.  I drove north, checking nests along the way, and stopping at one nest to do an inventory.  There was one little straggler, and I release it into the ocean.  Then it started to really rain.  Patrolling wet isn't much fin, but it's doable, so I continued north.  Then came thunder and lightning.  I was just south of a secondary road that comes out to the middle of Bradley.  Checking the few nests that remained between me and it, I sped to safety.  Pulling off the beach, I parked under a large live oak to wait out the storm.

Kate called to check on my status.  I told her I was hiding from the rain, but that I couldn't escape the onslaught of mosquitoes that came with the rain.  She offered to meet me, so that I could at least wait in the truck, instead of the open Mule.  Half an hour later, she arrived, just as the skies started to clear.  Together we headed back onto the beach to finish my patrol.

A few minutes into our drive we received a call from Adam.  He was out shopping and wanted to know if we would be okay with the bicycle he had picked out.  Bicycle!  We were dumbstruck.  The original plan was to get us a small motorized scooter to patrol South Middle on.  Now we were getting word that we would have to peddle it instead.  Protest as we might, we couldn't sway Adam and Mark.  The 6 km (3.75 miles) of South Beach would have to be peddled, both ways, everyday.  We were disappointed, to say the least.  We finished our patrol and headed home.  Adam arrived later with the new bike.  By now it was getting late, and by the time we fed the horses and Andy's animals, ate dinner and got ready for bed, we were spent.

I've got a bike, you can ride it if you like.

Yesterday Kate and I developed a plan to try to minimize the effort now required to run the beaches.  The plan was to wait for low tide and drive to North Beach in the Mule together.  We'd cross over to North Middle, pick up our bike, and take both to the the south tidal creek.  I'd cross over to South Middle and then patrol that beach.  In this way, we'd set up the middle beaches so that we'd only have to ride in one direction, leaving each of the bikes at the end and switching between riding south one day, then north the next.  Kate would patrol Bradley and then drive down to the South end to meet me.  If I wasn't there yet, she could patrol South Beach, then come back for me.  If I was already finished, she'd pick me up and we'd work together.  It was a good plan, and we set off to execute it.

After a half and hour driving, just before we made it out onto North Beach, the Mule started acting funny.  It was getting slower and slower.  It didn't take long to realize what was wrong - we had a flat tire.  We took out a can of Fix-a-Flat and tried to inflate the tire.  The hole was just too big, and it couldn't be fixed.  Unable to patrol the beach this way, we were forced to turn around, drive all the way home at half speed, swap the tire out with a replacement, drive another half hour back, and then finally begin our plan.

By this time we missed low tide and couldn't drive the Mule onto North Middle and therefore couldn't get both bikes in the right place.  Instead I carried the new bike across the creek, rode North Middle, then carried across to South Middle and patrolled that beach.  When I was done, hot and tired, I walked to the kayak crossing and went for a swim.  I built a quick shelter from the sun and waited for Kate to show up.  When she arrived, we headed off to run South Beach together.

Beat the Heat

We finally made it home in the late afternoon.  There we ran into Eric and Cody, who told me they were planning on trying to fix the old broken down Mule.  Without the ATV, and with added pressure on them to hunt on South Middle, they wanted a way to drive it just as much as Kate and I did.  I quickly changed and met them at the shop to help.  Once again, Eric proved to be awesome!  After an hour or so, he had the old rusted out frame welded back together.  Together we got it to crank up.  Cody and I put a new tire on it and finally I took it for a test drive.  It was alive!

