10/1/17 Report - Pelican of Piety. Two Finds. Effect of Changing Shoreline and Shifting Sand. High Surf This Week.

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

Source: usedchurchitems.com

Some of the greatest and most meaningful 1715 Fleet finds have been religious items. I found the web site of a company that they are "devoted to preserving Catholic 'Traditional Latin Mass' church items, and invite you to experience the passion and quality of liturgical antiquities from our past."
Here is that link.

http://www.usedchurchitems.com/

One of the items I saw pictured on their web site was the lectern shown at the top of this post.  Look familiar?  It looks very much like the gold pelican of piety found by Bonnie Schubert on the Nieves site.

If you aren't familiar with the pelican of piety you should take a look at my  11/4/12 post in which researcher and author Laura Strolia described the significance of the item.

http://www.surf-forecast.com/breaks/Wabasso/forecasts/latest/six_day

See also the following article describing the original find.

http://archive.tcpalm.com/news/vero-beach-mother-daughter-team-find-solid-gold-bird-statue-from-1715-treasure-fleet-off-fort-pierc--345668992.html

And here is a link that will give you more about the meaning of the pelican in heraldry.

http://www.sacred-texts.com/lcr/fsca/fsca41.htm

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Civil War Bullet and 18K Ring
Find and photo by Duane C.

Duane C. sent the above picture of two finds that he found on the same recent hunt.  That is quite an unusual combination of finds.

Congratulations Duane!

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Brian B. send this link to a good site that gives good surfing and weather information.  Take a look.

http://www.surf-forecast.com/breaks/Wabasso/forecasts/latest/six_day

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I've been talking a lot about the changing shoreline in recent posts.  The movement of sand and other items is something that I've talked about a lot in the past.  It is one of  the most important things for a beach hunter to understand.

As the shoreline changes items will be brought into metal detector range or covered and put out of detector range.  There are some places where you have a more-or-less progressive loss of sand or a progressive accumulation of sand.  Where there is a long-term progressive erosion, you'll have a good shot at finding older items.  These days they do so much beach renourishment that it is not easy to find areas that are continually eroding and uncovering newer materials.

When you get erosion of the back dunes, old items can easily wash out and down onto the beach.  That mostly happens on the narrow beaches with cliffs on the face of the back dunes.

Sometimes coins and things wash up and onto the beach.  I've described how that happens in the past.  However before items can wash up onto the beach, they have to be uncovered.  That might sound obvious enough, but it is important.  As long as items are covered by sand, they aren't going to wash up.  Therefore, when the shoreline is moving east (on the East Coast), more items are being more deeply covered.  That covering of sand will have to be moved before those items can wash up.

One of the things I see on many of the Treasure Coast beaches now is a lot of sand in front of the beach in the shallow water.  Not only does that sand cut the force of the waves before they hit the beach, but it also covers and protects buried items.  If sand is eroded from a beach, it can end up directly in front of the beach and more deeply cover old items there.  You can therefore see a beach that is eroded but find no old coins on the beach because they are deeply buried in the shallow water and also not being washed out of the dunes.  Those are the two main sources of old coins on a beach: those washed up from in front of the beach, and those washed out from the dunes.  A third source includes old coins that were originally deposited when the beach was eroded or previously washed up onto the beach and then subsequently got uncovered before either being dragged out into the water again or getting covered again.

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Source: MagicSeaWeed.com

This should be an interesting week.  If the predictions are correct, the surf starts to build Sunday then stays high for a few days.  Even if we don't get favorable winds or swells, the surf might be high enough to do some good.

Please add your response to the blog poll.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

9/30/17 Report - Its Not Over Yet. More Surf To Come. Mayan Monument. Ballast Rock? Worked Bone. Blog Poll.

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

Source: nhc.noaa.gov

If you are not yet tired of hurricanes and stormy weather, there is still a lot out there to watch.  Hurricanes Maria and Lee are still on the map, but more importantly there are two areas closer to Florida to watch.  One is right over Central Florida and the other, down towards Puerto Rico.

Source: MagicSeaWeed.com

As you can see, MagicSeaWeed is predicting a 6 - 9 foot surf for Wednesday and Thursday.  That is a pretty good surf.  I don't care for the predicted wind and swell directions, but at this point all of that  is just a prediction and could change.  That surf is enough to keep my attention.

