Words cannot express what we did today at Botany Bay beach, on Edisto Island.  I have always seen sea turtle nests on Hilton Head Island, marked by wooden posts and signs alerting the public to stay away.  I knew they emerged from their nests at night to follow the moonlight into the ocean, where they swam to an unknown future.

I learned today that only 1 in a thousand or possibly even ten thousand survive into maturity at the ripe old age of thirty years.  As the guide Meredith dug deeper into the relocated nest, I was hoping to see a little baby loggerhead sea turtle in person.  I was not to be disappointed.

Nestled within broken eggs, a dead baby, and multiple unhatched eggs was a tiny baby sea turtle.  We rescued him from the pile of sand heaped on top of him, first by his mother, then by his caretakers.  Meredith grabbed him gently and then let him go in the crushed oyster shells lining the beach.

As he flipped and flopped (like a drunken sailor) over the shells, we surrounded him like the rabid paparazzi who follow celebrities.  Finally, he made it to the surf, flapped away, and embarked on his new adventure in the Atlantic Ocean.

We named him Steamer because of his “little engine that could” attitude.

I say a little prayer that he lives long enough to have children of his own.  I know that he had an impact on my life today.  And on the lives of the many children who I will touch with the lessons learned on this trip.

–Sarah