6/4/20 Report - Great White Trolls Treasure Coast. Lazy Surf and Beaches. Blind Creek Designated Clothing Optional.

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

Miss May

Source: BrevardTimes.com link below.

FORT PIERCE, Florida – A female great white shark measuring 10 feet, 2 inches long was tracked swimming off the coast of Fort Pierce, Florida at 7:46 a.m. on Wednesday, June 3, 2020...

Here is the link for more about that.

http://www.brevardtimes.com/2020/06/great-white-shark-tracked-swimming-off-fort-pierce-florida//


Here is where Miss May was sighted.

Location of Miss May on June 3.

Source: Ocearch.org/tracker.

The above position of Miss May is given by https://www.ocearch.org/tracker.   Besides sharks you can reset the species to track whales, turtles and other animals.

Very interesting site.

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Turtle Trail Wednesday Near Low Tide.

Photo by DJ.

You can see that seaweed has accumulated on the beach since Tuesday.

You can take Tuesdays photos and compare them to the Wednesday photos and correlate that with what the surf was doing to get a sense of what a direct east swell will tend to do to this location.

Turtle Trail Near Low Tide Wednesday.

Photo by DJ.

Thanks for the photos DJ.

You can stil lsee the flat out front.

Tuesday I saw a large object in the surf out where the waves were crashing.  At the time I decided to take a closer look at it later when the tide was lower.  That was a mistake.  When I came back I couldn't see it at all.

Over and over I find that on the beach you have to do things when you get the chance because you might not get another chance.

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St. Lucie County has officially designated Blind Creek Beach as a clothing-optional beach.  Naturists have been working for that designation for years.

Clothing-optional beach etiquette is described on the http://www.treasurecoastnaturists.org/beach-etiquette.html web site.

If you don't want to see naked bodies don't go to this beach.

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Cristobal hasn't moved much yet, but is still expected to head towards Louisiana.
]

Source: nhc.noaa.gov

It looks like we'll be in for a lot of small surf for the next week or two.

Source: MagicSeaWeed.com.

Happy hunting,
Treasureguide@comcast.net

4/29/20 Report - Beaches Open and Detectorists Out. How To Metal Detect Watches.

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

John Brooks Beach 4/28 Shortly After Low Tide.

Here are the first beach photos that I took for four or five weeks.  In the distance you can see one detectorist, who evidently arrived not long after the beach opened.

Not much to see beside sand, although there was also a person to the south collecting shells.  No problem with social distancing here.  There was about a hundred yards between people.

John Brooks Beach 4/29.

The surf was just a little choppy.  You can see the shell collector in this photo.

Frederick Douglass Beach 4/28

You can see how sandy it was from the deep footprints.

Another Look at Frederick Douglass Beach.

A few people had already been there. 

b

Blind Creek Beach 4/28.

A little farther to the south, Blind Creek looked pretty much the same.

I'm afraid we are now into summer beach conditions and will be waiting for the occasional storm to move some of the summer sand.

There are also places where beach renourishment is in full swing, such as at Fort Pierce South Jetty Park.  It seems to me that they do that beach at least every year, but some official claimed it wasn't that often.

I had other things I had to do so, those are the only beaches I saw.  I don't know how the Indian River County beaches looked.

---

Dj got out to do some detecting.  Here is what he said.   Can’t decide what this is made of. It has a consistent thickness of 1/16” of an inch. But it was good to get out on the first day of beach opening. As expected not much erosion; just some old cuts with large shells and less sand on the front than a month ago.

DJ's Find of the Day.

Photo by DJ

I'm sure everybody is happy to be able to get out on the beaches again even though we don't have the best beach detecting conditions. --- As you probably know, I don't use discrimination much.  One reason is that some of the better targets are very difficult to identify from a metal detector response.  That is especially true of items made of various materials and items that can be positioned in a variety of ways.  Watches are an example.

Sample Watches.

Guess, Armitron, Orient, Seiko, and Seiko.

I've probably found a hundred watches, including some very expensive ones, but for this experiment I just pulled out a few.

Watches will give different metal detector readings depending upon several different factors.  One, of course, is what they are made of. That sounds simple enough, but remember they are made of a variety of materials - the workings, watch case, and band can all be different metals. 

Another factor is how the watch is laying. They can be either face up, as shown in the photo, or often on edge. And since they are odd shaped, it depends upon which direction your coil goes over the watch. When face up, you can get one reading when sweeping more over the face, and another when you sweep more over the band. When these watches were face up, most of them gave a conductivity number on the Equinox of either 16-17 or 30-33. Some of the watches gave more of the lower range number, while other gave more in the upper range. The better watches tend to give more readings in the 30-33 range. 

If you stand them on edge, you'll often get a much weaker signal. In fact the first watch shown above, the Guess, if standing on edge and the coil moving in one direction (parallel to the edge of the face) indicated iron.  If you were discriminating iron, you would have heard almost nothing at all. 

The main point is that with a complex target like a watch, the signal will vary depending upon several different factors. If you know what causes the variations you can still get a good idea that you might be detecting a watch before you dig it up. Don't forget to vary the position and angle of your sweep to observe the differences.

