TURTLE PATROL

 Ok, enough of the cute beach pictures and on to the exciting stuff, which is the TURTLE PATROL!

Who are the turtle patrol, you may ask? Well. They are pretty much the greatest heroes our world has ever known. I hope to one day be worthy to don the embroidered t-shirt and join their noble ranks. 

Apparently Holden Beach is a nesting ground for sea turtles. On the beach right near our house was a roped off area with a sign about nesting sea turtles. One night on a whim I asked Aaron to go on a night walk with me around midnight (we stayed on AZ time schedules). We quickly noticed these strange tracks that looked a lot like a very light bike had ridden all over the beach. We tried following some but they were all over the place. As we were coming back to the house, we found two turtles right by the stairs!

Sea turtles dig themselves out of the sand and follow the moon to find the ocean. These poor little fellas were confused by the lights coming through our windows and were heading in the wrong direction. We used the flashlights on our phones to get them to head towards the ocean instead. It was amazing how responsive to light they were- it felt like I was controlling them with a remote.

Breezy had bad insomnia that night and went outside around sunrise. She discovered another baby turtle and had a crowd gather around her as she led it to the water. 

Later that day, we saw a brigade of masked folks wearing matching shirts and hats march purposefully towards the roped off nest. Apparently they patrol the beach every day, and the squad assembled when the tracks were found. 

The cluster of  patrollers as seen from our window

Naturally I went down to check out the action and learn some turtle facts. Apparently turtle nests have around 100 eggs, most of which hatch all on the same night. The main hatching event probably happened earlier in the night that we found some. The turtle patrol built this runway around the nest to point them towards the ocean if any latecomers were going to hatch. They then went door to door telling everyone to turn off their lights on the beach side of the house and hung out, dispersing more turtle facts for a while. 

Breezy and I camped out for a while after the turtle patrol dispersed. Sadly no turtles were observed hatching. The next morning there was maybe one faint set of tracks coming down the runway, but it was hard to tell. 

This was such a neat experience, and I feel super lucky that we just happened to go outside the one night that it was happening even if we missed the main part of the event. Turtle patrol is now one of my many ideas for how I want to spend retirement. #goals