Raine Island - Nature's Cradle on the Edge of the Coral Sea
Satellite Web Cast From Turtle Heaven and Hell
Journal Entry - 01 - 22 - 03
On the Sea Again!
Sunset
Well, we are back at it again. Headed for Raine Island again!

Off on the third and final expedition to document the natural history at Raine Island and carry out several important scientific projects while there. We will make every effort to send back a daily journal entry courtesy of Iridium Satellite accompanied by a few shots courtesy of Nikon and their D100 system. Should we run into bad weather the transmissions may come to an abrupt end (satellite phones don't like heavy cloud layers and monsoon rain storms).

Playing cards to pass the time.
Yesterday afternoon we loaded the Floreat with hundreds of pounds of camera and scientific gear, stowed it all in the hold below decks and disappeared into Cairns for a last meal before leaving the dock at 10 pm. Twelve hours later the big issue had become boredom. How to spend the two days it will take to get to Raine. We have a break at Lockhart River to refuel (early in Thurs.) and then proceed in to Raine (actually we'll overnight just short of Raine - at Great Detached reef) and then make our way over in the early morning.
By three o'clock this afternoon we were adjacent to Cape Melville and our position was S 14.08 and E 144.31. The cape is a bit west of that.
Director Hogarth in a classical music haze in the late afternoon light.
We will be at the island for 13 days and have plans to satellite tag three tiger sharks and one turtle. If all goes as planned this should be the peak time for turtle hatchings so we should have a very good chance of documenting both the mass eruption of a hatch and the predation thereof by birds and then piscene predators waiting just offshore. We may even get a chance to observe the night herons - those very wary predators which feed their chicks turtle hatchlings exclusively. There should still be some 200-300 turtles coming ashore a night to nest which will offer some interesting material.
So do stay with us as we work at the island. This expedition promises to be even more exciting than the last. And please send us questions.
Ashton up to his old tricks - stealing an empty bed for a nap.
Don't forget you can email us questions at
raineexpedition@netcarrier.com
Built on an Apple G4 Titanium Powerbook courtesy of Apple Computers Inc., Connected to the world by Iridium Satellite LLC and Digital eyes courtesy of Nikon - the new D100 digital camera, Captured on LexarMedia digital film.
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