5/22/19 Report - Pirates and Buried Treasure by Jack Beater. Metal Detecting A Frank Hudson Site. Mining Your Time.

Written by the TreasureGuide for the exclusive use of treasurebeachesreport.blogspot.com.

Buried Treasure Books.

When I was looking for one of the Frank Hudson books for some reason the other day, I found some other "treasure" books that I had forgotten about.  One is by Jack Beater, who lived in the Fort Myers area, and wrote a book entitled Pirates and Buried Treasure, which was published in 1959.

Jack was a veteran of WW I and moved to Florida in 1920.  Stories of pirates and treasure fascinated him, so he started talking to every old timer or anyone who could tell him more about that.  I was given a copy of his book many years ago by someone who knew him.

Pirates and Buried Treasure is an entertaining easy read that also provides good information.  It focuses primarily on the West Coast of Florida and the Keys.  It talks about Gasparilla, Juan Gomez, Captiva, Charles Gibbs, Anne Bonny, Captain Rackam, Henri Caesar, Key Largo, Tarpon Springs, Useppa, Charlotte Harbor, Carla Pelau, and Estero Bay, Fort Myers Beach and others.   Of course, some of those places you can no longer metal detect.

Concerning Hudson's books, Bill P. detected one of the sites mentioned, and found the book to be accurate.

Here is what Bill said.

An old detecting friend and I hunted a location that Hudson mentioned in that book (I believe) on the gulf coast many years ago. He gave many details about this area that were actually fairly accurate. We hunted the area several times over a couple years and turned up some pretty cool items. The area had been hunted by Hudson and there were uncovered holes everywhere. There were a lot of indian artifacts too. Among the items we found were a broken, rusty end of bar shot that was fired from a cannon with the hopes of taking out the rigging of another ship. I found a Spanish, milled half reale that was holed, and dated 1784. That was cool. We also found what we believed to be a human bone...creepy to say the least. The most interesting thing that happened was, in between trips there someone else was apparently hunting there too. We found a freshly dug hole approximately 2 feet deep and in the bottom of the you could see where roots had grown around something square shaped around 2 feet square!. Disappointing for us but still exciting that someone actual found a box of......who knows. The worst part was the little black salt-marsh mosquitoes. Who knows what is still there? Bill 

Thanks Bill.  Fun times.

That reminds me of one time in the eighties, I think it was, I was in Tampa on a business trip and remember a construction project on the beach that unearthed a bunch of gold coins.  I remember taking my Aquanaut in its grey hard case with me on the plane.

If you go through Hudson's books, one thing you'll notice is several buried treasures around every inlet.  There might be an exception, but I don't think so.  It is important to remember that some of the inlets have moved.

If you combine the treasures in the Hudson and Beater books with those reported in various other sources, you'll notice that there are few coastal areas without sunken or buried treasure somewhere nearby.  Just those that I'm familiar with are numerous, extending from Key West all the way up the coast.  

This is the first I really looked at those books for many years.  When I first read them, I saw them very differently.  Each X marked a dream that could happen - if I hit it.

I look at things very differently now.   Now it seems to me more like, treasure is all around, so I don't wonder so much where the treasure is - instead I wonder what treasure is in the area where I stand.

Think of it.  You can start out in a place like Frederick Douglas, walk north to John Brooks, and a little more to the old picked over wreck near the Fort Pierce Jetty, then north to Pepper Park, and then past the Fort Capron payroll area, continue on to the Sandy Point Wreck and Rio Mar, and Turtle Trail, and Seagrape Trail, and Wabasso, Golden Sands and Treasure Shores and Ambersands, etc. etc.  And I am sure there are treasures in between of one kind or another.   There are wrecks along our coast that are less known and less hunted, yet very interesting.  And there are artifacts of various ages on the beach, and fossils and sea glass, not to mention the native American artifacts and the shiny things that are being lost daily.

I can look out my front window and see the spot where I picked up an inscribed Native American pot shard laying on the surface after a storm, and where I go walking to pick up old bottles and other things.   And not far from my back door is an area where workers in the early 20th century drank after work and discarded their bottles.  There is treasure all over the place.  That is how it seems to me now.

