Lucky 8 on Waties Island

As a group of 8 set up camp Friday night August 29th at Nest#2r someone was checking for a change in the depression of the nest every few minutes. The Muller's went to check the Nests on the west end of the Island while Nancy and Sandy went to check Nest #4 on the East end of the Island. Matt Ruby, his two cute daughters Mary and Maddie and Karen Fox stayed to watch Nest#2R. Soon we were all back together at Nest#2. After a few hours had passed Mary, her dad Matt and Karen went to check the West end again. We checked each Nest one by one stopping at Nest#3 which has two large Ghost Crab holes inside the cage right near the marker. With nothing new to report we headed back to rejoin the group at Nest#2R. While walking back as we approached Nest 1R we were greeted by 8 or 9 baby turtles. Matt and Mary stayed there to keep an eye on the babies and Karen went to get the rest of the group and her camera! We got back to the nest in time to watch the turtles trying to make their way out of the nest to the ocean. It seemed like Turtles were everywhere when in reality we really saw only about 25 at the most. It was a very dark starry night without the light from the moon the turtles navigated towards the lights on Cherry Grove Beach. We each did our part with our flashlights and my trusty lantern by the waters edge to help them find their way. One turtle was just lying in the sand just a few feet from the nest picking his head up now and again but not really getting anywhere. Nancy carried him to the waters edge where that baby still seemed not to move his or her tiny flippers at all. Nancy finally placed the turtle in the water in hopes it would be able to make that long journey with the others. A few of the turtles made it down the beach had to swim across a small tidal pool then get going again across the beach to the ocean. While all of this was happening two baby turtles remained trying to climb out of the nest and eventually did. The Muller's went home Maddie went right back to sleep and We kept watch on the nest for another 90 minutes but nothing else happened. We knew since it was a nest that was relocated to Waties from North Myrtle Beach that the nest had 129 eggs . We thought that the rest of the turtles may come out later in the night into the early morning hours. On the way driving home i thought that maybe they had all made their way to the ocean prior to Matt, Mary and I finding them but which ever is the case we wish them all a safe journey. It was an awesome experience for all! posted by Chuck and Karen Fox.