a good night, but a long wait for a turtle..the tide was low when we started and based on when turtles have nested this season (generally on the rising tide - or just after high tide), we did not expect to see any leatherbacks until after about 2 am. sure enough, about 315 am (high tide), Jeremy called from the south end of Juno Beach, where he and Kim had just spotted Spica. she was nesting in a leatherback hot spot down there - a dark, well-vegetated dune and steep beach. leatherbacks seem to like that particular 400 m of beach. I kept my eyes peeled on the next pass I made in the car with the night vision scope. just as I was getting ready to turn in at 430 am, at my second-to-last stop, I saw a turtle just up over the berm, throwing sand. she looked big and black, but I wasn't sure she was a leatherback. but then I saw the big flippers come up and throw some more sand back over her carapace. by the way she was throwing sand, I wasn't sure if she had finished nesting or was just getting comfortable. I could hear the slap of her flippers on the sand and hear her breathing from 100 ft. away. I snuck down and was surprised to see she had nested on the slope just below where I could see from the road. she would not have been visible had she not come up over the ridge to cover her nest. a lucky find. she probably came up just about the time Jeremy was seeing Spica, and nested quietly below my line of sight. I called her Cassiopeia because that constellation was just about overhead when the turtle finally slipped into the dead calm water. it was a very quiet night, with no waves, and no breeze, but lots of bugs. still, a successful one. please keep checking our Tracking button on the home page. we are now following our satellite tagged turtles - right now they are hanging out near Daytona Beach. they may come back here to nest this weekend, and we will have updates posted as we get them.