Leatherback Sea Turtle at Cape Lookout

A couple of days ago there wasn’t enough wind to teach a kiteboarding lesson so we took our new boat to Cape Lookout for a trip with Michael’s dad who is in town visiting from Michigan.

It was a gloriously beautiful day with a light north wind. We set out around 10am and put the boat over at the Beaufort public boat ramp. With a 90hp engine on our 17 ft whaler we made it to Cape Lookout in 20 minutes. The route to the Cape is unmarked in many places and it takes a bit of local knowledge to cruise there at a high speed with out fear of running aground.

Once we arrived at the lighthouse we set anchor and took a nice walk along the beach.

The temperature was so perfect which is a rare treat in Eastern NC June. Oftentimes the air temp in June can be 90-100 F. This day was a beautiful bluebird day with temps in the 70-80F. In the surf there was a crab pair mating, but otherwise we didn’t see any other exciting wildlife on the island.

Once we climbed back aboard the boat we motored toward the inlet between Shackleford Island and Cape Lookout. As we were traversing the water. Micheal spotted a dark shape under the water surface and just then it breached and he realized it was a sea turtle. Not just any sea turtle but a HUGE one at about 5 feet in length.

This species of sea turtle is the largest of living turtles with sizes up to 2000 lbs! They are called Leatherback because their shell isn’t hardened like all of the other sea turtles but rather it is soft and leathery. Leatherbacks are unique because they can dive to depths of 4000 feet and can stay for up to 85 minutes holding their breath!! Our buddy here was surfacing every 2-3 minutes or so. He had super long arms and when he surfaced he was shooting out of the water. This was a much different behavior than the other sea turtles I have ever seen, which will just quietly poke their head above water.

After we had our fill of watching and photographing the turtle we went out the inlet and drove along the length of Shakleford Island to return through the Beaufort Inlet then back to the boat ramp.

It was a great day on the water!