The tides are very moderate right now too.

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First M LB* Sports Cards

Discovered in 2015, the two ballplayer panels are the first of their kind to be found in Belize, the researchers said. Both have carvings depicting ballplayers and hieroglyphic captions, and they are thought to date to between about A.D. 600 and A.D. 800, Andres said...

The ballplayer was depicted as standing and holding one hand over his heart.

Researchers said the panels had a sweet smell and there was a pink residue on the panels.

They evidently weren't old enough to know that in the fifties and sixties, baseball cards came in a pack with a big wad of bubblegum.

The first part of this is true - down through the blue text.   The part after that was just me entertaining myself and perhaps a few other oldsters.  If you are old enough to have collected the old bubblegum cards, you would know what I was talking about - otherwise probably not.

Anyhow, if you want to read about the archaeological find, here is the link.

https://www.livescience.com/60552-maya-ballplayer-stone-panels-discovered.html


* MLB indicates Mayan League Ball

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Possible Ballast Rock.

I posted this stone the other day and labeled it as a ballast rock.  I put a question mark after it because I'm not absolutely sure that is what it is.

First, it is that it is not a type of rock that is natural to Florida.  Here is a link that will take you to a web site that shows the types of rock that are found in Florida.

http://www.dep.state.fl.us/geology/geologictopics/rocks/florida_rocks.htm

Second, it would make excellent ballast, being dense and rounded.  Although they would use all kinds of things for ballast, including metal or whatever rocks could be found including more angular rocks, Robert Marx wrote that rounded rocks were preferred.  Rounded rocks were also readily available in rivers near many European ports.

I've seen ballast rocks just like this, and this one did come from a beach very close to a known wreck ballast pile.

It is always possible that it a landscaping or other rock imported to Florida for some other purpose, but in my opinion, weighing all the pros and cons, there is a better chance that it is a ballast rock than an imported ornamental or construction rock that somehow found its way to a beach very near to a ballast pile.

Here is an interesting and relevant article on The Provenance of the Stone Ballast on the Molasses Reef Wreck by William Lamb, 1988.

http://nautarch.tamu.edu/pdf-files/Lamb-MA1988.pdf

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Piece of Fossilized Bone.

I took a closer look at this piece after it sat around for a few days.  I almost always do that with finds.  I noticed what appears to me to be a rounded cut at the top.  I don't know much about either fossils or Native American artifacts and would like any informed opinions.  I do know that they often made an attempt to get the marrow out of bones, and this bone is hollow, but I don't know if it is natural or worked.

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I woke up last night after what I thought was the funniest dream.  I was in school.  I just found a desk and sat down.  The teacher, who looked much like my little old lady first grade teacher, came over to my desk and told me to go get a cantaloupe.  I looked at her quizzically, and she said, "Go buy a cantaloupe and bring it back here."   That struck me so funny that I woke up and had a big suppressed belly laugh trying not to wake my wife.  It just seemed so odd and funny to me.  I don't know if you'll find it humorous at all.  I had another very funny dream after that, but I doubt you really want to hear about it.  I guess I'm just in a funny mood.  I hope you can forgive me.  Very entertaining night though.

It must have been those MLB (Mayan League Ball) cards that got me started.

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All responses to the blog poll are much appreciated.  Thanks.

If you've been watching that, you've seen that some good things were found since this turbulent month began.

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I wanted to talk more about the changing shoreline, but didn't get it together yet.  Might take some more days.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

9/29/17 Report - More Storms Brewing? Importance of Shoreline Changes. Rose Colored Gold. New Blog Poll.

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

Source: Weather Channel

What was I just saying?  I think it was something about people giving up too soon.  Anyhow, there is still a lot of weather that might affect.

Take a look at this.

Latest MagicSeaWeed Prediction for the Fort Pierce Area.

Five to eight feet isn't shabby.  It all depends upon how it hits us.  In the next few days I'll be looking at the predicted wind and swells.

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Alberto S. sent me the following message.