Generally speaking, better watches will tend to have more of the higher conductivity numbers.

My most recent Rolex was found in dry sand, as were some of the other good watches, but another good place to check for watches is in shallow shell-filled dips in the water.  They will generally ride pretty high in the sand.

One way you can get to know your metal detector better is by practicing with a variety of known targets.

If it doesn't sound like a coin or ring that doesn't necessarily mean it is no good.

Happy hunting,

Treasureguide@comcast.net

6/12/19 Report - South Hutchinson Island Beaches. Salvage Activity. Mystery Item. Old Fig Syrup Bottle.

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

John Brooks Beach This Morning.

I went out to the beach this morning.  It looked like a summer beach.  Sand is accumulating and the water was near flat.  Very nice, but hot.

Most beaches looked the same.  I didn't bother to photograph Frederick Douglass.

South of Blind Creek.

South of Blind Creek it looked like someone had been blowing holes near shore (above) so I took this photo.  Just a short while later a small boat with a mailbox showed up and parked north of the Power Plant.

I did a little beach metal detecting and was surprised by the number of modern coins found.   That was the first time I'd done any detecting for a while.

I also picked up a few of those tent stakes.  I'm glad to have them because I use them to stake Christmas decorations.  I'm always glad to get something useful at the beach.

Fort Pierce South Jetty Beach.

Fort Pierce South Jetty Park This Morning.

There were a lot of new turtle nests.

---

Changing channels I ran across one of the Curse TV programs last night - Curse of Civil War Gold.  I managed to watch it for a few minutes before they started with the same old stuff - making random bits of rusty junk out to be kin to the Holy Grail and putting very dubious dates on items.
---

Joe R. said, I picked up $100 in rolled quarters today and found four with the "W" mint mark.

Neat!

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Old Iron Mystery Object.

 I posted this one some time back and got some answers, but am not sure yet, so put it out there for any additional opinions.

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Cracked California Fig Syrup Company Bottle.

If you find any old bottles with small cracks, it seems sitting around in the Florida heat can make the cracks grow.  That happened to his bottle.

The California Fig Co. opened at Reno, Nevada, in 1878, selling its only product, Syrup of Figs.  The firm had a rocky beginning, reorganizing twice before it achieved success with the final 1897 corporation.  The Sterling Remedy Co. purchased the California Fig Co. in 1912, and it remains in business to the present.  California Fig packaged its products in a total of six different embossed bottles as well as at least one variation used in England.  In addition, the different incarnations of the firm used generic bottles with paper labels both before and after the adoption of the embossed containers – an apparently common phenomenon in remedies successful enough to remain popular from the 1870s to the 20th century...

The above bottle appears to me to be post-1917.

Here is a link for more about that.

https://sha.org/bottle/pdffiles/CaliforniaFigSyrup.pdf

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

5/24/19 Report - Beach Conditions and Observations. Wreck of the Clotilda Found. Another Bottle Find.

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

John Brooks Beach Early Friday Morning.

I checked out a few beaches this morning.  As you can see, John Brooks had a little recent erosion, but had filled in a little again since the erosion.

John Brooks Beach This Morning.

I did a quick check, maybe about thirty minutes and found a few crusty modern coins.  Nothing interesting.

Frederick Douglass Beach Friday Morning.

Frederick Douglass beach also had some small cuts, but less than John Brooks.

Blind Creek Friday Morning.

Blind Creek had no cuts.  The only detectorist I saw this morning was the nude detectorist of Blind Creek, if you didn't know better you might think that has something to do with the name of the beach.

Blind Creek Friday Morning.

I really didn't really look, but I know that was  no goody bag.  I don't know what he does with finds.

Fort Pierce South Jetty Friday Morning.

South Jetty Park had a little erosion but was pretty much covered with seaweed.

As you can see, seaweed was seen on every beach this morning.

There had been a little recent erosion on most of the beaches, but still they didn't look very good to me.  My quick check only turned up a few crusty clad coins.

The tides are flattening out now and the surf will be slowly decreasing for a few days.

My favorite find this morning was a plastic milk bottle carrier.  The last time I was at a store I thought about buying one, but I didn't like the price.  The plastic crates are good for storing bottles.

---

The remains of the last known ship to bring enslaved people to the United States have been found nearly 160 years after its illegal voyage from Africa to Alabama, state officials say...

In 1860, the Clotilda transported more than 100 people from Benin, Africa, to Mobile, Alabama, a voyage that took place 52 years after the United States banned importing new enslaved people...

The leaders of the Clotilda voyage, Timothy Meaher and Capt. William Foster, evaded authorities and destroyed the ship by burning it after their illegal trip, the state's historical commissions says...

Here is the link for more about that.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2019/05/23/clotilda-last-known-us-slave-ship-found-near-mobile-alabama/1203399001/

---

Here is another of my ink bottle finds.

Cone Carter's Ink Bottle. 

The bottom reads:  CARTER - MADE IN USA - NO 5.