Two is Better than One

Early this morning we got a text from Wini with a request to go over to the main house and feed the horses and Mrs. West's dog Toby.  Mrs. West was still in the hospital, and Wini, who'd been feeding the horses every morning has returned to her regular life, leaving the Main House empty.  And so, this morning we woke up, went over to feed the horses and Toby, then went to Andy and Amanda's to feed and water their cats and dogs, then back the horses to let them out of their stable (they get locked in while they eat), and then finally off to the beach.  When we were finished and home, I finalized the work on the old broken Mule.  It's alternator is broken and it doesn't charge.  The good Mule has this problem too, so we plug it in every night to charge the battery.  But with no electric out on the beach, the old Mule needed a big battery that would last a long time.  Some time in the afternoon the work was complete.  The old Mule is up and running.  The only problem it has is that it won't shut off by the key - so you have to pull the spark plug wire off to stop it.  Still, it runs, and that's good enough.  Tomorrow we'll take it over to South Middle, and bring that brand new bike back.  We're extremely thankful for Eric, he's saved us from bicycle madness.

South Middle on Hold

Yesterday I awoke refreshed from my day of lazing around.  When the alarm went off, I was out of bed quickly and out the door after a quick snack.  I knew low tide was at 6:05, and I wanted to get to the beach as close to then as possible in order to drive the Mule over to North Middle and avoid biking or walking it.  I succeeded, but I forgot something - the sun doesn't rise now until 6:45, twilight starts around 6:30.  So, I could't really see anything for the first half hour on the beach, besides what was in my headlights.  I drove to the south tip of North Middle, and waited for some sunlight.

The beaches are getting easier and easier to patrol.  We rarely have a nest, or even a false crawl anymore.  We know that the most recent one may have been the last, and if it isn't, the next one might be.  Over 75 nests that used to need checking everyday are gone - they've hatched out, and we've completed the inventories.  A few nests were washed away by the tide.  We currently have around 125 nests still out there.

Since I only had one inventory to do yesterday, and I was on the beach so early, I made use of the time by removing the small screening on a bunch of nests nearing the 45 day mark.  This will save us some work in the coming days when there are more inventories to do.  I had no emergences, and was done checking the entire north end by 8:30 or so.  I was excited to get home early and have the whole day to do whatever.  It didn't quite work out that way.

I soon got a call from Kate.  She was on South Middle, and having trouble with the ATV.  The day before I noticed the steering column had started to fall apart from rust, and the ATV was hard to turn.  I warned Kate about it, thinking it was just a steering issue.  On the phone she told me she couldn't drive it at all, and she couldn't run the beach.  So I headed off to the shop for some tools while Kate drove home.  Then I headed south to see if I could repair the ATV.

There was more rust damage to our four wheeler than I had seen the day before.  In fact, there was so much, that the reason Kate couldn't drive it, was because the entire front end had fallen to pieces.  The frame had split apart in four places.  The tires were straddled across the dune like a rag doll.  It was official, the ATV was dead.  With some rope and some bungee cords, I tied the frame together enough to get the ATV across the slough.  I put the front end of it in the bed of the Mule, and towed it home with its rear tires rolling behind. It was a sad sight.

At home I got on the phone with Mark to explain our situation.  We already knew we wouldn't be getting a replacement Mule, or ATV this season, so we needed some ideas on what to do about the six kilometers of beach that was now inaccessible.  He has a plan to get us a small dirt bike, and we hope that will work out.  In the meantime, we aren't running that beach.  Mark assured us that is is okay to miss a few days, and that it's common and expected - often to to weather or equipment failure.  Still, it seems strange to us, having never not patrolled the whole beach before.

After this whole ordeal was over, Kate and I were right back to where we were two days ago - stressed out and tired.  Luckily, we had a chance to unwind with a trip to shore.  We left a little after noon, taking some unneeded things back to the RV, and loading up Kate's beading supplies to bring to the island.  On the mainland, we went to the mall and walked around for awhile, then tried to go to a restaurant that wasn't open yet.  To kill time, we went to the movies and saw "Inception".  We had no idea what to expect, but it was excellent.  Afterward we went for sushi, a treat we haven't had in months.  By the end of our little date, we had forgotten all about the ordeals of turtle internship.  It was short lived though.  As soon as we set eyes on the dock, all of the island swooped back into our minds.

