Lucky Girl

Not all swimmers are humans. Leave it to me to find this out on a gigantic level.

I'd like to tell you about a fearless swimmer I met many years ago. Swimming was her life, her love and passion. Her name is Lucky and she's a Leatherback turtle. Lucky introduced herself to me one night in Grenada as my husband and I were strolling along the beach. It was the night we arrived to this small island and we were exhausted but we decided to walk along the beach before calling it a night. All of a sudden we heard what sounded like a dying cow so we turned back and Lucky was dragging herself to shore after an assumed long swim.

It turned out Lucky was coming to shore to give birth. Wade filled me in on Leatherbacks, how they're almost extinct and that the locals would most likely kill her if they saw her. Luckily we were the only two on the beach...at least for awhile. We spent several hours with Lucky, the gentle sea giant, helping her dig her hole to nest her babies. It was surreal and it felt like she actually trusted enough to let us help. At one point two men were approaching so Wade and I went about 60 yards away, pretended to make out in the sand to try and distract them but with a wave of sand shooting over 100yards with each flipper flick by Lucky, she was hard to miss.

Long story short, they threatened to kill Lucky unless we gave them $1000 in cash. We ended running up to our hotel, grabbing the manager who quickly drove us back down to shore. They already had Lucky tied up to a tree so Wade and I ran down and untied her head and flippers as the manager and men argued. The police came a few minutes later and were as corrupt as the men but the manager was on our side. They tried to confuse Lucky with flashlights making her go in circles so I decided to slowly walk down to the ocean and Wade followed suit. Lucky, for whatever reason, followed us into the water and out to sea. We stood there watching this magical creature until we could no longer see her.

Did I mention Lucky was huge? The swim moral of the story: if something this big and lean can swim, it proves that anyone can!