We booked ourselves into Blue Water Marina in Hampton for a month. This would give us time to visit Paul’s mom, do some clean up on the boat while we have running water, and go to our son’s wedding in Michigan, before heading off to Bristol, Rhode Island for the 4th of July.
We spent 5 days with Paul’s mom almost immediately after we arrived. She’s doing well in a memory care facility at Twin Lakes in Burlington, North Carolina. It takes her a bit of regular visiting for her to remember everyone, but she remembered Charlie right off. The days went by quickly and we said our goodbyes.
For the next 15 days we spent time in Hampton washing the boat and working on maintenance. While Paul was moving the battery and cables for the generator, he spotted a turtle behind the boat in the water. I came out to see, expecting it to be gone before I got there, but it didn’t seem to be able to swim down. It just stayed at the surface sort of listing to one side and lifting its head for air now and then.
This didn’t seem right and Michael on the boat next to us agreed. He hopped in his dinghy and went out to pick it up. The turtle didn’t seem bothered by him bringing it ashore. He washed it down with fresh water, while his wife, Charmaine, made calls to see what should be done.
One person told her to put it back in the water saying we’d be in trouble if it died while we had it. So we did, but again the turtle just struggled to swim down in the water. A decision was made to rescue it again and we would fill our dinghy with water to keep it wet and out of the sun.
Charmaine eventually got through to the Virginia Aquarium who said they’d come right out and take the turtle. It took them about an hour to get here, but they were pleased and said that we’d done the right thing. They took the turtle they named Hemmingway (although it was young and sex could not be determined) back to the aquarium and examined it with X-ray. They discovered it had pneumonia in one lung (hence the listing to one side).
After several days we heard the turtle was recovered enough to begin swimming again. The goal is to have it fully recover and then it would be released back to its natural habitat, the ocean.