3/26/14 Report - Cuts On Treasure Coast On Some Beaches and Helicopter Metal Detecting

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

A Three Foot Cut on the Treasure Coast This Morning

 Since I entered my pre post, I got out to the beach to see what the cold front did as it came through with the North winds.

First off, the modern jewelry hole that I had been working with good success disappeared.

Too bad.  But when sand moves, it adds at one place and disappears at another.




What I often try to do is find where the sand just left.

It did move yesterday and this morning.  I found two beaches that were cut pretty nicely and two that weren't cut.

The cut beaches had cuts that ran hundreds of yards.  The cuts that I saw were from one foot in height up to just over four feet.

Scallops on One Treasure Coast Beach This Morning.

At some places there were scallops.

I would rate beach conditions as about 1.5 right now.  It is starting to get interesting, but from what I saw this morning I wouldn't say it is good enough for a two rating on my Treasure Coast Treasure Beach Detecting Conditions Rating Scale.

It could improve enough for an upgrade if the north winds keeps blowing. 



What has been happening lately is that the wind direction changes quickly again.  If it does change and we start getting the wind out of the East, don't expect any more improvement in conditions.



Long Cut of Two To Three Feet

 If you look closely at the face of the cuts you will notice something important. 

There is no layering.  All of the sand was of the same type and there were no layers of shells.  It was therefore probably built up during a single period of accumulation.

If you remember I commented not very long ago that a lot of sand had recently accumulated.

Unfortunately the cuts that I found this morning were where a bunch of that new sand had recently built up.  It was very mushy before.  That newly accumulated sand is what eroded.  And there were very few targets in it, and very few signals along these cuts today.

I did run into one of those stubborn targets that you can detect but not recover (DBNRs).  It was in detecting range but just beyond recovery range.  It was in the wet sand down a little over a foot, and the sand kept falling in before I could get the target out.

More Cuts This Morning.

Pictures can come in handy.  If you inspect cuts at the same location at different times, especially those that have produced targets at one time and not another, look for differences that might be clues.

One thing I am pointing out today is how the face of the cut reveals something about the history of the sand and the probability of targets coming out of it.

The sand that eroded today was in front of the beach.  The slope was very gentle. 

The eroded sand created a front beach that extended out about fifty yards at most locations.

The surf tomorrow will be about four feet.   Unfortunately they are predicting a change in direction.  They predict the wind coming out of the South/Southeast.  If that happens, the cuts will probably fill in again rather than improve.

There were very few people on the beach this morning.

One more thing, I saw very few shells where I was.  Didn't even encounter shells in the holes that I dug.

The Navy is using a helicopter equipped with a 16 magnetometers.  Flying at a height of 5 feet it can detect metal as small as two pounds.  It will detect metal down several feet.  Looks like a good way to cover a lot of ground.

Here is the link for video and article.

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/local/lake/os-metal-detecting-helicopters-20140323,0,1045196.story

Thanks for the link Doug.


One reader reports that the dredge was back south of Jupiter Inlet Tuesday.


Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net