Living La Pura Vida: The Weather is Here, I Wish You Were Beautiful.

Storm is brewing on the horizon.

Last night, we had one of the darkest sunsets I have ever seen, due to a storm brewing on the horizon. Knowing that patrol was going to be late, we hoped the rain would start soon so it would pass before we had to get out on the beach.

As we prepared dinner, we began to hear the rain. The rain continued as we ate dinner. It grew stronger as we washed the dishes and then the power went out. So without power there was no internet, which sent us to bed until midnight. As I laid in bed, I could hear the rain pouring down so hard that it was difficult to sleep.

When my alarm went off at midnight the rain was still coming down. We checked the hatchery and then made a very rare decision and cancelled patrol until morning. This was decided because the rain had been so strong it was nearly impossible to see even a foot in front of you and had probably washed away any traces of a turtle.

At 4:30, just as the sun was rising, it was still pouring down rain, but we needed to at least check the beach. So Victor, Molly and Rachel walked to the north, while Kayla, Mama and I headed south. It was crazy the damage the rain had done to the beach. There was so much erosion caused by newly formed rivers flowing into the ocean, some were big enough that mama had to swim across.

Just as Kayla and I were thinking our patrol was in vane, we noticed Mama running towards a lump in the sand. Then we realized our lump of sand was actually a very pale sea turtle facing the ocean. Anything that pale had to be dead! But when just as we were recording her as a dead turtle, she blinked.

Just a reminder, this is Mama, possibly the heroine of our patrol.

My attempts at drying my patrol clothes. YAY, October!

I reached into here nest only to find it was full of wet sand. Our turtle came to life and quickly returned to the sea. Meanwhile, I began digging around the very wet sand, only finding that every time I took a scoop of sand out the hole would fill faster, making it very hard to find the eggs. In total, we were able to relocate her very small nest of just 12 eggs into our hatchery and dry off, knowing our patrol was in fact worthwhile. I think I will spend the rest of the day enjoying listening to the rain and watching some Criminal Minds on Netflix.

* We later found out our huge storm was ultimately what became hurricane Sandy.