My goals changed over the years and decades too.   I've told before about how when I started metal detecting I tried to find as many coins as I could.  After I progressed some, I targeted gold and quit counting the coins.  That wasn't the end of the changes, but I'll skip over the rest.

Not too long ago I used the term alchemy in one of my post titles.  Poorly defined, alchemy attempts to turn base metals in to gold.  For me today it is more about mining or transforming the moment.

Through aging and a variety of other circumstances, I now see time and life as the most precious commodity.  Digging up gold is really nice, but the important thing is extracting the treasure from the moment in which I stand.  That can be done by digging up something good, but it can also be done without digging up anything.  The treasure is not so much in the gold, but what you bring to it.

For example, treasure hunting with the wrong attitude can leave you worse off, whether you find anything or not.  There was a time when I'd go out hunting with a very specific goal, and if I didn't find anything good I'd come back in a very bad mood.  I let it ruin the moment.  Likewise, making a good find can be poorly handled in a variety of ways.  You've probably heard of lotto winners who destroyed themselves and their families.

Life is precious.  Every moment is precious.  You can make of it what you will.

The moment, like gold, is there to be mined.  Mine it.

---

Some of the salvage boats have been taking advantage of the small surf, but later today the surf will increase and we will have a couple days of bigger surf.

Source: MagicSeaWeed.com

Make your moments count,

TreasureGuide@comcast.net

1/22/19 Report - Google Maps and Changing Landscapes. Lunar Eclipse. Columbus Verboten. Bigger Surf.

Written by the TreasureGuide for the exclusive use of treasurebeachesreport.blogspot.com.

Eclipse As Seen From Treasure Coast

and Captured by Alberto S.

I missed the eclipse, but Alberto sent me the beautiful images that he captured.  He said the last image was from about 12:10 AM.  He said it felt like it was freezing outside.

Great images Alberto!  Thanks!

---

I've talked a lot about using old maps and the benefits of knowing the history of a place.  I'm amazed how seldom people reference old maps to check out shoreline and other topological changes.  Targets that were once on land might now be either in the water or more deeply buried under sand that has accumulated.

Recently I was talking about the advantage of having personal knowledge of changing landscapes.  Now it is possible to get GPS positions and compare those to images to see how things have changed.

Here is one example of what I was talking about yesterday.  The satellite map is from Google Maps.  It shows some of the changes I mentioned yesterday and illustrates how having a knowledge of the past can help you locate old treasures.

A View of An Area That I Was Very Familiar With Back a Few Decades Ago.

This area has changed a lot since the 1950s.  Where you see the bull-dozed dirt, there was an old barn (big rectangle) and a corn crib (little rectangle beside it).  

The house across the road with two cars out front was a small wash house, where several young local families got their start with housekeeping before getting their own house.  The rectangle behind that, was an outhouse, that later was filled with great old cork-top bottles, many with paper labels.

Across the road from that was a small dump in a little ravine by the current telephone poll.

The two blue arrows point to the winding creek where we threw bottles and shot them with BB guns.  Funny how toxic masculinity was fostered back when there was so much less crime.

Across the creek were no buildings or roads up until more recent decades.

The good old dump is the area indicated by a circled X.  It is right across the road from a three story farm house.

There is much more that I could show on this and neighboring maps, but that is enough of an illustration for now.  There were locations where arrow heads were routinely found and many other things.

I think you can see how knowing the history of the place would be a huge advantage for a detectorist.  There are many good detecting sites that would not be apparent to those who don't know the history of the place.

Although I haven't been able to spend much time, I have had a few short hunts there and quickly dug up some of the old metal toys that I played with as a child as well as some silver coins around the old ball field that is now hidden by weeds and trees, so I know those things are still there if only I was there and had the time to work them.

The same thing applies to the beaches.  I was not raised on the Treasure Coast, but I have been here long enough to observe some of the changes.

Here, for example, is the Blind Creek area.  The access road to the south of the lake has been closed for some time.  There was a parking lot where I drew the blue rectangle.  It washed over in the 2001 storms and kept filling in.  I think they eventually gave up on keeping it open.   Anyhow it has been closed now for quite a while.