I haven't done much detecting lately but continue to read your posts everyday and today I saw your comments about coastal change, I went to the link you provided and looked up Miami Beach which is the closest beach to me at this time and what I saw was impressive as far as the change that has taken place over time, the actual coast line back in 1848 is where you find today's famous Ocean Drive. The other item of interest was the beach around the Ft. Pierce inlet specifically the north side vs the south side shore line, the original shoreline based on this information is actually in front of the year 2000 timeline in the South shore and way up in the parking lot area in the North side. Guess if I go up there I will be digging the parking lot.... :) 

Thank you for sharing this information. 

Thanks for writing Alberto.  I was hoping that people would see the value in that web site.

Here is another example from that USGS web site.

Source: USGS Web Site (See yesterday's post.)

Here is a location on Virginia Key where I used to get lots of U. S. silver coins in very good condition.  Whenever the dunes in front of the building would erode, you could find silver coins eroding out of the dunes. You can see that back in the early 1800s, the shoreline was farther out, then in 1900s it varied frequently.

I wasn't really targeting silver U. S. coins that much, but it was fun and easy when conditions were right and I was passing by.

In locations where the shoreline is moving seaward you'll have less chance of finding old items on the beach and in the shallow water, but when the shoreline recedes at that location, you'll have a better chance of finding older items.  Places where the beach is building, such as north of most of our inlets, many older items will get buried under the accumulating sand.  The building and removal of sand has a lot to do with what beaches will produce older items at any particular time.  

I remember back a few decades ago that the beach north of John Brooks was eroded back to very near the condos.  There was a line of pine trees, which were removed.  Now the sand is out a long way from there even though it has erode a little lately.  

There was also an old concrete foundation exposed at the water line between John Brooks and the condos.   I haven't seen it in quite a while.  I don't know if it was for the submarine observation tower or what, but it was there and was very much exposed at one time.

A beach might look like it is eroding, but the erosion might only be into relatively recently accumulated sand.

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Here is an article that tells how some ancient South American populations that knew how to do gilting and other techniques, actually preferred a more rose-colored gold and removed some of the gold content to get the more copperish look they liked.

Here is the link.

https://www.livescience.com/60535-ancient-colombians-preferred-rose-gold.html

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As you probably noticed, I added a new blog poll.  It will help us determine how much of what was found as a result of Irma, Jose and Maria.  In order to get good information I need your participation.  I hope you will respond to the poll.  There will be other polls after this one.  I can only do so much in the limited poll app provided by blogspot.  Thanks for responding to the poll.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

9/28/17 Report - Lost Gold Wedding Band. USGS Coastal Change Hazards Portal. More Rough Surf.

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

Wabasso Beach Historical Shoreline Changes.
Source: https://marine.usgs.gov/coastalchangehazardsportal/

The USGS has an interesting web site that shows historical shoreline changes, including Florida. The snipping I posted above shows the Wabasso area.  If you look at the key and then the map, you'll see that back in the later 1900s the shoreline was farther out than it is today, but also farther out than it was in the mid-1800s.  It hasn't progressed continually in one direction or another, but has come and gone to some extent at various times because of both natural causes and beach renourishment.

Historical Shoreline Changes Around Fort Pierce Inlet
Same source.

There are a lot of interesting things you can find on the coastal hazards portal.  I didn't zoom in so much for the above image, but you can see that north of the inlet the shoreline is now farther out in the 2000s than it was in the mid-1800s, and south of the inlet, the shoreline is farther back in recent years than it was in the mid-1800s.  That is natural. You typically get accretion north of east coast the inlets and erosion south of the inlets because the supply of sand is cut off and that starves the beaches to the south.

If you look at the coast towards the top of the map, you'll see where the old St. Lucie inlet was.

I am showing these examples to highlight what I believe to be a very useful tool.  Here is another example.   The area is just south of Bathtub Beach.

You can see where back in the 1800s the shoreline jutted out.  Now the shoreline is much farther back than it was at that time, but it is more seaward than it was the the 1900s.  That is probably due to beach renourishment.  You can also see the rocks at the present shoreline.

Too bad they don't show us where the beach was in 1715.  That would be very useful.


Here is another example from the coastal change hazards portal.   This one (below) shows the probability of inundation and overwash from Irma.

Areas of Irma Inundation and Overwash.
Souce: USGS coastal change hazards portal.

You'll have to visit the site and take a closer look at this one with the key etc.

Another part of the same site shows that maria affected the South Carolina and North Carolina shoreline the most.

