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.