At one specific temperature, only male turtles hatch, at another temperature, only female turtles hatch. Outside of this narrow temperature range, the eggs will not hatch. The eggs hatch in 2 months. When they hatch, the baby turtles seem to be crazy, head for the water, get lost, turn circles, until they are finally eaten by a preditor or make it to the water. But it is important for the turtle to find the water by itself, or it will not know where to come back to lay eggs when it reaches maturity.
Turtles always return to where they are born to lay their eggs.
There is some worry that there will be too many airplane, boat or housing lights and the turtles will not come at all. They are taking steps to prevent this. Volunteers work along the beach, and when a turtle is laying her eggs, they measure and tag it. Our turtle was 97 cm from the neck of the shell to the tail. They tagged her on the front flipper.