Today was another typical day - all the regular work with one exception, I only ran one stretch of beach.  With no way to patrol South Middle, all I had to do was South Beach.  Oh, and I had to swim/walk out to where the ATV used to be in order to retrieve the kayak.  I had left it there when I brought the ATV across yesterday.  On my walk/swim through the marsh, I collected fiddler crabs, which became bait to catch a black drum, which later became dinner on the grill at Andy's while we tended to his pets.

Lazy Day

A much needed day of relaxation was had today.  Beach duty was light, just two inventories for me on the south end.  After a quick trip to Andy's to feed his pets, I was home before 10am.  The other day I discovered Andy has a collection of Carl Hiaasen books, including two I haven't read yet.  I've since swiped one, and spent the morning reading in bed.  After a few chapters, reading gave way to napping, until Kate came home from her patrol around noon.

We are both trying hard to clear our minds of all the things the island occupies them with.  It's hard to get a break from it all when we live and work here 24/7.  The list of things to do, problems to deal with, and constant need to force motivation, have worn us out a bit.  So today we opted to do nothing much beyond our basic responsibilities.

Kate went to Andy's house after she cleaned up from patrol to watch movies and play with the animals.  I stayed home and parked myself on the couch in front of a computer game.  Kate came back around 4:30 and we went to feed the horses together.  Afterward, Kate went back to Andy's for more TV time, and I resumed my position on the couch.

It's 8pm now, and I'm in bed writing this.  Kate should be home soon.  I'm hoping to fall asleep early and have more energy tomorrow.  We can't be lazy for long, there's just too much to do.  Still, it was nice to bum around all day today.

High Tides

Plenty has happened in the past week.  It's all a bit mashed up now in my memory.  We really should be writing everyday to avoid this exact problem.  Hopefully we can get back on a regular routine...

Last we wrote, we were still camping out for the Leatherback nest.  We were convinced it would hatch after I saw a single crawl out of the nest.  We had a great time camping, but we never did see any baby Leatherbacks emerge.  On Tuesday, we worked together, so that we could inventory the nest.  Unfortunately, there were no living stragglers that we could release.  The nest overall didn't fare so well, only 7 hatchlings emerged.

It turned out that working together Tuesday may not have been the best plan.  See, since Monday, the tides have been especially high.  With the high water, parts of our beaches were completely inaccessible at certain times.  On Tuesday, high tide was around 8:45am.  Taking this into account, Kate and I decided to sleep in, wait for the high tide to pass, and then head out to work.  It worked out well as far as being able to get where we needed to go, but the late start, combined with working as one team instead of splitting the island, meant that we were in for one long day.

We went to South Middle first, ran the patrol, then inventoried the Leatherback nest.  Afterward, we broke down the tent and packed all our camping gear onto the ATV.  We rode it all back, and managed to fit it all into the kayak.  There was barely room to fit us both in.  Luckily, we didn't have to paddle as the tide was moving fast, quickly returning us to our launch.  Next we worked South beach, and were disappointed to find several of our nests had washed over in the high water.  This we already knew would be the case, as it happened the day before as well.  We also knew it would be much worse on North Beach.

Once we were on Bradley I was shocked to see how high the tides had gone.  Kate had run the north end the day before and had already witnessed it, but it was a surprise to me.  Nests that we have always considered high and dry were licked by the tides.  On the north tip of Bradley, and on North Middle, we lost nests completely - finding screens and white marker posts washed up in the sea wrack.  There were also a couple nests were the tide had eroded beneath the screen, leaving the nest cavity exposed and eggs spilling out onto the beach.  We relocated some eggs, though their fate is not hopeful, and inventoried everything else to get what data we could.  It was frustrating to lose nests like this, with the ideas that maybe we should have relocated more or place those we did higher.

