Turtle Sanctuary

Yesterday I took a visit to the turtle sanctuary here on Bequia. I shared a taxi (see picture of Fat Man taxi) with a family from London England and their eight year old daughter. They were Franko, Alice, and little Isabella, she said she would pretend I was her long lost uncle Kevin from America in her best English accent. I met local islander Mr King who started the shelter and has raised and nursed injured Hawksbill turtles for eighteen years. He has released back to the ocean over 900 turtles so far. He took a great deal of time to educate me about Hawksbills. They get their name from the bird like beak they have and grow to over 200 pounds and 200 years old! Females have to be 25 years old to lay eggs and are about eighty five pounds at that age. In the pictures and videos the smallest ones are six years old. They eat sea grass from the ocean floor and can stay under water for many minutes before having to surface to take a breath. Mr King speaks to children at schools and churches to educate them about protecting the turtles so younger generations will get to see them. Some of the old islanders still hunt them and kill them to eat along with their eggs and will never change their ways, that's why its so important he educates the children so as the older generation dies off perhaps his work will make a difference. Only one baby in three thousand will survive in the wild so Mr. King is trying to make a difference here, the government of most Caribbean island will not pass laws to protect turtles. He said to never buy Tortoise Shell anything as this is another reason they are hunted since the Hawksbill has a very thick shell. Plastic look alike Tortoise Shell is the way to go he says. Looks like I will be here in Bequia a few more days making repairs and waiting on Alec the local sail maker to make repairs to my Mizzen sail. Unfortunately there is no one here that can repair my Harkin furling unit so I dissembled it and stowed it below and will just manage my sail plan without the Mizzen. I had my laundry done by a local women named Naomi, people here are begging for work and she washed them all by hand and hung to dry and folded them perfect for twenty five EC (less than ten US) and ask if I could bring her more. It's not that bad here as they have cold brew a local one called Hairoun at the Whaleboner http://cnnislands.com/news/story.php?id=81 bar for only two dollars US........