Blind Creek Area As Seen With Google Maps.

Where you see the blue semi-circle, the beach was eroded back close to the lake.  Just a little more erosion and it could have opened to the ocean.  I don't doubt that it was at some time an inlet, although I don't know that for sure.

There is a lot more to know about just that little area, for example the Native American habitations, or where the WW II observation tower was, or the WW II dump to the south.  You can still find evidence of all of those today

Landscapes change and beaches change.  Some changes are rapid and permanent.  Knowing about those changes can help the detectorist in many ways.

---

SOUTH BEND, Indiana - The University of Notre Dame will cover murals in a campus building that depict Christopher Columbus in America, the school’s president said, following criticism that the images depict Native Americans in stereotypical submissive poses before white European explorers...

Here is that link.

https://cruxnow.com/church-in-the-usa/2019/01/22/notre-dame-to-cover-up-murals-of-columbus-in-the-new-world/

I have so much to say about that but I won't.  It is just too much.

---

Google Maps and similar web sites provide a convenient method for checking out sites that you haven't been to for a while or comparing to older maps.

The wind is out of the east at about 15 to 20 mph this morning.

I hope to get a chance to look at the beach some time today.

Source: MagicSeaWeed.com.

The tides are still nice and big.

Looks like the Treasure Coast surf will be a bit bigger tomorrow, but the wind will shift to the south.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

1/21/19 Report - Seeing Back Through Time. Another Kind of Find. Increasing Surf and Big Tides Coming.

Written by the TreasureGuide for the exclusive use of treasurebeachesreport.blogspot.com.

Large Porcelain High Tension Insulator.

I've found a good number of insulators during my detecting outings, but most are smaller and glass rather than porcelain.  This is a larger porcelain insulator from a high tension line.  

It has acquired a grey patina.  Underneath is a nice shiny brown.  I think more of that will show if I clean it.

It is marked VICTOR.

I've found some insulators with my metal detector that still had wire attached, but most were found by sight.

Maybe I'll show more of those in the future.  Most of them are nice, but not worth a lot.

Here is what I found on the history of Victor Insulators, Inc.

 The Village of Victor is located in Western New York State, seventeen miles east of Rochester.  The Village of Victor was incorporated in 1879.  At the hub of three railroads it quickly became an industrial center of the region and is the birthplace of the wet process, high voltage porcelain insulator.   

Look around you at every power pole in your area and think Victor Insulators.  Virtually all porcelain insulator companies owe their origins to the inventor, Fred Locke.  He built the Locke Insulator business in Victor in 1898 and today it is known around the world as Victor Insulators, Inc. Porcelain insulators are made of high quality clays, combined with selected minerals, glazed with colored pigments, then fired in a 2,300 degree kiln.  Standard and custom shapes of insulators are still being produced today...

Here is that link.

http://victormug.com/Victor.pdf

And here is a long list of porcelain insulators along with prices.

https://www.insulators.info/porcelain/photos/photos/u465-yel.htm

I haven't found this specific one yet.

---

I'm going to meander down memory lane before I get to my main point today.  

I awoke this morning before sunrise with a smile upon my face that lasted at least an hour.  I had a dream, or more accurately, a few dreams, that took me back to a time some sixty or seventy years ago.

It was a different time and place, but one I've definitely not forgotten.

The boys who spent their later teens on the beaches of Normandy or Midway, or at the Battle of the Bulge or liberating concentration camps, or in the Pacific had returned from the war and built houses and started families.

I was the child of one of those boys who tried to make a better life for his family.  I grew up rich, even though we didn't have much money.

It is a green valley in rural Pennsylvania populated by farms dating well back into the 1800s.  Scattered between the old farm houses were a few new small houses built by the veterans with whatever they could scrape up.

In one of my dreams, I revisited that valley where I and my friends grew up in the 1950s.  Some of us went to Viet Nam, and some of us visited the beaches of Fort Lauderdale for Spring Break.  Who said life is fair?

No matter how the historians write about it, it is never the same as being there.

