Beach at John Brooks This Morning.Most of the beach that I saw this morning was not eroded. Here is a rather typical beach at John Brooks park. I liked the little run-off ravine created by the water running from behind the pile of new sand.
Of course that means that the water was pretty high this morning. Unfortunately, it wasn't high enough to hit the back dunes at any of the places where I was.
More on other beach spots below.
I ran across a web site that shows a shipwreck that was discovered off of Cape Cod when it was spotted from an airplane. It appears to be a schooner.
The article talks about how the weather recently uncovered the wreck. It also mentioned a couple of other wrecks in the same area, including one that guarded Boston Harbor the night of Paul Revere's famed ride.
Here is that link.
http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2010/12/18/50_foot_long_shipwreck_discovered_off_chatham/
The British ship, the HMS Somerset, wrecked about three years after the night of Paul Revere's ride.
Here is a nice web site about the Somerset, which includes some photos of the wreck, or what remains of it, sticking out of the sand.
Here is that link.
http://www.hmssomerset.com/apps/photos/album?albumid=3811441
You can back up from that link and read more about the Somerset if you wish.
Now, back to beach conditions.
One Small Cut This Morning.
This cut was only about a foot high and ran for about fifty yards. It produced a few modern coins.
But there were better cuts to be found even though most spots were not cut.
The beach just south of Fort Pierce inlet was really eroding this morning. The drop-off was about six feet and ran for over a hundred yards.
Unfortunately we paid for all of that sand to be dumped there and now, just a few months later, it is gone again already. I suppose they can't wait to pay someone to bring in more sand that might last a few months.
Beach South of Fort Pierce Inlet This Morning.In some places the newly planted sea oats were falling in.
Overall, I would say that conditions are mixed. A few spots show heavy erosion, some spots a little erosion, and many of the beaches no erosion.
In recent posts I've been mentioning how areas to the south of obstructions such as inlets, sea walls, and rocks are eroding while most places are not.
From the look of the area just south of Fort Pierce inlet, I would say that my best bet for finding cobs would be just south of Jupiter Inlet. I haven't personally been there to see it, but would guess that from how the beach south of the Fort Pierce inlet is acting, Jupiter could well be doing something similar. If I had the time, I would check it out.
You can use the link of the site that shows photos of the Jupiter beaches from my main page.
I've been finding good numbers of modern coins and jewelry on the Treasure Coast, but not much in the way of shipwreck cobs. My treasure beaches rating scale is based upon the probability of finding cobs. As I said, that in my opinion is not a high probability right now other than perhaps down at Jupiter, and, like I said, I haven't had the opportunity to check that out but recent reports say that shipwreck items were being found down there.
Another spot that I hear has been eroding is the area south of Rio Mar. It might be worth checking.
Some nice sized waves were really banging the front of the beach this morning. You could see it really churning things up.
I'm somewhere between a 1 and 2 on my Treasure Coast Treasure Beach Conditions Scale. (The scale is a five point scale with one being poor and five outstanding.) There is some improvement occurring. I don't know if it will be sustained and continue to a point that will produce cobs in numbers or not.
At times like this it is worth at least scouting around to see what different areas are doing.
Oh, I did find one little sparkly item that will serve as a Christmas present for someone today.
Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net