Here is the link if you want to really explore that web site.

https://marine.usgs.gov/coastalchangehazardsportal/

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People are acting like the surf has gone smooth.  It hasn't.  Look at this.

Source: MagicSeaWeed.com

And Sunday the swells are supposed to be more northerly.  Something good could happen yet.

A lot of people got excited when they heard there was going to be a hurricane.  Everybody got ready.  Then a lot of them went out and were disappointed. 

How many times have I said, it doesn't take a hurricane.  I recently posted about the 1984 Thanksgiving storm.  That was no hurricane, but there was a lot of treasure found.  I'm getting the feeling that a lot of people are starting to snooze after all the hurricanes passed by.  That might be a mistake.  There is still a lot of good surf predicted for the next week or two.  If it wasn't for the very high surf we've had lately, the surf that is predicted now would be getting people excited.  I'm just thinking that people might be giving up too soon.
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I got a report from Kevin K.  Here is what he had to say.

I went to Frederick Douglass and John Brooks beaches yesterday to hunt, using my ground-penetrating radar machine and my Bounty Hunter Landstar detector. The surf was, indeed, running 5-8 feet with many breaking on the first reef - wish I’d had a surfboard! As you said in yesterday’s blog, it looked like new sand had been added all the way up to the permanent dune, and I did not get one hit on the metal detector, although a lot of false readings on all-metal mode. Those readings must have been mineralized sand, as the discriminator mode never showed anything. The radar machine did not show any deep targets down to 10 feet, although up near the dunes some areas showed disturbed sand as deep as 5 feet...

Thanks for the report Kevin.

Kevin also lost a gold wedding ring in the process and is hoping it can be found.  Here is how he described that.

Somehow I did manage to lose my gold Claddagh wedding ring probably near the Douglas pavilion or in the parking lot of the street north of the Brooks Beach entrance-so if anyone finds the treasure I left, I’d like it back!

Let me know if you find Kevin's ring,, and I'll hook you up for the return. 

Kevin might also be able to do some ground-penetrating radar for you.  His business is Underground Discovery, LLC.

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That is all for today.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

9/27/17 Report - Lost Gold Ring. Jupiter Beach to Cocoa Beach. Shoreline Changes, Obstacles, and Special Opportunities.

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

Jupiter Inlet Beach.
Photo by Joe D.

Joe D. sent me these photos along with the following message.   

After just reading today's post, we have similar conditions here! In fact the beach has added 2-4 feet in places! Same problem; tons of seaweed and a mushy beach all the way up to eroded dunes! Waves from the east and little wind, even though it's large surf! All targets were light aluminum trash!
Some of pics are near same spots as I sent a few weeks ago so you can see the addition of sand
Looks like it will take a few week to normalize!

Joe D.

Thanks for the great photos and report Joe.  It does indeed look very much like the Treasure Coast.

Beach at Jupiter.
Photo by Joe D.

So what is it like just north of the Treasure Coast?  Dan C. sent the following.

... I have been hunting mainly Cocoa Beach due to its convenience -proximity to Orlando.
The post Irma hunting was good , meaning at least one gold find per 5-6 hour hunt.
The Post Maria hunting is not good.
You mentioned seaweed in your recent blog.
Actually, in the case of Cocoa Beach, it is about 80-90 percent Mangrove roots and branches, mixed with some seaweed.
Where did all these tree roots come from ? Indian River ? FL. Keys ? Bahamas ?
It would be kind of interesting to know where this stuff originated.
Or perhaps it is some variety of trees that grow in the dunes....... hard to tell as they are so pulverized, but the stumps are multi branched, the roots are short and fat.
There is enough of it to fill a dump truck for every 100 feet of beach.
It has formed clusters where it holds the sand, even in the wash zone- the waves don't break it up.
So, today hunted from 4 am to 930 to catch the low tide.
A few shell piles were formed close to the waters edge, produced nothing.
The shell line produced one stainless ring, one silver/enamel tiny pendant, one fake earring, a silver toe ring.
Higher up on the beach, I can see about a foot of new sand since last week, which came from Maria. I know it's at least a foot since it is full of those branches/roots even down deep.
Basically it's now all sanded in. Very little in the way of targets, even trash.
Perhaps if I can catch a flat day I will try a water hunt next.