My dream took me back to an event that I've told about before.  My friend and I found a dump filled with bottles.

Just like it once was on the Treasure Coast, at that time we didn't have garbage collection and the farms and families buried or burned their trash.  Below every old farm house was a dump that had accumulated close to a century of bottles and miscellaneous garbage.

Well, we got bottles from one of those dumps and threw them into the creek at the bottom of the valley.  Then we ran downstream along the creek to a rock cliff that stuck out above the creek.  As the bottles floated by, we imagined that they were warships and we tried to sink them with our bee bee guns before they got by.  That is what I relived in my dream.

So how does that have anything to do with treasure hunting or this blog?

Not long ago I actually visited my old stomping grounds up north for an all too-short visit.  Those old dumps are now overgrown.  There was little evidence that they ever existed.  But it was like I could see through time.  I could see the huge oak tree that was no longer there.  I could see the big old black barn that was a part of both my history and my mother's, even though it had been replaced by a characterless aluminum building.  I could see the spring house, that was so nice and cool in the summer, and the dump, both of which had been bull-dozed.   Hidden by a heavy layer of weeds and trees and completely invisible to any new comer, I could clearly see the old baseball field, along with the kids and parents and many events that took place there in times past.

Kids know their neighborhood like no one else - or at least we did.  We knew where arrow heads were found.  We explored every hill, valley, spring, creek, meadow and clump of trees.

My grandparents also took me places and showed me where things happened when they were kids.  My grandmother showed me the part of the stone chimney that remained from the house where she was raised, and where she went to picnic.  And I can remember every inch of it today, even though I haven't been there for years.  

Finally, here is my point.  If you detect the area where you grew up and where your family settled long ago, you have a tremendous advantage.  On the other hand, if you find yourself living in an area that is newer to you, you might want to talk to some of the older citizens who don't mind reminiscing about their childhood in the area.  They can probably see back through time too.

-- -

I've been enjoying the coin collecting magazines I picked up at the Treasure Coast Coin Collectors table at the Vero coin show yesterday.  I'll have more to say about that some other time.

I was thinking of talking about beach search patterns today, but didn't get it done.

I went out to check for the lunar eclipse last night, but was early and didn't see it.

The moon was beautiful anyhow, and we are now having some really big tides.  Too bad the west wind the surf has not increased much yet.

Source: MagicSeaWeed.com.

As you can see, the Treasure Coast surf will be up to three to five feet on Tuesday and Wednesday.  That combined with the big tides should help out some areas.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

9/14/18 Report - Beach Conditions On The Treasure Coast After the High Surf. The Sure Way To Make Good Finds.

Written by the TreasureGuide for the exclusive use of treasurebeachesreport.blogspot.com.

Beach Early This Morning.

Not much changed since yesterday.  I didn't see as many beaches today as I did yesterday, so I could have missed something somewhere.

I'm not much of a detectorist anymore, and haven't been for quite a few years now.  Too many responsibilities and other things got in my way.   I don't think I've spent much more than a dozen hours detecting (on the beach, I should have said) all year, and that is much less than I spent in a typical week at one time.

Anyhow, I did go out to check around again today.  You'll be much more productive if you can be out there a lot.

Beach Early This Morning.

The beach and the surf looked very much like they did yesterday.

There were some shells on one beach today.

Part of Shell Line This Morning.

Yesterday there were some decent size rocks that washed up or otherwise appeared on the front beach.  Here is one that I photographed yesterday.

One Rock That Washed Up Yesterday.

I did get a few minutes of detecting time in yesterday.  Here are a couple things I found.

Couple New Finds.

The silver chain is broken, and the other slice of silver, presumably a coin, is unidentifiable.

I had some other finds, but haven't cleaned and photographed them yet.

I would bet that there will be a few cob finds, but they will be very few and far between.

I've seen this kind of beach produce better in the past, but I didn't get a good sample - just a few brief checks.

There are always exceptions.  I've mentioned the lady that found an escudo the first time she ever used a metal detector.  It happens - but not often. There are skilled detectorists who have been detecting the Treasure Coast beaches for a along time who never found one a gold escudo.  It takes a lot of time for most people.

