10-5-10

I came across Rocket Girl in about the same spot at reef's edge where I saw her last time (9-22-10). I took some pics of her.

I followed Rocket Girl well out past the reef with hopes of possibly seeing her dive down and head

to a resting spot. She continued out from shore and I noticed we were over coral. I also saw off in

the distance what I was certain was another turtle down resting next to a coral head. I left Rocket Girl

and swam over for a better look. This other turtle appeared to be a large hawksbill and once I was

directly over it I was certain. It was probably 35-40' down and I was not excited about diving down

for a ID shot. Fortunately the turtle decided to surface almost immediately upon my arrival so I just

hung there. It came up right near me and gave one start after seeing me after its first breath but I

remained in place and it circled back in to me. I saw a flash of a metal tag on its flipper and felt it

was the same turtle I had seen a couple years ago. I was able to confirm this as our visit progressed.

After taking a number of breaths, she dove back down and headed towards shore. She

swam by some blocks (one of Meghan's mooring sites for testing algae growth) and

Rocket Girl had also swam close to these on her way out. I have no idea if the turtles use

this as a land mark but I will keep it in mind in the future.

She proceeded into the shallows on the reef and went for some algae.

I took a few shots of her various tags and finally realized that each tag has a different number

so she has 1D64-1D67 on her (all four flippers are tagged).

I believe she saw her reflection in the dome port and she stretched her neck and came right up

to it and you can see she is looking right into the center of the port in the shot below.

I pulled the camera back and she lifted off and followed for a moment.

As I went up to the surface, so did she.

She cruised over the reef but didn't see anything that drew her back down and ultimately I followed

her back to the area where I first saw her. As she dove down, I headed back to shore.