Written by the TreasureGuide for the exclusive use of treasurebeachesreport.blogspot.com.
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| Markings On A Found Silver Cross. |
The cross is about one and a half inches high. I think it had a loop for a pendant. The loop is missing.
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| Found Token |
I'd also like help in identifying it. Thanks.
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The above illustration shows the shallow water area and a front beach. I wanted to discuss detecting in the shallow water a bit today.
I put the orange lines in to divide off some areas. From left to right, you have the deeper water outside the bar, then the bar, then the dip inside the bar, and then the slope.
You'll often read or hear people say different things like, Check the dips in front of any cuts. Nothing wrong with that. It is good advice. I'd check that area if it looks promising, just like I would check any area. The dips will be good sometimes, but sometimes not - depending upon what is going on. Its a very dynamic system and the best thing is to be able to read the flow.
It is never a bad idea to check any area. But checking doesn't mean spending a lot of time. Check and make a decision base upon what you see.
Checking can help you not only determine if there are any targets there, it can also help you determine how things are moving.
A couple of thing you might want to learn is what kind of material is in the dip and how much of it there is.
Some types of areas definitely produce much more than others. No doubt about that. No area produces all the time though. And spots will change between hot, neutral and cold, and sometimes very quickly.
Any one of the four areas I mentioned above can be the best place to hunt. Those areas are always changing. They change as the tides go in and out, and they can change whenever the wind and waves change.
A local thunder storm might not last an hour, yet it can change the situation substantially. A thunder storm can pass by, whip up the waves and create small cuts in a matter of less than an hour.
There are changes that occur over decades, years, months, weeks, days, hours and even minutes. The past couple of years, for example, we've been in a sustained period of small surf, and the beaches have changed, but mostly in one direction. What we've been seeing is a bit unusual. I've never seen such a long period of time with nothing but small surf.
Even within that time, though, there have been times when things changed significantly on a very short term basis. One day the front slope was loaded with coins. The next day that was entirely changed.
My main point today is that things change constantly. Maybe not large changes, but changes that affect where you will want to spend your time.
The area outside the bar might be the place to be at times. That would be when swimmers have been hanging out and playing on the bar before the bar moved in.
The bar will move in and out. I like to check the side of the bar that is losing sand. For example, if the bar is moving in, check the outside of the bar.
When the bar is moving in, if it goes on long enough, the dip will eventually get filled and objects in the dip will get covered up.
There are times when the dip is a good place to find things like watches. That often occurs when there coarse shell sand and lose material filling the dip and the coins and similar things are covered up.
The dip can get really good when the front of the slope is cut away and things are dragged down into the dip, especially when the sand gets moved out to deeper water.
Recently on the Treasure Coast, and I'm sure neighboring areas to some extent, there has been very little movement and change. Things have remained relatively stable for quite a while. Despite how stable things have been there have been times when certain areas got hot for a short time. There have been days when it was best to detect the wet beach and other days when the zone just in front of the breakers was good.
It is a dynamic thing. Don't get stuck in a rut. It's more of a dance. Get in tune with it and move with it.
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I'll probably continue with this some other time - maybe tomorrow.
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Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net