A single find tells you next to nothing.  It takes more than one data point to derive good useful generalizations.  Some generalizations are better than others, and if you keep studying, you'll probably have to change your mind every once in a while as you learn that some things do not actually work as you once thought they did.

One of the problems with doing a blog on a daily basis is that the posts are relatively short.  A single post can not include a discussion of the many factors that are usually involved.

People will often tell you to check the dips in front of erosion.  That isn't bad advice.  In fact it is good advice, but it doesn't tell the whole story.

I've found treasure coins in a lot of different kinds of places - some locations seemed unlikely.   I've found them on mushy beaches, on top of the ledge just behind a cut, and at the high tide line with seaweed.  They have been found almost anywhere, but that doesn't mean that some places aren't more promising than others. The chances are much better in some locations than others.  It is a matter of probabilities.  If you spend your time where the chances are better, you're time will be spent more efficiently, and you'll find much more in the long run.

The more time you spend and the more ground you cover, the better your chances will be.  If you spend ten times the amount of time as someone else, you probably will find more, but there are people who can find more than other people even though they might spend only one tenth the amount of time.  That is skill.

Absolute numbers of good finds will be highly correlated with the amount of time spent.  The correlation will not be perfect though.  There are other factors, and some are very important.

The bottom line is, if you want to make a lot of good finds, spend a lot of time -  and while detecting observe, learn and improve your skill as much as you can.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

1/15/18 Report - Metal Detecting Videos. Factors For Metal Detecting Success.

Written by the treasureguide for the exclusive use of treasurebeachesreport.blogspot.com.

I watched football this weekend.  Maybe you've noticed that when I miss a day it is usually a football day.  I love the strategy part of football. I enjoy figuring out how to get things done, whether it is win a football game, develop computer software or find things.

Saturday I started a discussion of the factors that lead to successful metal detecting. Today I'll address a few factors,but leave discussion of some of the more complex and interesting ones such as skill for later.

Before I really get started on that I wanted to briefly talk about something else.  I don't often watch YouTube videos, but I was looking for something specific and watched a few metal detecting videos a couple days ago.  The first thing that struck me was something that I commented on before.  It drives me crazy when they take several minutes to retrieve a target.  They pass the coil over the target I don't know how many times to pinpoint and get a good reading on the meter or whatever, and then they spend a lot of time on top of that probing around with a pinpointer.  If I took me that long to dig a target, I'd have time for about two targets per hunt.  If my wife did that I'd be screaming at her to dig the thing and get on with it.

In one video a fellow was comparing a CTX 3030 with an Ex Deus.  He detected an area first with the Ex Deus and found some things.  Then he took the CTX and found some more things "that the Ex Deus missed."  Then he detected the area with the Ex Deus again and found some more things that the CTX "missed."  In my opinion that was no comparison of the two detectors, as the detectorist suggested.  It was more a test of the detectorist.

I'm not exactly sure of the order.  Maybe he used the Ex Deus first or maybe it was the CTX first.  I'm not sure now, but it doesn't matter.  That was not a very good comparison of the two detectors.  I've posted some notes on how to really compare two detectors, but even then it would be a comparison of two detectors using a specific set of settings under a specific set of circumstances.

The detector that was used the third time, obviously found items previously missed by the other detector, but also items missed by itself.

Now I'll continue with my discussion of the factors that result in successful detecting.

Using my old rough formula as a starting point, one of the most important factors that determines metal detecting success is location.  That one is obvious enough.  You can only find things where they are.  If you want to find Spanish shipwreck treasures, you are better off on the Treasure Coast than in Arizona.  You'll find a lot more gold jewelry in South Florida than the West  Virginia hills. That might be obvious, but that isn't all that needs to be considered.

Site selection is not what I'm talking about when I talk about location. I'm talking about where you live and where you can hunt on a regular basis without lengthy or expensive travel.  Site selection is a different matter and is a component of the factor I call skill (S).

