One Treasure Coast Beach This Morning.Notice the sea weed on the beach and rain showers in the distance. There was rain along much of the Treasure Coast this morning. Sometimes clearing and sometimes really pouring. No thunder or lightening.
I've mentioned before that you can learn to tell the approximate size and shape of detected objects with many detectors using pin-point or all-metals mode. Although I often don't have any use for that because the best procedure in my opinion is to simply dig it up to see what it is, this procedure can come in handy when you are limited in time and want to be more selective in what you dig.
If you are hitting gold items or old coins or something interesting all over the place, like you might when you find a good hole, you might want to use your time on digging only those types of targets. Or if you are working close to the water and can't get to the big deep targets without wasting a lot of time, you might want to take note of where they are and leave them for some future time and move on to the things you can quickly remove before the water gets any higher. In situations like either of those it might be helpful to figure out how deep, how big, and what the shape the target is before deciding to use your time to dig it up.
Knowing the approximate size, shape and depth of an object can also help you dig it up more efficiently.
Picasso - Just Kidding.It is actually a diagram that I'll use along with my explanation immediately below.
If you get a signal and want to estimate the size, shape and depth of the object, first switch over to all-metals or pin-point mode. Then sweep back and forth using a tight sweep pattern but covering the area where you get the signal plus some additional area on each side. This step is represented by the left to right and right to left lines going from top to bottom. Notice where you get the signal and where you don't. Does the object seem to be long and narrow, square or what? Is it perpendicular to the water's edge, more parallel to the water, or at angle?
After covering the area where the signal is plus some, cover the same area, but this time sweeping at roughly 90 degrees to the first sweep pattern.
In the diagram above, second overlapping sweep pattern. In the diagram, this is shown by the second pattern, criss-crossing the first.
The illustration also shows the area of the signal coming from a hypothetical buried object that is longer than wide and lies at a roughly 45 degree angle (The oval in the illustration.). It also shows a coin size object near the surface (dark circle).
You can mark in the sand roughly where you get a signal from the first sweep pattern if you want. I usually don't, but sometimes do.
If the object is deep, in all-metals or pin-point mode the signal will be less distinct when the object is deeper. And the edges of the area where you get the signal seems more fuzzy.
You can learn to estimate depth from the crispness or softness of the signal. If the object is a smaller coin-like object near the surface (shown by the small filled-in circle on the drawing)the signal will be loud, but also crisp and well-defined. If the same small object were deeper the signal would cover a small area, but be softer and seem less distinct. It's not easy to come up with the right words to describe this but I hope you are getting what I mean.
If you practice in all-metals or pin-point mode with a few different size and shape objects buried at differing depths, I think you will quickly learn to accurately estimate their approximate size, shape and depth without digging them up.
The brain is a decent signal processor.
Some detectors may not provide a mode that will be effective for this purpose but many do.
On a different topic, the survey is complete and the people have spoken. Most of this blog's readers (around 45%) most like the local conditions and news reports. Following that in popularity is information on detecting techniques and strategies. Treasure stories and articles came in next to last, and information on coins and artifacts, last.
Odyssey Marine stock has been doing very well - better than I expected. I think I found out why today. If I got this right, their research vessels are now being used for mining and drilling operations in addition to locating treasure ships. One of these mining ventures paid off well an will be the source of continued royalties.
Here is a story on that.
http://eresearch.fidelity.com/eresearch/evaluate/news/basicNewsStory.jhtml?symbols=OMEX&pageno=1&storyid=201104010730PRIMZONEFULLFEED217651&provider=PRIMZONE&product=FULLFEED&sb=1&st=1&sc=1&san=1
Treasure Coast Beach Forecast and Conditions.
The photo at the top of the blog shows one beach. There was sea weed and more sand. It wasn't looking good at all, and to top it off, there weren't even any shell piles left.
Another Treasure Coast Beach This Morning.However a few miles away I found this beach that had scattered small cuts of up to slightly over one foot. They are superficial cuts in recently accumulated sand, but cuts nontheless.
It is usually a spotty thing. One spot will be building while another eroding.
I suspect these cuts came from the off-shore rain storms. That is all it takes sometimes.
The seas were rougher than I expected. It was more like four feet than two and a half.
Anyhow, all together, nothing has really changed significantly. Conditions for finding old shipwreck coins remains poor, and the chance of finding artifacts has now diminished as well.
Maybe we'll get a storm of some sort that does some good sometime this summer. It looks like things will be slow on the Treasure Coast until then.
Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net
