06/29/2012, Matura Beach, Trinidad
This is the time for touching the Giant Leatherback turtles, and of course taking photos. She is dead to the world during her trance. Unlike other turtles, the shell of the Leatherback is soft and will bleed if cut. They are an endangered species, as most people know and the biggest threat to their survival is man and his nets or lust for their meat. Many of the turtles drown after being caught in the fishing nets and oftentimes they are "released" from the nets by the fisherman by having their fins cut. Better to save the nets than the turtles, this is the logic, which is exactly what I abhor about the human race.
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06/29/2012, Matura Beach, Trinidad
The eggs in their nest, before mama buries the hole and proceeds to hide the entire nesting area. At this point the turtle is in her trance and we were able to take photos, touch her and shine a lights without disturbing her. This is also when the volunteers at the turtle sanctuary tag the turtle with new identification.
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06/29/2012, Matura Beach, Trinidad
Last night at 5:00, we left in a maxi van with the most popular tour guide and friend to boaters, Jesse James to watch the Giant Leatherback Turtles lay their eggs. There is no guarantee, of course that you'll see the turtles, but we got very lucky last night. Our tour was originally scheduled for the night before but got rescheduled to last night. That was fortuitous because we saw two females laying eggs last night and on Wednesday night, there were no turtles in sight. It's a two hour bus trip to the beach, with a stop for dinner on the way. When we arrived at Matura Beach, we saw one of the females coming up from the surf onto the edge of the beach. I was stunned. She was huge and here she was, walking out of the ocean with her giant sized flippers. But our tour guide, a volunteer from the project that preserves and tags and turtles, kept walking on down the beach. There was a half moon lighting up our way, with a light ocean breeze and white, soft sand. We were instructed to use red lights only (Ed and I wore the headlamps we use on the boat for nighttime passages) and to use the camera only while the turtle is laying her eggs and is in a trance-like state before her next task. Here is a quote from Jesse James in his webpage. "One of the most moving experiences the natural world has to offer is the sight of the giant female leatherback turtle engaging in her timeless ritual of egg-laying. Trinidad is fortunate enough to be among these creatures laying sites. Each year between March and August, these mysterious leviathans of the deep return to the beach where they were born to begin the cycle anew. These turtles, the largest of the marine species, weigh from 700 - 1000 lbs and are 5-8 ft in length and 2 - 3 ft in width. The female digs a deep hole with her back flippers and lays about 80 - 125 soft glutinous eggs into it."
How she makes her nest is remarkable. She uses her back flippers to make a hole which is narrow and deep. She then deposits up to 125 eggs in the hole. Some of the eggs are small and won't survive which provides air pockets for the larger eggs. Once the female begins laying, she goes into a trance-like state. It's at that time we were allowed to touch and photograph her. When she starts stirring again, all lights and flashes go off. She then hides the nesting site with a good 30 minutes of hard work (can you imagine giving birth and then having to dig around in sand with your arms and legs?) where both her front and rear flippers work together to send sand every which way. She flips the sand backwards with her front flippers, patting it down with her back flippers, rests a moment then moves her body a few inches forward to repeat the process. Once she's finished, she might be several feet from the original nesting hole, with all the sand moved around to hide where her eggs are deposited. It looked exhausting. When she's finished, she saunters back into the water and disappears. It was magnificent, remarkable, magical. One of those experiences you feel grateful to have witnessed. Just extraordinary.
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06/29/2012, Chaguaramas Bay, Trinidad
We are constantly on the go here in Trini. Some of you may wonder what we're doing here, why we're at a marina, the first time we've "hooked up" since our brief stay at Jolly Harbour Marina, Antigua when we first arrived in the Islands back in November '11. We are definitely seeking protection from hurricanes since named storms seldom reach this far. Not that they don't, but the chances are slimmer here than elsewhere. But it is also where boaters get a lot of work done. It's a "time out", if you will, a good opportunity to repair sails, buy new ones, clean the bottom of the boat, paint the boat, fix plumbing, electrical and all mechanical issues, have "chaps" made for rubber dinghies (one of our investments), replace, repair, or get rid of parts. There is constant activity, the contractors are excellent, reliable, efficient, trustworthy and inexpensive for the most part. As long as we need a place to settle for hurricane season, we might as well get the boat worked on, which mostly means Ed works and I assist. So far he has replaced our water pump, pickled the water maker system, cleaned the bottom of the dinghy and ordered chaps for it, and commissioned the Evinrude engine (remember our old friend Evinrude who quit on us in NC and has been sailing on the rails with us ever since we replaced it with the Mercury?) and many other projects which all came about from starting one thing, getting into another, which led to yet another and so on.
Meanwhile, I am finding the places to shop or purchase items we need, scoping out where to buy other things, taking care of Luna, cleaning and laundering, arranging bus rides and figuring out schedules, and generally getting a feel of the place. I also have been cleaning out every storage area in preparation for bringing items back to the States that we don't need or want on the boat. I am planning a brief visit to NC followed by a longer one to New England in August and September while Ed and Luna hold down the fort here in Trini. We have to make separate trips home to see family because Luna wouldn't be allowed back into Trinidad if she flew home with us (which we'd probably never do with her anyway) due to the strict pet import regulations.
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