One option is to travel, but another option would be to take advantage of what the local area has to offer. SuperRick, for example, does both.  He lives in Arizona and hunts meteorites and gold nuggets there and also travels to Florida and the Treasure Coast to detect.  If you are trying to maximize success defined in economic terms, then take into account the time and expense lost in travel.

I show a variety of types of treasure, including things such as sea glass, shells, fossils and bottles.  Besides the fact that I like all of those things, it is easier to be successful if you are aware of a wide variety of types of treasure..  If you can't find one type of treasure on a beach, you can usually find another.  That expands the range of opportunities.

The other important factor I'm going to talk about today is time (T). It is actually the amount of time spent detecting and does not include things such as research, which is also valuable, cleaning finds etc.

You will find more if you hunt more. I'm sure of that.  But it is not only because you cover more ground.  When you are out in the field detecting areas, both good and bad, you learn a lot.  You learn more about the beach or area that you are detecting.  You learn more about your detector.  And perhaps most importantly, you are there to see what is going on so you'll be Johnny on the spot when the widow of opportunity opens.  There are many ways that spending more time detecting will help you.  I've only mentioned a few.

When I originally posted the first draft of my crude formula for success, some people said perseverance should be included.  I think it is included to some extent in the time factor.  It certainly helps.

I'll get into the skill factor soon.  It is a very complex factor, because there are so many different skill areas.
---

Tomorrow the surf is supposed to be up to five to seven feet.  I might not get out to take a look, so would appreciate any reports.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

5/14/15 Report - Breaking Out Of The Rut And Beating The Crowd. Prospecting For New Metal Detecting Sites. Barber Dime Find.

Written by the TreasureGuide for the exclusive use of treasurebeachesreport.blogspot.com.

!904 Barber Dime Find
Find and photo by Dan B.

Sometimes it might seem like there are too many people with detectors these days and that every good place has been cleaned out.  There are a lot of guys with detectors, but the fact is that most of them are hunting the same few spots. It's true! If you stop at some beaches any day of the week, you'll see one or two other detectorists and sometimes six or more.  

Dan B. found the nice 1904 Barber dime shown here.  Really neat!  Besides sending the photo of his recent find, Dan  mentioned something that I talked about before.  It is something that helped him, and it might help you too.

Here is what Dan said.

 I remember what you once said about barriers or things that guard good targets. Like depth, a tree, or weather, etc.

It has served me well to actually go looking for "the dragon" that signals a possibly hidden spot.  It is really about determination and creativity.

Same Dime
Find and photo by Dan B.

I did say that, and it is true.  While there are a lot of guys out there detecting, most of them are doing the easy thing.  They go to a place where they can park their car and walk across the walkover and start detecting.  It doesn't take much time or effort.  

The guys that are finding the most are spending the most time detecting, but they are doing something else as well.  They go a step or two beyond what most people are doing.

One guy I knew was good in the water.  He was very fit and an expert at what he did.  He would swim across the intercoastal if that is what it took.  As a result he found and detected good places that he had all to himself.

Others weren't so good in the water, but would walk miles to get to a good spot.  That is how they took it to another level and beat the crowd.

I know that not everybody is able to do that kind of thing, but many just aren't willing.  That is one of the biggest differences between the guys that make more finds and the others.

In many cases, it just takes a little additional effort.  In some cases, it takes a lot.

Don't get me wrong.  If you detect for a little casual entertainment and want to get out there and relax, there is nothing wrong with that, but don't expect to get as much as someone who is dead set on coming back with something very nice and spends the additional time and puts in the additional effort.

I remember one day when I was determined to get a piece of gold.  I wasn't having much luck that day either.  I started in the morning and it took me to near sundown to hit that piece of gold.

I'm not like that anymore.  I'm much more casual about things.  Back then I was trying to see what I could do.  Now I know what I can do and what it takes, and I'm not as driven.  If I really got interested in doing something in particular, I could be just as intense again, but usually I don't need to.   

In Dan's email he mentioned an ant hill, which is where he found the dime.  Anything that can discourage others can protect a treasure for you.  It can be weeds, bushes, distance, weather, hard rocky soil, muck or mud, trash or whatever.  Anything that will discourage the crowds provides an opportunity - if you are willing and able  to overcome it.