Take care,
Dan in Orlando.

So these clumps of whatever are to be found at least from Jupiter to Cocoa. They were heavy on the Treasure Coast beaches today.  I also wondered where they came from.  Maybe we have a marine biologist or someone that can tell us.

On the Treasure Coast the biological materials, whatever they are, were catching sand and shells and in some cases being covered by sand.

One thing I should mention, and I haven't lately, is that when I talk about beach detecting conditions, I'm usually talking about finding shipwreck cobs and treasure coins.  I used to say that often and make it clear when I was giving a numerical beach conditions ratings.  At other times I might not always make that clear.

There is a correlation between beach conditions for finding old shipwreck items on the beach and finding more modern items, but the correlation isn't perfect.  Very old things surface less often than things that are just years or decades old..

Also when I give a rating or talk about beach conditions, I'm talking about general conditions.  I'm most often talking about those stretches of beach that produce shipwreck coins when the conditions are right.  You shouldn't forget, though, that when overall conditions are not great, there can still be small nooks and crannies where there is a chance to find something very good.  Often those places are beside a sea wall, jetty, rocks or foundation or something that provides an obstacle and opens a small pocket.  You might want to look around for some of those nooks or crannies.

Historic Shoreline Changes Around Present Day Fort Pierce Inlet
Source: marine.usgs.gov/coastalchangehaardsportal/

Here is the color key that goes with that.

Dark blue indicates the shoreline in 2012, and dark orange indicates the shoreline in 1830.

First you'll notice that the inlet was not open in the early 1800s.  The orange and yellow lines indicating the shoreline goes right through the inlet.

One thing I want you to see is that the shoreline north of the inlet has been moving out while the shoreline south of the inlet has been moving west.  They have tried to stop the erosion to the south of the inlet in recent years by dumping new sand there every year. Obstacles, like the jetty, large or small, disrupt the flow of sand and create what I call special opportunities.

There are some important lessons you can get from this illustration.  One very general principle is that when sand accumulates in one place, it leaves another.  That seems very obvious, but a lot of people don't appreciate the importance of that.  When sand builds one place, always ask yourself where it is coming from.  It is good to find where the sand is coming from and check where the sand is leaving.

You might have noticed that I posted some old wood finds since Irma hit our area.  There was the sheave and some other pieces.  That tells you something if you think about it.  Why did that old wood suddenly show up after all that time?  It was uncovered.  Where?  It could be from the beach, but we have not seen much beach erosion, or it could have been uncovered in deeper water and floated in.  Again stating the obvious, wood floats and therefore can travel very quickly and far once it is uncovered.

There is a lot to think about.  I'll stop there for today.

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I just wanted to add this as soon as I found out.  Someone just reported that they lost a gold Claddagh wedding band in the John Brooks or Frederick Douglass beach area. Please help get it returned.

Thanks much.

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Happy hunting,
Treasureguide@comcast.net

9/26/17 Report - What the High Water Did To Some Beaches. Useful Web Site For Predicting Beach Conditions. Various Types of Finds Along the Treasure Coast.

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

Frederick Douglas Beach This Morning.

Yesterday I showed the water getting high on Frederick Douglas beach.  Today I went out to see what happened.  The answer unfortunately, is very little.

I'm about to call Irma, Jose and Maria all a bust when it comes to improving metal detecting conditions.  Who would guess that three hurricanes would not produce much better beaches?  Not one of them did a lot for us.

There are reasons.  And I'm always learning.  I learned something just the other day.  Actually I already knew it to some extent, but didn't give pay take it into account enough.  There is little use to pay attention to wind direction unless it is blowing fairly hard.  Otherwise it is not going to affect the direction of the swells.

The past few days I looked at the wind direction on MagicSeaWeed, but I didn't pay enough attention to the wind speed.  I should have paid more attention to what web sites like Ventusky.com was telling me when I plotted the waves.

Below is an example.

Wave Direction.for Yesterday.

Source: Ventusky.com

What I saw at the beach yesterday and today matched what Ventusky.com said a couple of days ago (See my 9/23/17 post.). The waves, as predicted were hitting the beach straight on despite the north winds. The wind wasn't very strong, so didn't seem to have much effect.

We always talk about northeasters, but direction isn't the only factor.  The wind has to be fairly strong, otherwise they won't have a significant effect on the swells.

