Written by the Treasure Guide for the exclusive use of treasurebeachesreport.BlogSpot.com.
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| Sticking Out Of The Surf This Morning As The Tide Receded |
I went out this morning before low tide to do a little detecting. I dug more coins on a treasure beach than I had for a very long time. I was really surprised., but mostly clad, and a pendant. An entire pocket full. ( I have a funny story about a pocket full of coins, but I won't tell it now.) I'll talk about the distribution pattern some other time soon if I don't forget.
I saw this stump (photo above) in the surf, which reminded me of a time back in the eighties when there was a line of pine stumps along the water line towards the North end of John Brooks Park. They disappeared for two or three decades. I'm wondering if this is one of those resurfacing. It was just to the beach side of the where the waves were breaking on the front of the sand in front of the beach.
I wonder what else might be getting washed up.
Since I was there yesterday, some additional erosion occurred, followed by a touch of refilling. Notice the sea weed in the following photos.
The cut was about three or four feet running for hundreds of yards. I think there will probably be more filling since the wind is now coming from the South.
I miss the cooler air already.
The snow birds are back in numbers now too.
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| Three To Four Foot Cuts This Morning Before Low Tide. |
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I learned a long time ago that it is not easy to convince most people of anything. Most people have
their mind made up and the longer they have held an idea or opinion, the harder it is to change them. Instead of evaluating new information or alternate opinions, people generally begin by defending what ever they have believed. The longer they have believed whatever it is, the more examples they have to prove their belief because what they have seen in the past was always interpreted in terms of those beliefs.
I'm in the market for a new detector and so have been looking around for what I can learn about a couple of models. I keep running into detectorists who say that target ID helps save time because you don't waste time digging as much junk. That is something that sounds like it would be true, but if you actually evaluate, observe and measure, you'll find that is not always as true as it sounds.
Here is an example. I was watching a video comparing target ID on two sophisticated and highly regarded detectors - the CTX 3030 and Whites Vi. Those, by the way, are not the detectors that I am interested in.
The fellow went around a grassy public park with one detector and marked questionable targets, about half of which seemed to be in the nickel/foil range. He then went back over the undug targets with the other detector to see how the second detector identified the same target. After getting the readouts from both detectors he then dug the target to see which of the detectors was correct.
Here is what I noticed. He took longer getting the readout than digging the target. On one example that I timed with the timer on the video, he took 26 seconds to determine the target ID using the various displays. He took less than half that amount of time to plug the grass and retrieve the target. That time was using a single detector, of course. How much time was saved? About minus 13 seconds.
And to make matters worse, that was in grass. It would normally take less time to recover a target in sand. And most junk targets in sand will be near the surface. If you are skilled and have good equipment, it should take you even less time to recover the average junk target in sand.
I know that there are people that just don't like to dig junk. That is OK. No problem. If you are one of those people, "To thine own self be true." But don't be fooled into thinking you are saving a lot of time by using target ID. Take into account the time you spend getting a good stable reading and looking at the various readouts before you dig. You might be saving effort or frustration, but you are probably not saving much time. In fact, as I just showed you might be wasting more time.
If you really want to save time, perfect your pinpointing and your scooping and sifting skills. Learn to interpret your detector's signals. Learn about layering. And most of all use search strategies that lead you to good target areas rather than junk intensive areas.
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The surf today was a little smaller than yesterday. It was about 4 - 5 feet. The waves seemed to be hitting almost straight on.
The surf on the Treasure Coast will be decreasing the next few days down to something more like 2 - 3 feet.
I'm not decreasing my beach detecting conditions rating yet though, although I am back to a minimal 2. I expect a decrease in the next couple of days but will be watching to see what happens.
If you missed the beaches I showed yesterday, you might want to go back and take a look at that post.
Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@Comcast.net
