8/2/11 Report - More on Emily, How Often People Detect the TC Lately, & Steamship New Albany

Projected Path of Emily.

Emily is now a named storm. As you can see Florida is within the cone. That is according to the 5:00 AM Tuesday forecast.

The center of the storm is now projected to be just off the coast. "Storm" is the key word. Emily is not strengthening quickly, and is now projected to be a tropical storm, not a hurricane, when she reaches our area on Saturday.

She is expected to pass over Hispaniola, which will slow the rate of strengthening. I believe that could also cause some wobbling from the projected path.

If Emily goes as now projected, the entire coast should get some good waves, and hopefully not hurricane force winds. Strangely, though, the surf web site that predicted eight foot seas for the weekend yesterday, are now showing nothing but 1.5 seas all the way through the weekend. I find that very hard to believe considering the predicted path of Emily. I've expressed some doubts about those surf web site predictions in the past. Of course we are still a few days out and they might change their predictions by the weekend.

For me, I would expect to see some good waves if the path of Emily goes as NOAA is now predicting.

As I've mentioned before, but it doesn't take a hurricane to really rip the beaches. The angle of the waves is important, as is the duration.

I would expect to see northeast wind and waves for only part of a day. It looks like Emily will pass us relatively quickly rather than lingering around.

As you know, a cyclone turns around a center, so as it passes over, we'll first get the wind from one direction and then the opposite direction. The beach could erode and then fill in again. It all depends upon a lot of different factors.

Maybe things will be clearer in a couple of days. I wouldn't be surprised if this thing weakens or change path after it goes over Hispaniola.


I'll keep you up to date on any significant changes. So far nothing has changed.

I might post an update to this post if the predictions change before tomorrow.



The most recent blog survey has concluded and the results are in.

The percentages changed a bit during the course of the survey. It seems the first respondents were more of the people who weren't detecting very often on the Treasure Coast. I guess that makes sense. A lot of the snow birds and people from outside the Treasure Coast read the blog so they know what is going on and to know when they should make the trip. They are the ones that aren't detecting the Treasure Coast very often.

The final results show that 17% of the respondents have been detecting twice or week or more. That shows that there are a lot of hard core detectorists on the Treasure Coast that aren't letting the heat, mosquitoes, or poor conditions deter them. It also means that some of the best beaches are getting cleaned on a regular basis.

A little over one quarter of the respondents detect Treasure Coast beaches a few times a month, between once a month to once a week.

And 53% have not detected Treasure Coast beaches in the last month. Again, we have a lot of snow bird readers as well as readers from other parts of the state that probably make up most of those. And there are probably some people that are only interested in treasure coins and only detect the Treasure Coast beaches when conditions improve.


1860s Square Nail From Steamship. Clipped Photo from BastropEnterprise.com

This nail is one of those types of find that could easily be a signal find that points you to something bigger and may help you identify the age of the site and other items found in the area. It comes from what archaeologists believe might be the New Albany, a steamship that was lost in the 1860s.

The steamship was recently exposed in Bayou Bartholomew by a drought. It is now submerged again.

Here is the link to the original article.

http://www.bastropenterprise.com/features/x555031272/Archaeologists-give-tentative-name-to-shipwreck?photo=0

Changes in weather conditions often provide opportunities, whether it is drought, high water, or something else.

In the past I've reminded you to check the banks of waterways during droughts. You never know what might catch your eye.


Keep tuned to see what Emily might do.


Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

8/1/11 Report - Big Seas Predicted

Possible Tracks of Latest Tropical Storm Emily


This wave has not been named yet, but if it does develop into a tropical storm, it will be named Emily. It is now east of Martinique.


Yesterday NOAA said it had a 100% chance of developing into a cyclone, but today only 90%. When they sent out the hurricane tracker plane it wasn't as developed as previously thought. It will probably still develop.

I heard that if it remains weak, it will more likely take a more southerly track and possibly go into the Gulf, but if it strengthens considerably, more likely out into the Atlantic.

This one bears watching. There is still a lot of uncertainty about what it might do.

Here is the link where I got the projected paths.

http://www.mogilo.com/pages/tropical-storm-emily-2011-track


The blog survey has changed a bit since the first few days. Generally speaking, the bigger the sample, the more reliable the results.



Yesterday I talked a little about the Canadian coins that are often found on Florida beaches where many Canadians winter.

Here is a link to a web site that discusses some of the most valuable Canadian coins.

http://www.2-clicks-coins.com/article/rare-canadian-coins.html


I ran across a great web site about the historic shipwrecks around England. It provides a map with wreck locations as well as information about each of the wrecks.

Here is the link.

http://www.english-heritage.org.uk/discover/maritime/map/

The web site also shows two wrecks that are visible at low tide and accessible to non-divers.


An Encrusted Penny and Nickel.

I couldn't tell what these were until they were cleaned. Any coins that have apparently been on the beach for a while can be signal coins that tell you that older items are there and are either washing up or out.


Treasure Coast Beach Forecast and Conditions.


The wind is now out of the south and the seas still calm. However - and here is the really big news - big seas are predicted for this weekend. Saturday it is supposed to get up to about six or seven feet and then eight feet Sunday. That would be from Emily.

That is the most that we have had for quite a while. I can't really remember the last time we had eight foot seas.

It usually takes about eight foot seas to really improve conditions. It depends partly upon the angle of the waves though. If the waves hit directly from the east it usually doesn't do much. The water just washes up onto the beach and then back down. That is what happened during hurricane Andrew. There was very little, and almost no erosion to the South Florida beaches from Hurricane Andrew even though the water got very high.

So if we get eight foot seas coming from the north/northeast, conditions could improve dramatically. We'll just have to wait a little longer. But keep a watch on this one.

Get your equipment in good order This could be what we've been waiting for.


Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net