One Treasure Coast Beach Near High Tide Yesterday Afternoon.
That is very mushy sand piled up on the front of the beach.
Did you know that the feel of the beach under your feet can be an important clue?
If you feel firm sand under your feet as you walk a beach, that is usually a good sign. If on the other hand you find your feet sinking deeply into the sand as you walk, that is a bad sign. Mushy sand very seldom produces anything good.
On the Treasure Coast a hard beach is usually produced by a layer of shells under a thin layer of sand.
In other areas, such as South Florida, a hard beach is often the result of clay or other packed materials under the sand. If you find an area where there is little or no sand over clay, slow way down and detect very thoroughly.
Sometimes you might notice a white milky area in the shallow water coming from the beach. That will be when the water is cutting into the clay. That is a very good sign.
Beaches in different areas are very different though. I referred to one way that is true here. There are many other ways. Treasure Coast beaches are very different from most South Florida beaches. That is just one example.
I received another email from a person that provided a story about not finding anything at one popular detecting spot near a pier and then after moving to an unlikely looking spot, found a gold band right away.
I was talking the other day about detecting outside the box (there is that tired worn out expression again) and James F. sent me an illustration from his own experience. His story concluded with a gold ring find in a muddy mangrove area where most people would not think to hunt.
I know one place in the Keys that is so muddy that when you step in it you sink up above your ankles. Yet every time I've stopped to detect there, I've found a ring.
The thing is, if you put your hand in the mud as people tend to do after they sink up to their ankles, anything on your hand will be lost to the suction of the mud.
There are a lot of unlikely looking places that can be productive. Muddy places, weedy places, bushy places, rocky places, ugly places and out of the way places can be worth detecting.
It doesn't have to be a swimming beach. There are places where people hang over walkways or bridges, or jump off of logs, or whatever. Those types of places are not often detected and can be productive.
The Mel Fisher organization reports recently finding a gunpowder flask on the trail of the Atocha.
Here is a video from the Hunt for Amazing Treasures TV program. It shows find of a million dollar emerald on the site of the Atocha.
It is not a recent find, but you might find it interesting.
http://xfinitytv.comcast.net/tv/Hunt-for-Amazing-Treasures/90041/1614542940/2-Hour-Special/videos?skipTo=119&cmpid=FCST_hero_tv
An unemployed man found $150,000 in his garden.
Here is the link to that story.
http://www.whptv.com/content/Archive/story/Cash-Crop-Man-finds-150-000-in-garden/OamAGEcY-ECdijZw5E0PZw.cspx
And here is more on the 18th Century sloop found at the site of the World Trade Center
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2011/08/pictures/110830-9/11-world-trade-center-ship-ground-zero-new-york-nation-science/
Treasure Coast Beach Forecast and Conditions.
Current detecting conditions on the Treasure Coast are poor. You can see the sand built up on the front of the treasure beach shown at the top of this blog. I looked at another Treasure Coast beach and could tell there was at least a foot of newly accumulated sand on top of most of the beach. That sand had accumulated since Irene passed through. I could only see a couple inches of some of the stakes used to mark turtle nests, which before Irene stuck up above the sand a foot or more
The tropical depression in the Gulf is now a tropical storm named Lee. It is landing in Louisiana.
Katia seems to me to be on a track to go well north of us. That is only a guess at this point though. Looks like maybe North Carolina again.
If the surf web sites are not correct, we should get 6 to 7 foot seas on Thursday.
Your most important tool is not your detector. Its your head. Use it.
Happy hunting,
TreaureGuide@comcast.net
