Written by the TreasureGuide for the exclusive use of treasurebeachesreport.blogspot.com.
First I want to post notice of a lost engagement ring. It was lost last Sunday, April 27, at Pepper Park. The ring has 3 stones across the top, center stone is square and the stones on each side are round! White gold. If you find the ring please contact crzy4stmpn@aol.com.
The ring was lost when a ball was thrown to the person wearing it, and they threw up their hands. It went flying off.
I went out yesterday to Pepper to see if it looked like I might be able to find this ring for them, but it was almost a week after it was lost. They told me that the person was standing in very shallow water and that the lady was coming in when the ring was lost. They mentioned a sand bar. That worried me, because that indicates a lot of sand in the shallow water area which might be moving. We also just had a day or two of increased surf, up to about five feet. Neither of those things help the chances of finding the ring right now. Maybe someone found it earlier.
Talking about sand bars, sand bars can be good detecting areas when a lot of people have been on them. Objects lost on a sand bar can remain in detecting range for a good while or objects they can disappear rapidly, especially when the sand bar is moving.
A moving sand bar can be a good thing or bad thing. Sometimes you can figure out which way the sand is moving and detect a lot of objects on one side or other of the sand bar.
And of course there is the dip inside the sand bar. That area can also be a place where the sand is either moving to or from.
When the dip is filling with shells and sand and lightly packed material it can be poor. Even then though, it can be a place to pick up watches and things like that.
I've found a good number of watches, dive knives and things like that in the dip when the dip is filled with a lot of loose sand and shells.
When the dip is filled with a lot of lose material, it can be difficult to recovery items that are buried. The lose material can be moved in good quantities, but it tends to refill quickly and items can continue to get deeper and remain out of range even as you dig. That means that there will be times when you will have to move a lot of sand quickly to retrieve deeper items.
In some ways it is like digging in the wet sand where the hole continues to refill.
Two techniques that I will sometimes use to remove a lot of lose material quickly is to fan the sand with my foot or put down my detector and use both hands to hoe the sand with my scoop as quickly as possible, almost like fanning, not stopping to check the target until it is surely uncovered. Using the second method, you will then have to detect around to relocate the object. If you got a good fix on it before you started moving sand, you will know about where it should be after you moved the sand.
If you put down your detector, that, of course, means that your detector will have to be completely waterproof.
You will have to get a good read and a good estimation of location and depth on the object before you start to move sand so you will know how much sand you will need to move. You will want to make sure to uncover the object without pausing. The hole can refill partially or totally in the time you take to pick up your detector and recheck the hole. You want to move enough sand but not too much before you stop moving sand.
The area in the dip between a sand bar and the shore can be hugely productive when a lot of the lose material has been swept one way or the other by the surf, leaving behind the less easily moved items. That sometimes leaves a dip with a nice hard packed bottom covered with targets.
If the bottom of the dip is paved with rocks, recovery can still be difficult. The rocks can be packed together with sand acting almost like mortar in between the rocks. A scoop does not work well when the bottom is packed with rocks like that. My technique in that case is foot fanning.
Foot fanning will lift the sand from between the rocks loosening the rocks and then lifting the rocks out. Foot fanning under those conditions takes a lot of energy. Some targets will be on the rock surface, but others under layers of packed rock.
Foot fanning in those conditions can be dangerous in more ways than one. Rocks can fly up and hit your boney foot, you can step on rocks and sprain your ankle or worse, or a fishing lure can fly up out of the hole and stick in your foot. All of those things have happened to me. Foot wear is advised.
Here is a little more from Clint L. You might remember that I posted some of his beach observations two or three days ago.
Clint said,
I thought I’d share this with you. I lived in Sebring from
1982 to 1985. I would drive 3 times a week to the Treasure Coast to search for
treasure or jewelry. I never found much of anything…except when I was there
during the 1984 “no-name hurricane”. I found a 1 real piece when I could finally
find the dry beach at Turtle Beach Access. Then my PI 1000 Died!!
I stood beside a guy that found a 1715 full 8 escudo and a
pair of 1700’s pliers. He found the pliers first and a second scan and scoop
brought up the gold. He was using a Garrett XL500 Pulse. A guy with a machete
was rather threatening so we moved to an area with more hunters around.
I did take home an 80 Lb. concretion which yielded 270 ship
spikes (some worked) and remnants of the bands and some mineral perfused cedar
wood. They made a gorgeous display….BUT there were five 8 reales and 24 mixed 2
and 4 reale coins in the sludge. I went to Kellyco and bought an XL 500…started
finding reales over the next 2 months at the two Vero accesses and Colored Beach.
After this Clint moved away from Florida for a while. I'll post more of what Clint told me in the near future.
Thanks for sharing Clint!
How would you like to find an 80 pound concretion like that?
On the Treasure Coast the wind has changed direction and the waves are now coming out of the North. That will continue through the day. The surf will only get up to three or four feet.
The air is nice and cool. The tides are pretty average now.
They are dredging or are going to dredge down at Fort Pierce again. I saw the equipment from a distance. I understand that not long ago they were dumping sand south of the Sebastian inlet as they dredge the inlet. Lots of junk.
Last day to respond to the most recent blog poll. Thanks
Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net