Once we did finish the beach, we still had to clean up ourselves and our equipment, then head out to feed and water Andy's pets, and Mrs. West's horses.  Did I mention we're on pet patrol again this week?

After finally finishing all our work for the day, sometime after 6pm, we should have come home and went right to bed.  Instead, we found Cody at the house, planning to take his first night off.  In his fridge he had, as he would say, "enough beer to kill a kindergarten class".  Against our better judgement, Kate and I joined Cody at the diner table.  Hours later, we finally slept.

We both woke up yesterday a bit hung over, but still early, determined to beat the tides to our beaches.  Kate got lucky with the south end patrol, and the air conditioned truck.  I on the other hand had the north end, and my day began with a sunrise bicycle ride.  It was hot and humid, and the sand was too soft for the bike.  It made for a terrible morning.  Once I was done with North Middle, I took a dip in the tidal creek to cool down, then began my Bradley patrol.

I had taken too long.  When I got to the middle of North beach, the tide had come up high enough to block me from getting to the north end.  This was the first time ever that one of us wasn't able to finish our patrol.  Even though high tide was still hours away, the water was just so high already.  This also meant I couldn't do the three inventories that were scheduled.  It also meant that I'd have to run the North end again today, since I couldn't stick Kate with the work.

As it turned out, I did get to finish my patrol yesterday.  Once we were home again and showered, we went over to Andy's to check on the pets and take a TV break.  While were there, we got a call from Mark, who had just returned back from another week down in the Gulf working with the spill.  We had plenty of things to discuss with him, and did so for about an hour.  The other reason he called, was that someone had reported a dead turtle at the north end of the island.  It wouldn't stay there overnight, so we needed to go back and get it.

After a long ride all the way back to beach, and all the way up to it's end, we found the turtle.  We took some pictures and coordinates, and then bagged it up to finish the pictures, measurements, etcetera, at home.  While we were back on the beach, we got a chance to check over the nests I'd missed in the morning.  There were also more nests destroyed by the tide.  Once we fixed up the nests as best we could, we drove home, finished with the stranded turtle, bagged it, froze it, and took some more showers.  Then it was time to feed the animals yet again.  Thankfully, Winnie took care of feeding the horses for us - one less thing.  Finally, it was bed for us.

This morning the tides were still high, and there were a few nests that washed over again, but none were washed away.  Those that did wash over today will most likely not hatch, since this is the third or fourth washover for them.  At this point, the eggs are drowned.

For the first time in several days, maybe longer, we finished up and got home early.  We're spending the time catching up on laundry, this blog, emails, photos and rest.  We need to get it in while we can, because the list of things to do keeps growing.  We've got parts coming for the truck which I'll need to install, all the screens, posts and stakes that we're taking off the beach need to be cleaned up and stored for next year, and a bunch of little projects need finishing over the next month and a half.  And of course, we need to start planning the next big adventure for Steve and Kate.

Still Camping Out

This past week has flown by.  It has been so hot lately that we've taken to being a bit lazy.  But, we're tired of just sitting around so a few days ago we started back up again with chores and some play.  We have been camping randomly a few times to catch the Leatherback.  Thursday morning Steve found a single crawl from the nest so last night we camped again.  The weather was perfect - windy with super clear skies.  The new moon is approaching so we had total darkness until 3AM.  The star gazing was a highlight of the night.  We could easily see the thick clusters of stars that make up the Milky Way.  I spotted what I thought was a plane way high in the sky, but since there were no blinking lights, and because of its speed and course, Steve says we saw a satellite.  We each saw a couple shooting stars, and of course, wished for the hatchlings to emerge.  We played in the bioluminescence, trying to write things in the wet sand.  By 2 AM, we both were ready to sleep.  I set the alarm for thirty minute intervals and we took turns checking the nest.  Nothing happened, again.  While we know there's a good chance it will go tonight, we're tired and the weather isn't supposed to be good.  Tonight we'll eat and sleep well.