I remember my first introduction to fire ants.  It was while digging a target.  Now it seems I'm almost immune to fire ants.

By the way, in the past year I've seen three Coral snakes.  Watch out for anything venomous.

When people are going through one of those inevitable dry spells, which are bound to happen from time to time, the first thing they start to question is their detector.  If you do some simple tests like those I've described in the past, you can quickly tell if your detector is performing well enough. The problem is seldom the detector though.  More often you have fallen into a rut, doing the same old things at the same old places time and time again.  Yes, conditions play a part in it, and to some extent luck, but when you have been striking out on a regular basis, it is always a good idea to try something different - something that will separate you from the pack, and maybe something you've never tried before.

Believe it or not, despite the number of other detectorists, there are still good spots out there that you can have all to yourself if you are willing to invest some time in exploring new areas.  When you explore new areas, you might strike out nine times out of ten, but that one hit will be worth the effort.  It can pay off for years to come.

Don't think that just because you didn't find anything the first time you visited a new spot that it is no good.  There are always the current conditions to take into account.  It will often take a few visits to identify a good new spot.

When I was hunting hot and heavy down south, I hunted some of the same spots as everyone else, but I also had a number of spots that I had very much to myself.  I would visit them over and over and never see anyone else there.  They really weren't all that difficult to find either, but they did require some prospecting.  

When conditions won't change for the better, you might have to.

On the Treasure Coast expect something like a two foot surf for a few days.  Nothing better in sight real soon.  We do have a nice negative tide though.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

11/514 Report - Update On Beach Conditions. Time Upside Down, A Book About When Things Are Not Where They Are Supposed To Be.

Written by the TreasureGuide for the exclusive use of treasurebeachesreport.BlogSpot.com.



Treasure Coast Beach That Lost a Little More Sand Last Night.

It was good and windy this morning.  I checked out the beach again today to see what happened with the last two high tides. 

The beach shown here got a little steeper since yesterday.  Still it is not cut, but the front is steeper, and the front of the beach is a little more firm. 

The photo below shows how far back the water got on the flat part of that beach.  That shows that the water was pretty high.

There was a layer of shells and sea weed that could be seen about a foot below the flat beach.



Flat Beach On Same Beach.

You can see how far the sea weed was washed back.

One "Almost" Cut On Same Beach

There was a little loss of sand but not enough for me to increase my Treasure Coast Beach Detecting Conditions Rating.

----------------------

Here is an interesting book, Time Upside Down, by Ereich Von Fange. You don't have to agree with the author's conclusions to appreciate the book.  It questions many important prevailing "scientific" ideas. 

If you can answer the questions raised in the book for yourself one way or the other that is fine.  I think you'll be better off by entertaining the questions no matter what conclusion you come to as long as you genuinely think about it with an open mind.

The book talks about evidence that challenges the prevailing notions of time, such as how man-made items were found embedded in coal when the coal was supposed formed long before man was on the scene.  Also things like how were tracks made by dinosaurs and man made together in the same layer of rock when they were not supposed to exist at the same time?

The book talks a lot about how things have been found where they shouldn't be.

Here is a link to get you started with one chapter that I thought was interesting, but you might want to back up and read the entire book

http://creationism.org/vonfange/vonFangeTimeUpDownChap05.htm

If you want to read more of the same book, you can find the index here.
 
http://creationism.org/vonfange/vonFangeTimeUpDownChap01.htm

I've commented in this blog before how I don't trust a lot the scientific dating.  I've personally seen what looks like sand stone form in less than two years.

Check this book out.  I think you'll find it interesting.

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The surf on the Treasure Coast was about 4 feet today.  It will be decreasing a bit every day for a few days now.

I'm not expecting anything exciting in that time frame.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@Comcast.net

9/25/14 Report - How To Time Your Water and Wet Sand Hunt Based Upon Tides and Waves. Single Ear Rings Being Paired.

Written by the TreasureGuide for the exclusive use of treasurebeachesreport.BlogSpot.com.

Waves Breaking
 

Can you believe summer is over and we are almost at the end of September?  There is a time for everything.   The Bible says, "There is an appointed time for everything.  And there is a time for every event under heaven."

