María Hernández.

Hi! I'm María, and I'm going to be with you for a few days on the Ranger.

I've come out here in search of 10 turtles, and in addition to making a few analyses I'm going to give their shells a really good clean and fix a small satellite tag. I'm sure these few days are going to be really unforgettable.

Let's go for it!

The adventure starts before 8 am on 15 August. First of all, the fuel... we need to be there first. And, in fact, we are... on top of which we have to wait until 9 am as it's a public holiday and they open later. Parience.

There's a fairly strong wind coming from the east and quite a swell... it's not a good day for turtles today; with this sea it's almost impossible to see them and if we do see them it's extremely difficult to catch them.

We've got some journalist with us from IB3. My first interview, and it's great fun, although I would have preferred to having fun with a little turtle!

We're coming up to Ibiza, where the journalist are getting off... when suddenly, right off the prow to port, a couple of bottlenose dolphins appear, one of them quite big... they play with the Ranger a while and then disappear in the wake. What a thrill!... at least we've seen some dolphins, something quite difficult in this choppy sea.

We leave the journalist on land without being able to moor the catamaran; tonight we'll have to anchor. There are an incredible number of boats at anchor.

The weather forecast is not good at all, and we have to change our initial plans. Tomorrow we need to stay between the western side of the island and the mainland to shelter from the bad weather.

A quiet night.

Today, Tuesday 16 August, we set off just before ten. Although turtles don't have a fixed schedule, they don't tend to appear very early. They prefer the hours of more direct sunlight, which is when they come up to the surface and snooze while they warm up. This is when they become "loggerheads". The ideal situation is when the sea is completely calm, as if it were a mill pond. This is when turtles can be seen easily, and from a long way away. And once we're in the inflatable there's hardly any risk of losing sight of them and most importantly it enable us to approach very quickly and catch them, giving them barely any time to react and submerge themselves.

But the bad weather is following us; the sea is not as rough as yesterday but it is still in a very inconvenient state for "Operation turtle". We sail along the coast of Ibiza towards the north, around 20 miles from the coast. It's almost 7 in the evening when the weather starts getting worse, and the waves are rocking the Ranger more and more. We give up on the search for turtles and continue on towards Alicante. I'm not losing hope, there are still a few days left. For sure tomorrow will be better!

The sun isn't up yet; it's barely 3 in the morning of Wednesday 17 August. I'm in the middle of a fantastic dream where I'm swimming surrounded by thousands of turtles, when suddenly one of the sailors on watch duty wakes me up...María, wake up! There's a school of dolphins playing off the prow!

I'd already been told how fantastic it looks when dolphins and luminescent jellyfish coincide... and it's true.. it's magical. I leap out of the bunk and up to the deck, put on my lifejacket and harness and shining brightly. And there they are, playing with the catamaran as it sails along. And there are the jellyfish, lighting up the dolphins as they go, as if it were a kind of hypnotic dance.

It’s time to get up and we continue on towards Alicante. Annie is arriving tonight, having crossed the Atlantic to sail with us for a few days. Maybe she’ll bring us luck!

We’ve reached Alicante and heavy rain welcomes us. The ground is sodden and –smack! my flip-flop gives way and I slip over. I haven’t hurt myself but everyone has a good laugh, it was a funny fall. But this doesn’t stop Grace and I going off to do a bit of shopping…nothing much, some new flip-flops, as one of them broke when I fell, and chocolate…need a sugar fix!

Alfredo doesn’t have to do dinner tonight as because Annie’s arriving we go to eat at the “Nou Manolín”. Unfortunately the flight is delayed and Xavier, Annie and Mar get no dinner…but this doesn’t stop us celebrating the arrival of a new crewmember in good spirits.

It’s 6 in the morning and the weather forecast for today is good. We know the perfect place for turtle spotting and set off for it. We have to take advantage of the good conditions. We prepare the inflatable and during this laborious task a sunfish swims past, watching us curiously, circling around us.

It’s midday and the weather is with us; the sun is shining brightly and the sea is calm. I see a group of seagulls resting in the distance and a few metres further on I can see something different…at last, a turtle! 

The action starts; we get into the inflatable and off we go, to work!  Here’s our first turtle, and to be able to differentiate them we’ve decided to give them the names of the crew, so this one will be called "Dana". I’m going to sleep well tonight.

