Crack Head Fred.

Recently the crew of Auxiliary Facility DRAGONFLY 26700 got underway from my pier in Back Creek, a small creek just south of the York River. We were headed for Chesapeake Bay to meet another facility for training and qualifications. It was a warm sunny day, great for training. On board were myself as coxswain, with Jim Powell, Joe Ewalt and Robin Wagner. Also on board was qualifications examiner Jack Kane.

Our vessel is a hard-chined lobsterboat type, hand built by me 3 years ago. She looks like a scaled down 41 foot USCG utility boat but without the well deck. She does have a large clear cockpit.

Back creek is a no-wake zone, so it takes 15-20 minutes to go from my pier to open water, plenty of time to discuss what we hoped to accomplish. The facility we planned to meet also had training objectives to accomplish.

During out trip down the creek an alert lookout spotted something in the water. A reversal of course brought us next to a large (well, large to us) sea turtle, a loggerhead. It seemed to be in some distress, moving slowly and feebly and not submerging.

We immediately contacted USCG Station Cape Charles and reported the situation. After some discussion at the other end we were requested to contact Virginia Institute of Marine Science (VIMS, a division of William and Mary College) and give them our information. This we did. After some discussion we were advised to leave the turtle alone and proceed with our patrol.

We continued our patrol, met the other facility and accomplished what we had planned.

We were returning to Back Creek to drop Robin off when we received another cell phone call from VIMS requesting us to try to relocate the turtle. We landed Robin and relocated the turtle in almost the same spot we had left it.

He gained 35 pounds.

VIMS wanted to know if we could bring the turtle on board. I will say I did not think we could lift the beast, but Joe was able to grab it and lift it into the cockpit. We notified Station Cape Charles what we were doing and they gave us permission to proceed.

We transported the turtle to the VIMS facility at Gloucester Point on the York River, where we met Ms. Trish Bargo from the Virginia Aquarium Stranding Center (VASC) with her truck to take turtle away for study and treatment.

During the loading process we noticed turtle had a chunk missing from its right rear flipper, a damaged place on its shell and another on its head. Trish promised to let us know how turtle was doing. We wished it luck, said goodbye and got back on patrol.

For many months nothing was heard. When two or more of us got together we would speculate, but no news.

But in early June this year I received a call from a Ms. Wendy Walton who told me that they at VASC had named the turtle Fred (I later learned that the whole name was Crack Head Fred!). They told us that he was to be released on Wednesday June 27, and that I and all the crew were invited to participate.

I also learned that Fred had been seriously injured, that bacteria had gotten into his brain through his head injury and things were touch and go for months. Fred had three months of antibiotics and many more months of therapy and hand feeding before he regained his strength. But now Fred was ready.

For a multitude of reasons the rest of the crew could not go, but my wife Jean and I drove over from Yorktown to Virginia Beach for Fred's release. It turned out that Fred would have company, another loggerhead named C D. Chill, who had stayed in the heated water from a power plant discharge canal until the pollution started to damage his shell. They were also accompanied by a Kemps-Riddley turtle named Mighty Luke. Mighty Luke was rescued from a fishing line and lost one flipper and part of another.

Due to his history, Fred was selected to carry a tracking device so that VASC would know where he was and how he was making out. This tracking device will stay with him for six to eight months and then fall off.

Fred was the first to be released. I helped carry him to the waters edge and put him down on the sand. Four of us had to carry him; he had grown from 66 pounds to about 100 pounds. When he felt the sand his flippers really went to work. In a few seconds he was in the water and on his way. Our last sight of Fred was the antenna of his tracking device, headed for deep water. Good luck, Fred!

C. D. Chill and Mighty Luke were also released; C. D. did a 360 degree turn on the sand before heading for deep water, and Mighty Luke had some trouble navigating with only 2 1/2 flippers, but he made it. But neither had the single minded determination of Crack Head Fred!