I think I could do this a hundred years and I would still continue to learn.

Below is another picture of a beach that I looked at this morning.

Treasure Coast Beach Tuesday Morning.

Notice the waves coming directly at the beach and all the seaweed.  The beach was building.  You could see new layers of sand on the beach.  That isn't what we were hoping for.  I'll pay more attention to the swells in the future and less to wind direction.  

I've said before that it doesn't take a hurricane and recently went over what happened during the Thanksgiving Storm of 1984.  Jon Morgan, who does the great Lets Talk Metal Detecting and Treasure Hunting podcasts, said that post was very helpful to him.  You might want to take a look at that post again.  Hurricanes don't always create good detecting conditions.  Neither does high water.

I made a few interesting finds today - at least I thought they were interesting.

I found one very big piece of wood.  It was about seven feet long.  My photo showing the entire length somehow got lost, but here are a couple photos of a section of the wood.

Large Piece of Wood Found On Beach This Morning.

 Notice the worm holes and the apparently worked surface.

Another Shot of the Same Piece of Wood.

Ballast Stone?

A couple of days ago I mentioned finding some pieces of fossilized bone.  Here is the smallest - a small vertebra.

Small Fossilized Vertebrae Shown On U. S. Nickel.

I picked up more fossils today.  They are shown below.

Fossils Found On Beach Today.

The most interesting one to me was the piece of antler.  I've found those before and always like them.

Here is a closer view of that one.

Fossilized Piece of Antler.

And here is an ever closer view that shows the nice color and texture.

Closeup of Fossil Antler.

I walked a long distance today because I wanted to check out a particular location that I have not seen for quite a while.  It wasn't much good for detecting, but I did pick up the fossils on the way.

As I often say, when conditions aren't good for finding one type of thing they might be good for finding other things.

Today I didn't do any detecting, but kept myself entertained with wood, stone, fossils and shells while I scouted a few beaches.

I'll be showing you some more things I learned tomorrow or some other time real soon.  I think that is all for today.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

9/25/17 Report - High Tide Getting Far Back On Some of The Treasure Coast Beaches. Detecting Conditions Around the Treasure Coast This Morning..

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

Frederick Douglas Beach About 11 AM Monday Morning.

I looked at a good sample of Treasure Coast beaches this morning.  Later as the tides came in the water began to get high up on the beach, as you can see from the above photo.  I hadn't seen it that high in quite some time - maybe since Sandy.

Dolman Beach Dunes Getting Hit About 11 AM

The dunes were being eroded at Dolman beach at around 11 AM.  The problem is that it was recently renourished and all you see is renourishment sand.

John Brooks Beach This Morning.

At John Brooks, like man other beaches, there was seaweed or other light stuff that had washed up on the beach.  You can see both plastic and seaweed in the above photo.  The wet beach was mushy.

John Brooks Beach This Morning.

 In this picture of John Brooks you can see that dunes that are behind the berm are getting eroded even though there is no erosion to the front beach.

Rio Mar This Morning.

Rio Mar was typical.  Sandy with no erosion and a lot of seaweed.

Seagrape Trail This Morning.

 I took this picture to show how the steps at Seagrape Trail are deep in sand.

Wabasso This Morning.

There was nothing new or remarkable at Wabasso this morning.  There were some decent surfing waves.

Turtle Trail This Morning.

 I got my pictures mixed up.  I'm not sure if this is Turtle Trail or Seagrape Trail but it doesn't matter much because they were similar.  There was no significant erosion at either.  The blue bags were almost completely covered below Turtle Trail.

Seagrape Trail.

You can see how soft the sand is from how deep the tire tracks are.  

To summarize, I saw almost no erosion.  The water had hit the base of the dunes last night and eroded that a touch, but it was mostly renourishment sand anyhow.  The water was getting high on the beaches as high tide was coming and I would bet that there will be more dune erosion at certain locations.  The swells were still hitting the beaches straight on, so unless that changes I don't expect any serious beach erosion.  I would be interested in checking where the water got into the dunes.

I'm tired.  That is all for now.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

9/24/17 Report - Bigger Surf Today and Tomorrow on Treasure Coast. Iron and Fossil Finds. Predictions.

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

John Brooks Sandy Front Beach Saturday Afternoon.