Friday 19 August. We’ve been sailing during the night but there were no dolphins this time. Tonight we have to leave Dana at the port of Cartagena and pick up Maribel, Olimpia and Julie, so we head off in that direction. Breakfast, and to work. We’ve barely been going a few minutes when suddenly something floats on to the horizon…it’s a turtle! This is an early bird, and most of the crew are still sleeping off the night watch. But on hearing the shout, everyone starts moving. We quickly get into the inflatable and approach the turtle at great speed. But it suddenly disappears…it’s dived! It seems it was too quick and took no time at all to escape. We wait a few minutes to see if it comes back up, but there’s no way. We’ve lost it. We continue on our journey. It’s now around midday and suddenly, another turtle!…we sail right by it, just a couple of metres away. Too close… and too quick… another one lost.

We’ve now had lunch, and are back at work. In the distance we can see a school of pilot whales. We quickly get on board the inflatable, Mar wants to film them. Grace steers us towards them, while Dana and Mar get ready to dive. It’s beautiful. Grace and I stay in the inflatable taking photos while Mar and Dana jump into the water.

I’m so envious seeing them swimming amongst them, forming part of the marine world. You can hear the whistles of the pilot whales, as if they were speaking to each other… it’s fantastic! But we need to get back to the Ranger; we need to get to Cartagena quickly.

We say farewell to Dana and welcome Maribel, Olimpia and Julie. It’s now 10 o’clock and we need to set sail; there’s a longliner waiting for us.

It’s 7 in the morning and we’ve been sailing all night. We still haven’t met up with the longliner. One of our observers, Silvia, is on board.

A few hours pass before we come across it and line up parallel to them so we can clearly see how they work. They show us a swordfish they’ve just caught, and how they free two turtles that have got caught on the hooks. I had never seen this before, and it really makes an impact on you. And obviously it’s irritating – they’ve caught two by accident and we haven’t managed to see one. The turtles caught accidentally by longliners are no use for our study. The tagged turtles need to be completely healthy, which is impossible when they’ve been “fished”.

Grace takes Mar, Raquel and Annie over to the longliner so they can film them working on board the boat. Grace comes back with the inflatable while Mar and the others get on with their work with the fishermen. Suddenly, a turtle!... we head off towards it to catch it but it dives quickly. Another one lost.

This afternoon has been a bit frustrating; in total, we lost seven turtles. The sea is not helping us, but we’re not giving in until the sun starts to disappear and we have to abandon the search for today. Ranger 0, Turtles 7.

While I’m asleep and immersed in dreamland, it seems the weather got worse by the minute. Waves were lashing the catamaran, and for a few minutes, which seemed interminable, we lost the inflatable. But most of the crew were on alert and everything was sorted out and brought under control; it was just a fright. I note how the Ranger is moving around much more than usual, but I’m not aware at any time of what’s going on up on deck. My alarm clock does its job and wakes me up. Everyone’s pretty tired after such a hectic night, and I didn’t even know anything was going on!

Back to Cartagena.

Today, Monday 22 August, we can’t go off in search of turtles; the weather forecast is very bad and we decide to stay in port. But we need to take advantage of the time, so it’s all hands on deck with cleaning and engineering repairs. This afternoon Raquel leaves…and tomorrow Grace… what a shame!

We all get up early; Grace is leaving and we have our last breakfast together. Goodbye Grace! See you next year? Annie, Maribel and Olimpia are also leaving this afternoon.

I take advantage of the time to buy material for tagging the turtles…there are still 9 to go. What a shame we can’t go out in search of them today.

Carlos has arrived and Anabel and Silvia get here tonight.

It’s 9 at night so we have dinner and have a final coffee on land. Here’s to the turtles!

It’s 8 in the morning, my alarm clock hasn’t gone off yet, but suddenly... María, wake up, a school of pilot whales! I leap out of the bunk, but when I get up on deck they’ve gone… oh well, no problem, maybe it’s a good sign.

I have breakfast and get ready. We’re already in the established area and the weather’s not bad at all.

