Happy New Year!
So, we begin 2012 with the promise and hope that it’ll be a great year!
Having said that, I know for Journey Home it will be an incredible year…as long as I keep my batteries where I can find them at all times! ;-)
There’s a story behind that last statement.
I went out to release hatchlings/washbacks on December 30th with a member of the center’s staff. It should have been an
outstanding day for filming.
To prepare for it, I charged my camera’s batteries, put a new battery in the shotgun mic, thoroughly cleaned my lenses and cleared and formatted my CF cards. Everything was in tip-top shape for the trip out on a boat into open ocean for the release.
It was only after I arrived at the center (some 40 miles away from my home) that I realized that I’d left BOTH batteries for my camera in the charger next to my office. Insert expletive here.
I knew that I had to go ahead and do the trip out without my 7D to shoot HD video. Instead, all I had was my Flip camcorder and my cellphone, which takes photos.
The experience itself was fantastic. The sky was blue, the seas were calm and the little, flappy turtles were cute.
I was pretty dejected from my mistake but, now, I’m actually grateful for the mishap. You see, it forced me to do something I rarely do these days with my eye pressed upon the viewfinder and hands operating the camera. It forced me to actually watch the event and experience it in real-time.
The highlight for me came when we were nearly at the release site and Melissa, a LMC vet specialist, placed Watson, a very small, juvenile loggerhead washback into my hands. It was the first time I’d ever touched a sea turtle, let alone held it in my hands. I bet I was smiling pretty hugely…and I know I couldn’t have had that experience behind the camera.

It still makes me smile.

Finding a large, floating patch of seaweed to release the six tiny turtles into took a little finesse. They had to be far out enough to not get washed in with the tide and clearly remain out of the way of boat traffic. 
Finally, we came upon a decent patch. And though it was surrounded by man-o-war jellyfish, it still seemed to be a nice spot. After a few quick goodbyes, Melissa released them into the water, where they swam (for  the most part…we did have one indecisive turtle) towards the refuge of their new floating homes.
The boat crew and the divers that accompanied us on the trip were all smiles as they assisted in making sure the hatchlings made their way to the seaweed.
It’s a bittersweet moment, really, when you watch them swim away.
You want to believe that now everything is set right again. The truth, however, is that they still face enormous odds against their survival until adulthood. As a poignant reminder of the manmade perils that await them, a SKOAL chewing tobacco can floated alongside the seaweed flotilla. ..five miles out in the open ocean.
As we motored away, we could still see the tiny turtles in the seaweed. Melissa waved goodbye and good luck as they soon disappeared out of view.
I still lament the loss of footage from forgetting my batteries…but the experience was worth just being along for the
ride.

I will post a clip of the low-resolution video that I did shoot and couple of “stills” from the video and from my phone
below.

Cheers,
-Rick