Yesterday the beach fronts that I saw were built up with sand.  Notice also the sea weed that indicates incoming light materials.

Below is a large old piece of partially encrusted iron that was found on one beach.  It is about four feet long.

Big Piece of Iron On Beach Saturday Afternoon.

Same Piece of Iron.

According to MagicSeaWeed, Sunday the surf will increase from about 4 -8 feet in the morning up to 7 - 10 feet in the evening.  The wind will be northeast, but the primary swell east.

Yesterday I found a few areas I found where there was erosion to the dune face, but that erosion was not fresh.  While I don't like the direction of the swell tomorrow, the surf will certainly be high enough that something good could happen.

I also found pieces of fossilized bone.

Some of the pieces of fossilized bone found on the beach.

Early this morning John Brooks and Frederick Douglas were only showing more filling.  Nothing goo started to happen there yet.  I don't know about the beaches in the Vero Sebastian area.

John Brooks Beach Early This Morning.

There is a piece of modern wreckage on the beach, which you can see in the photo above.  Also big clumps of seaweed.

Maria is east of us and heading north, probably to come closest to North Carolina.

Surf For A Few Days.
Source: MagicSeaWeed.com

As you can see the surf will increase today and a bit tomorrow.  That is a pretty big surf.

Surf, Swells, and Wind.
Source: MagicSeaWeed.com.

It looks like conditions will be a bit more favorable on Monday.  The wind will be more north and the primary swell more from the northeast.  The surf will be high most of the day if the predictions are correct.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

9/23/17 Report - Large Surf and North Winds Expected Monday and Sunday. SHIPS Project. WWII Dog Tags.

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

Here is the introduction to an excellent web site.  The SHIPS project encourages collaboration to survey and document sites and finds in the Plymouth Sound.  It is an excellent model that could be used elsewhere.  I really like what they are doing and how they do it.

The SHIPS Project

The city of Plymouth has a long maritime history that dates back to the arrival of the first humans in the South-West of England. Since that time the waters of Plymouth Sound and the adjoining rivers have seen hundreds of maritime events, accidents and disasters; some witnessed and recorded but many more happened unseen and undocumented.

Despite the passing of time the seabed and shoreline around Plymouth still contains evidence of these events, so the aim of the SHIPS Project is to record the maritime history of Plymouth by recording the remains of these events

.
The SHIPS Project aims to record, document and publish the remains of shipwrecks, aircraft, hulks, lost anchors and any other objects on the seabed

The project is being run by a local group of divers and shipwreck enthusiasts

The SHIPS Project is interested in the maritime history of Plymouth from the earliest occupation by humans until the present day

The main area of interest covers the whole of Plymouth Sound and the tidal reach of the rivers that feed in to it, stretching from Yealm Head to the east to Portwrinkle to the west, from Gunnislake to the north and south out to sea to the 50m depth contour. We have also included information about interesting shipwrecks and finds that are close to this area.

It also has a nice finds gallery, which is where I got the picture of the sheave that I posted yesterday. I highly recommend you take a look at the web site.  It provides a good way for individuals to report finds that are then included in the database and become a part of the public knowledge base.


http://www.promare.co.uk/ships/ships_finds_bytype.html

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Archaeologists hope to reunite World War Two US Airforce dog tags found on a former RAF airbase with the original owners or their descendants.
Here is that link for more of that story..

http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-norfolk-41280711

WWII dog tags are also found on the Treasure Coast.  Some years ago quite a few surfaces south of the Fort Pierce inlet when that beach was eroded.

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Source: MagicSeaWeed.com

The high surf prediction has not disappeared as it so often does.  MagicSeaWeed shows us getting a 7 - 10 foot surf on Sunday and Monday.  We are also supposed to get a north wind on Sunday, however it looks like the swells are supposed to be coming mostly from the east.

By early Monday morning it looks like the wind coming from Maria will be nearly parallel to the coast.

Source: Ventusky.com

Below are the waves predicted for Monday.  Not very northerly.

Source: Ventusky.com

I'll be interested to see if the wind or wave direction as indicated above will have the most to do with how things develop.  It does look like we'll have at least two favorable factors.  If we actually get a surf that large combined with north winds, there is a good chance that beach detecting conditions will improve.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net