It’s 11 in the morning, and there’s something over there, a few metres away…it’s a turtle! We set off in the inflatable and Carlos catches it with a perfect leap. At last! We’re calling turtle number two "Annie". While I work with Annie, the others carry on in search of other turtles, you never know, but no luck. The sun is on the point of disappearing and we abandon the search. "Annie" has already been tagged and released. Where will she go?

Tonight the sky is absolutely covered in stars.

Thursday 25 August. The first great news: "Dana" is transmitting. Let’s see what she has to tell us!

It looks like being a clear, calm day. Suddenly, off to starboard, we see a turtle just a few metres away. Tomás reacts and with a Ranger-inflatable-water leap manages to catch "Tomás", the third turtle. I set to work. As always, I’ve got adrenaline rushing through my body, I love it. While I take samples from "Tomás" and prepare him for tagging, I hear a shout…turtle!…another turtle! Off they go with the inflatable, Carlos does one of his leaps and it’s his…brilliant! Now we’ve got four. This is the biggest one yet, and it’s a bit more difficult than the others to get on board, but between us all we manage it and now it needs to wait its turn. First of all I finish off "Tomás" and once he’s been tagged, while the resin dries, I start on "Grandpa Charly", the name of this last turtle.

It’s 8 at night and we proceed to release the two turtles. The resin-drying process is quite slow and we need to make sure that it’s not still damp, as otherwise we could lose the tag.

We’ve really achieved something today. As I do every night, after dinner I sit down to work at the computer, sharing the desk with Xavier. I’ve got two turtles’ data to enter today… I’m going to sleep really well tonight!

Friday 26 August. This morning, it seems the weather has got worse; the sea is pretty choppy but I get in my position to work. It’s around midday and… a turtle! …this time it’s too close to the catamaran. Without thinking twice, Carlos leaps off the Ranger and catches it …we’re now up to five! This one is "David" and while I work on it we set sail for Palma.

A school of dolphins crosses in front of us, thrilling us with their leaping and splashing. "David" is now ready to be released. Let’s see which way he goes.

Saturday 27 August. The alarm clock goes off; I didn’t sleep too well last night, nightmares…it’s one of those days that you get out of bed on the wrong side, but on seeing what a gorgeous day it is my mood passes. Will today be a good day?

It will! The morning starts well. It’s not even eleven o’clock when a turtle appears, resting peacefully a few metres away from us. We leap into the inflatable and it’s ours! I get down to work and suddenly hear a shout of, turtle!! Another turtle! In a matter of minutes there are two turtles on deck. But it’s got to get in the queue; I need to see to "Grace" first. It seems incredible but in another few minutes there’s yet another turtle…that’s three in under an hour!…and the best of it is that no sooner have we got the third turtle on board than we hear another shout…turtle, four turtles!... this last one is very small but big enough to be tagged.

The sea is like a mill pond and we seem to be in the perfect place. This is like turtle soup! With the four of them on board the Ranger we carry on spotting more turtles, but we’ve now got all the tags allocated and all we can do is just enjoy the moment, watch them from the catamaran, snoozing away without knowing what they’ve missed; a good shell cleaning, a few analyses and a fantastic “tuning”.

I’m full of adrenaline but I’m having a great time. I’ve got "Grace", "Cuoco", "Maria" and "Ondina" around me, waiting to be “tuned”. "Cuoco" is the biggest of the nine turtles we’ve caught. The poor thing barely fits in the box, but it will soon be free.

It’s gone 8 at night, the resin on the first three is now ready, but little "Ondina" needs to spend the night with us, on the way to Palma.

Today has been a spectacular day, we’re all euphoric…four turtles in one day! That’s doesn’t happen too often. It’s the first time I’ve tagged four turtles in the same day, and I feel very proud of it, thanks also to the fantastic team on board the Ranger, without which I’m sure we wouldn’t have managed it.

Last night I slept fantastically well and I got up in a great mood. There’s "Ondina", in the box, waiting to go back in the water. Don’t worry "Ondina", we’re almost there. She’s ready now, so we get everything ready and release her. Goodbye "Ondina"!

We set sail for Palma once again; we’ll be getting there early tomorrow. Today is a quiet day and I can relax a bit more. We have no more satellite tags so there’s no need to look for more turtles today. I’m still thinking about yesterday, what a day! Now all we have to do is wait and see what our new friends have to tell us.

As you might have guessed, these few days have been unforgettable.