Anyhow, I've had timing on my mind as it relates to beach detecting.  Whether you hunt in the water or on the beach, timing can be very important.  You will often want to time your hunt according to the tides.

Take a look at the above illustration.   The waves will break where the water gets too shallow for the swells to proceed without being disrupted by bottom features.   (I know that is a gross oversimplification, but it will serve for now.) 

The waves will break where the water gets too shallow relative to the size of the swells  Bigger swells will tend to break in deeper water, while smaller swells will break in more shallow water.  You can therefore get a good idea of how deep the water is from where the waves are breaking and how big they are.

In the illustration above you can see the waves breaking where the water gets more shallow.  

Here is the link that is the source of my illustration.  You can also get more explanation there.

http://www.surfing-waves.com/waves/how_waves_break.htm

If the swells are small, like they were yesterday, the waves will break right in on the beach front where the water is very shallow.  If the swells are larger, they will break in deeper water where the bottom rises.

I'll call the water area where the waves are breaking zone B.  That zone can be narrow or broad and it can be in deep water or shallow water - again - depending upon the size of the swells and the shape of the bottom.

Zone A is the deeper water where the waves are not yet breaking.  And zone C is where the water surges in after the waves break. 

Unless the waves are small, it can be very difficult to detect in zone B.  Waves that break over your head can be difficult to deal with.  It can knock your ear phones off and generally make things difficult.

It can also be difficult to detect in the rushing water in the shallows if there are strong currents. 

It is usually easier to detect in zone A if the water is not too deep for you.   Zone A is where you'd find the recovery technique I described in my 9/20/14 post most useful.

Sometimes there will be a dip inside of a sandbar.  After the waves break over the sand bar, the water in the dip can be fairly calm and easy to detect.

The three zones will change as the tide goes in and out depending upon a variety of factors that includes the changing depth of water.

How does that affect how you time your visit to the beach?  Time your visit so that you can detect the zone that you want to detect.  In zone A, for example, you will probably want to detect when the tide is out.   Then you'll have more wet sand, but zone A will also now be where there was deeper water before and perhaps where the breaking waves were earlier.

If the waves are fairly big, you will probably want to detect when the breaking waves are not over the area where you want to detect.  Maybe that will be on the sand bar. 

Remember, as the tides get higher, the waves will tend to break in deeper water, and as the tide gets lower, the waves will tend to break closer to shore.   Remember those three zones and think about how they can move with the changing tides.

One other thing I want to point out while I have this illustration up, is the sand bar can move in or out too.  If you remember the experiment I did not long ago, the crashing waves will stir up the sand, causing the sand to move and causing objects to sink.  Very often the waves will break on the one side of the sand bar, stirring up sand and pushing it in.  In that case, the sand bar can move in towards shore, covering up things as the sand bar moves over them.

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You know all of those unmatched ear rings that you've found.   According to Kovels Komments, one high-end jewelry store is matching up vintage ear rings that go together well and selling them as a pair.

http://www.kovels.com/tips-on-care-and-repairs/mismatched-earrings-are-high-style.html?utm_source=Listrak&utm_medium=Email&utm_term=Mismatched+Earrings+Are+High+Style&utm_campaign=ezinesept24&utm_content=ezinesept24


One thing I forgot to mention in my 9/20 post is that when you go with the flow, you don't have to hold onto your scoop if you have a scoop that will float upright.  Get a scoop of sand in the bucket, and let the scoop go when you get washed off of the hole.  Under normal circumstances, the scoop will be waiting for you when you get returned to the hole.  You can therefore use it as a marker and not have to take the time to relocate the hole by feel.

It is still a good idea to have the scoop tethered to you in some manner.

Source: www.nhc.noaa.gov

As you can see, there is now some weather in the middle of the Atlantic that could develop.  Today on the Treasure Coast the surf will be around two or three feet - a little rougher than it has been.  It might increase a little more in about a week.

The low tides are not getting very low.

Don't forget to respond to the blog poll.

I have a lot of new find photos to show in the near future.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@Comcast.net