Jinx

22:45 – Turtle at 3
Dom: where is she?
Kate: behind the 3 palm, she’s digging.

The turtle is unsuccessful digging in the hard substrate and has made her way up and over a little wall, stopping at the edge of the terrace surrounding the pool.

Alice: what if the turtle goes into the swimming pool?
Dom: she’s not going in the swimming pool.
Alice: but what if she does? How will you get her out?
Dom: well, I won’t let her go in.

The turtle settles down, digs a nest chamber and lays her eggs (6th nest of the season, only 94 eggs!). The nest is relocated out of the area due to ongoing construction.

1:10 – Flash forward 2 hours, turtle at 3 (déjà vu?)

Kate stands staring at a fresh set of tracks where the turtle’s down track should be, accept it’s a definite uptrack. Confused, she scans the beach in front of her, OK there’s our girl’s downtrack... so this must be a new turtle’s track! Cautiously, she follows the track up and over the wall (familiar...), around in a circle and then into a small patch of grass where is disappears. Kate searches for any sign of life: a noise, a disturbance in the nearby sand... nothing. She turns the red light to white, scanning for another downtrack further up the beach. Still nothing. In a sudden realization, she scans the pool surface for movement. Nothing.

Kate: there is a turtle at 3, I see her uptrack but can’t find her down track.
Dom: what?
Kate: I see the up track, the other girl’s down track, but the tracks for the second girl disappear into the grass and she is nowhere to be seen.
Dom: eum....

A light sound from the direction of the pool breaks the discussion... they both turn their heads.

Dom: I know where she is...
Kate: (gasp)oh my god she’s in the pool.

And the question asked 2 hours earlier in the exact same spot arises once again.
Kate: How do we get her out of the pool?

They stand at the edge of the pool staring at the large reptile gliding gracefully, silently through the depths of the water.

Kate: Call security for help?
Dom: Drain the pool?
Kate: that seems complicated. Where are the steps? (walking to the far end of the pool)

Dom jumps into the middle, chest high in water. He makes his way over to her, positioning himself to force her to swim towards the steps. He corrals her toward the steps, forcing her onto the first set. She strongly pushes around him and races toward the other end. She looks as if she’s going to crash into the edge but stops suddenly and turns. She’s scared now...

5 minutes later: She’s back at the steps, suddenly surfacing and gasping for breath. Now’s our chance. Dom slowly closes in on her and her front flipper climbs the second step. He moves closer, cornering her. She tries to back away but is caught. Dom grabs her shell, one hand at her head and the other at her tail and hoists her front half onto the pool edge. Her flippers are on the tiles, almost there... She now seems to understand what’s happening. With her strong front flippers scraping at the tiles and Dom giving one more push, she slides onto the side and scrambles incredible fast to the grass edge. Exhausted, she pauses after a minute of hurried crawling and breathes heavily. Another 2 minutes and she’s slowly making her way down the sand bank and into the safety of the waves.