Written by the TreasureGuide for the exclusive use of treasurebeachesreport.blogspot.com.
It isn't hurricane season yet, but NOAA is already reporting a trough developing just off the Florida coast. If you noticed the wind yesterday, you were observing the effects of the trough.
https://www.nhc.noaa.gov/gtwo.php?basin=atlc&fdays=2
A surf of three to five feet was predicted for last night and this morning by MagicSeaWeed.com.
Forbes.com says,
Isn't it a bit early for the National Hurricane Center to be issuing outlooks? The Atlantic hurricane season typically starts on June 1st. The peak of the Atlantic hurricane season comes later in September when ocean temperatures are quite warm, and atmospheric wind shear is relatively low. Storms forming on May 1st are quite rare as indicated in the figure below. However, they are not unprecedented as I have written previously in Forbes.
A 2016 blog by the American Meterological Society said:
In the past decade, half of the Atlantic’s seasons had “preseason” storms. In 2012, two storms—Alberto and Beryl—were named before the season officially started. And last year, Ana formed east of Georgia on May 7. Granted, it was initially a subtropical storm, a hybrid with both tropical features and features of midlatitude cyclones. But waters were warm and Ana became fully tropical in just days, and moved ashore in South Carolina on May 10...
Here is the link for more of that article.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/marshallshepherd/2019/05/01/its-may-1st-the-national-hurricane-center-is-watching-something-near-florida/#2a1c4a8a3c54
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Below is a story from Sebasstian Steve describing events that occurred around thirty years ago.
So the word "Tumbaga" reminded me of a day I went detecting down on the beach about thirty years ago, down at the "Cabin Wreck" just south of the McLarty Museum. It had blown real hard for a couple days, but the day I arrived there on the beach, it was an absolute "bluebird" day (as we used to say up on "The Lakes" on near perfect days weather wise) The sky was clear and sunny blue, the ocean calm, calm, almost like a mill pond, with just a little tiny ripple rolling in.
But you could however easily see what the heavy surf had done. A hard cut, maybe four feet, and those big, erosion control bags are --right in front of Kip's Cabin-- if you know which house it is. THAT IS THE GREEN LIGHT...when you see those big green or blue bags showing above the surface of the sand! And there was __ A LARGE AREA OF THEM SHOWING__......not just a few square feet peeking out of one.
I was using my U/W diving detector that day on the beach... a Garrett Sea Hunter model. Nothing fancy or powerful. And I guess you could say all the myths were broken that day... a beautiful, calm day, no rain or foreboding weather, no wind whatsoever, and mid-afternoon. There was no rush whatsoever....the good ole days. And nobody else around...they all probably came and went with the morning tide.
As after a "grueling fifteen minutes" of detecting, I was about 4' out from the dune line. And I got a good reading, nothing big or unusual about it, but strong enough to know it was quite shallow a target. And so I took a scoop out, where I could have twitched it out with scrapping my fingernails down under the surface a few inches. It could not have been down over 3 THREE INCHES. I thought to myself..."Gee...any old machine would have found this!"
And what I held in my hand was a thin and delicate gold cross. About 3-4" tall. Without a doubt...straight in from the wreck. As fresh as fresh can be. Like a piece of bakery...still warm from the oven! A sweet little double arm cross, that was poured out of Tumbaga gold according to a jeweler. He was using the term in more of a generic way, to mean a lower than normal carat gold. He thought 10-12 karat. You could see the slight hollowed out area on the rear of the cross where the pour was. But the face of this gold cross was very pretty, with The Virgin Mary holding Her Hands together as if in prayer. She was standing up on a pedestal. Quite pretty, and in very good condition. Not worn or bent in the least. A duller matt like gold tone on the front, and a very shiny gold in the rear pour area. Seeing the rear gold pour, you would of thought pure gold, it looked like a molten puddle, shining as bright as the sun! You knew immediately that this cross was gold. (The McLarty Museum has in their collection from Kip Wagner, a similar cross).
It must of come from deep under the sand, or still tacked on a chest board, because to make it ashore without bending this thin gold cross was quite amazing! Now I'm thinking it was on a chest of some sort, treasure or otherwise, or church papers chest, as the rear of the cross had two little "tangs" angled downward, so as to be able to gently drive this cross into a soft wood lid on a chest. (The treasure chests of the 1715 Fleet were made out of cedar). Plenty soft for this type of application.
I actually did not have a safe place to put it in...while I continued detecting. Had I stuck it down in my pocket, it might of easily got bent. So I laid it on a large tree branch that was sticking out of the "wall cut". It sat on there for another couple hours, while I continued detecting up and down the beach.
Another detectorist arrived about an hour later, and I pointed it out to him. Like... "That is my gold cross over there on the tree branch...you can look at it, but don't take it." That's all...a different time and place. Now how do we get the "Real" treasure back again ??? Words like "Trust" and "Admiration" come to mind.
God Bless All Who Read These Words.
Sebastian Steve
PS: If you would like to be detecting on the exact correct spot I speak about here....just contact me during a good blow. I will take you there right after the storm abates. What's the catch? This ole boy ain't well anymore, and you would need to carry my detector for me...both ways! I remember in my 20s or 30s, I would have jumped on such an offer...just to listen and learn. But as I said...sadly we now live in a different time and place. Here's proving me wrong...772 713-0965... leave message. (Storm times only please).
Times have indeed changed, but I think that most detectorists will go through changes if they stick with it long enough. I know I have.
I don't look at treasure hunting the same way as I did a few decades ago. There was a time when I was much more driven. Like a lot of people at that time in life, I wanted to know how much I could accomplish. I tested myself, and I found that out. I learned what it would take for me to metal detect professionally, and I found out that I probably didn't want to. For me, that seemed to take some of the fun out of it. I didn't want to depend upon detecting for an income, yet for a short while when I was between jobs, I was able to test it out.
Over the years and decades, the find became less important to me. No single find is worth risking life or limb. There are always more finds to be made down the road. That is the way I see it now.
Finds in general are less important to me. I'd rather fail to make a good find than fail to make a good moral decision. That is what determines the kind of person I am, not the finds that I make.
To cut it short, I've changed over the years, and how I look at metal detecting and treasure hunting has changed as well. Different things are important to me now. If you've been at it a while, you can probably look back and see how you've changed too.
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I have a correction to make. A couple days ago I posted an item found by Terry S. and mistakenly called it a copper ring. In fact, it is a bracelet. I wanted to make that correction and get some more ideas on the find.
Here are the photos again.
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Three Views of Copper Bracelet Found by Terry S.
Photos by Terry S.
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Let me know what you think of this item. Any thoughts?
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I just received an email from a professor in a New York university asking permission to use one of the beach dynamics illustrations I used in this blog. I'm always glad to help the educational community when I can.
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Live bidding begins on the current Sedwick auction at 10 AM today (Thursday).
Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net
