8
Location: Anegada
The day started an early morning with breakfast in the rain but quickly turned around, well not the weather. We took a quick dinghy ride to the lovely shore of Anegada followed by a wet ride on a taxi to the Old Anegada Yacht Anchorage where we were met by the wonderful smell of fish. Soon the search for Turtles began. As the first group rode out into the three feet of water with wide eyes the rest of us sat comfortably in the on and off downpour of rain chatting and Rubik’s cubing. Unfortunately, the first group came back empty-handed, so we went out again trying our luck, and we pulled through. Madison with the help of Isobel and others jumped off the boat hands out ready to grab and caught our first turtle, Sir Marlton of Anegada, our only Hawksbill of the day. We lied him down on chiclit and got to work. I volunteered to write down all the data we collected, and continued to do so for each turtle. Others took turns measuring the tail, head and four different types of measurements of its shell. The whole process needed patience and mostly silence, although some “awes” and “he’s so cute” did escape. The actual act of tagging involved a surprisingly large needle and fin tags. Yes, that may sound incredibly brutal, but the turtles hardly minded. Well, with the exception of the first Green turtle of the day. It took my group, the third group, of turtle searchers at least four jumps and the sighting of a stingray before successfully catching him. Although he was reluctant to be caught, he was very happy to be let go, let me tell you those little guys are fast! The day consisted of four terrific turtles, and the wonderful weather created a nice environment for further bonding.