Google Earth Picture of Blind Creek Area Just North of the Power Plant.This picture provides a good illustration. You can easily see how there could have been an inlet there at one time. I think (I don't know) that there probably was.
Back about fifteen years ago, the beach was cut so far back in front of the lake that it would have only taken about ten or twenty more yards of erosion and an inlet would have been opened there.
Yesterday I mentioned how the beach is composed of various layers of sand that are put down at different times. What I wanted to point out today is how the sand was pushed up and into the lake by the 2004 hurricanes. A parking lot immediately to the south of the lake was completely covered with sand and was never reopened since then. Notice the waves of sand that spilled into the lake. Of course that means that tons of sand were dumped onto the beach in front of the lake.
When it was eroded, there was about a six foot cliff just in front of the lake. Some older things were found there at that time.
I'll refer to this from time to time in the future to illustrate beach dynamics.
The hunting hasn't been good on the beaches for some time, but when the beaches are sanded in due to calm summer coditions, that is when the salvage crews are able to hunt the water. That is part of what I mean when I say there is always some place to hunt and somthing to find. When the hunting is not good one place, it is someplace else.
1715 Fleet gold and silver coins have recently been found as well as Spanish shipwreck artifacts.
Here is a link to the forum with the photos of those finds.
http://forum.treasurenet.com/index.php/topic,330318.msg2385954.html#new
Great finds guys.
I showed an escudo mounted in a ring a couple of times in this blog in the past. It is also a 1715 Fleet 2 escudo with partial date, which was found, I'd say about 20 or 25 years ago - no crew, salvage ship, tanks or blowers - just detector and scoop. So if you don't have all of that, you can still find good things.
If you hunt the beaches you obviously can't use blowers to move the sand, so you have to wait for nature to move the sand for you. That is why I spend so much time on beach dynamics and trying to let you know when conditions are good. The better you understand beach dynamics, the better off you will be. I really need to write a comprehensive chapter on that subject.
When things are slow on the beach, that is a good time to invest in reading, learning, preparing, experimenting and stretching your mind.
If you look down this beach, you will quickly notice a couple things. First the line of sea weed. Sea weed indicates that lighter materials are washing up onto the beach. That is generally not a good sign. Yet, it does not tell you how long that has been going on. If it just started, the depth of the new sand might be shallow enough that your detector can penetrate the top layer to reach older layers.The second thing to notice is that the sea weed line is not straight. Where the sea weed line curves out more to the west, look for dips in front of that. It could be an area worth exploring.
When I looked at my photos I found that I missed getting pictures of two spots that I really wanted to talk about. Oh well.
One was to the north and marked by a number of large rocks on the beach. That is where all of the good targets were a couple of days ago. It was the only spot on this beach that gave up anything, and it was immediately obvious when I first looked at the beach even though I didn't capture it in my photos.
Although I spent the vast majority of my time at that spot, I did run my detector on the way to and from that spot, just to check and make sure. I often test my thinking. It is important to learn when you are wrong.
You can use rocks and other landmarks as indicators of what the sand is doing. Become familiar with the rocks and other objects on a beach.
Tree stumps are especialy good indicators. I sometimes cut marks into some of the better placed stumps so I can measure sand flow. That will often determine if I bother to spend time at a spot or not.
Forecast and Conditions.As much as I hate to repeat it, nothing much is happening on the beaches - at least nothing that would significantly improve conditions for hunting shipwreck artifacts. It seems like a lot of the beach hunters have given up for a while. I haven't seen many detectorists out there. It is tough going.
The people that keep at it are the ones that will likely be successful. You can always be learning, even when conditions are poor, as they are now.
Seas are from the south - usually a bad sign. Even when erosion is caused by south winds, the cuts usually aren't as productive for some reason. I have a theory on that, but it is nothing more than a theory.
The beaches haven't really changed much for a long time. That means you either have to go for some new drops or try some new things.
The surf sites say the seas will remain calm for the next several days.
It is a good time to get in the water even if it is sandy. But remember to stay out of the leased areas.
That tropical storm that I started watching several days ago has become tropical storm Alex. It is no threat to us, but a new distrubance has formed out in the Atlantic. It has a 20% chance of developing into a cyclone. I'll keep an eye on that.
It looks like the hurricane season will be active as was predicted. Things can happen quickly now.
Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net
