Last, night we had another one of those very lucky nights where we were able to spot every turtle as they exited the surf and crawled up the beach! At about 11:30pm we spotted a new turtle that nested near the kitesurfing beach in Jupiter. We made sure she was going to nest and then quickly rode up the beach about a mile to find another turtle crawling out of the surf. Again, we made sure she was going to stick around and then headed north a bit before turning around to head back to the first turtle. As we were approaching the second girl, I looked through the scope and was a bit confused?? Why was she crawling back up the beach?? Then, looking up the beach a bit, I realized that it was ANOTHER turtle! Three turtles on the beach at the same time. It was gonna be a long night!
We quickly worked up the first turtle while a few beach visitors watched us from behind the turtle. The audience consisted of three dogs, a very interested couple and their pet Opossum. It was kinda weird to look up from the leatherback to see four pairs of glowing red eyes staring at me!
After working up the first turtle we headed north to deal with the other two. They were not really Tammy and Tessie (a happy pair of loggerhead turtles from the book Tammy the turtle) but Spica and (I forget!) At this point, the lighting was starting light up the beach and there was a very scary white wall of water off to the northeast. As soon as we started to work them up, the rain started and it didn't quit for the rest of the night!
By this am, the winds were howling at about 25knots and the expected swell had arrived. It is nasty out there right now and they are saying that there will be 12 foot waves by tonight!
Should be a fun one!