The William Carter Company was founded in 1858 as an ink manufacturer, and became the world leaders in this field at the end of 1800. In the mid of 20s they entered the fountain pen market, that at the time was in its full development. But after the great depression of 1929, which caused a sharp reduction in the fountain pen market, the company decided to stop producing pens and mechanical pencils in the early 30's.

The pens produced by Carter were excellent quality, and they made in unusual colors much different than those of its competitors of that time. Because the short period of activity of the company, its pens are quite rare and quite sought by the collectors.

Carter cone bottles come in different colors. I have a brown one and have sold both brown and green.

I remember finding my first cone ink bottle - a brown CARTER'S cone that I sold.

The bottom of the brown one I still have is similar and reads:  CARTER'S - 1897 - MADE IN USA.

That one can be seen in my bottle barn web site.

  http://tgbottlebarn.blogspot.com/search/label/Carter%27s%20ink

---

Happy hunting,

TreasureGuide@comcast.net

3/20/19 Report - How Some Treasure Coast Beaches Are Shaping Up. Big Tides and More Surf Tomorrow.

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

John Brooks Beach This Morning.

I didn't see John Brooks yesterday, but it looked to me like the last high tide took away some sand.  The average cut was about three feet high.  Some places were higher and others lower.

It looked very similar to how it looked back a few weeks ago when there was a big cut.  There were no layers or shells or other major features.  It was just a uniform brown sand.

I checked it out and there were very few widely scattered targets.

John Brooks Beach This Morning.

The cuts ran to the south, decreasing some at Douglass beach.

Frederick Douglass Beach This Morning.

The cuts were smaller at Frederick Douglass beach.

There were some modern coins near the water line at Frederick Douglass.

Blind Creek was cut pretty good Monday, but was mostly filled back in today.

Walton Rocks Beach This Morning.

Maybe I did better yesterday than I thought.  I thought it was all junk, now I'm not so sure.  Some items were encrusted.  I'm pondering what I want to do with them and hope to have some photos later.

The biggest thing for me yesterday and today was that I was able to detect an hour or so without any back problems.  You might remember that I wrote around a year ago that my detecting days might be over.  My back has been better since then, and although I kept my detecting time way down the past couple of days so I wouldn't overwork my back, my back took the exercise with no big problems.  That is a big relief even though I was frustrated that I couldn't put the time in that I wanted to.

Dale J. sent me a variety of photos from around noon yesterday.  He said, The only beaches with only very small new cuts were Golden Sands and N of McLarty.  I didn't see Golden Sands beach yesterday.  His photo or Rio Mar also didn't show any erosion.

Thanks much for the photos and report Dale.

I have some more finds to clean off and photograph.   One of the more interesting ones is heavily encrusted, although I don't know what it is yet.

Source: MagicSeaWeed.com

The surf is supposed to be even a little higher tomorrow.  The tides are big now too.

The wind has been wobbling and one day one beach will be cut and the next day it will fill again, and another beach will be mush one day and then cut the next.

To use my beach conditions rating scale, I'm tempted to give it a three rating, but it just doesn't seem quite that good.  Of course, I wasn't able to look at all the beaches.  There are just too many beaches and too little time.  Right now I'm wavering between a two and three rating.  I wouldn't be surprised if a few cobs were found, but I would expect the finds to be relatively few.

It takes a lot of perseverance.  You might remember my success formula.  Time spent detecting is one of the biggest factors.

Scouting is also important.  Sometimes time spent scouting is almost as important as time spent detecting.  It doesn't matter how much you detect if you are in a area that isn't producing what you are seeking.  Of course if you are out there a lot, you have a better chance of being there at the right time.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

2/26/18 Report - Views of Some Treasure Coast Beaches. Underground Stone Vault Found in Nova Scotia.

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

Turtle Trail Afternoon of 2/25/19.

I was in the Vero area for an appointment yesterday and found time to stop at Turtle Trail.  It was about 2 PM.   There were a two detectorists already there.  You can see one of them in the distance in the photo below.

Turtle Trail Afternoon of 2/25/19 

Farther south from the access there were some shallow scallops.  You can see that in the photo below.

Farther South of Turtle Trail.

I didn't get to select the time for my visit, but was glad to get there for a little while anyhow.

Dale J. took the following photos of Seagrape and Wabasso yesterday.

Wabasso Yesterday

Submitted by Dale J.

Seagrape Trail Yesterday.

Submitted by Dale J.

This morning, I visited a few beaches on South Hutchinson Island.  Below are shots of Blind Creek, Frederick Douglas, John Brooks, and Fort Pierce South Jetty, in that order.

Blind Creek Near Low Tide This Morning.

Frederick Douglas Beach This Morning Near Low Tide.

The South Hutchinson Island beaches that I saw all looked pretty much the same this morning.  There were no new cuts.  All the beaches had seaweed. sloping and soft down to the wet area.  There were also some Portuguese Man-O-War.

John Brooks Beach This Morning Near Low Tide.

Fort Pierce South Jetty Beach This Morning Near Low Tide.

One detectorist was working South Jetty this morning.  You can see him in the photo.

I didn't see any other detectorists this morning.

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Mysterious underground vault discovered on grounds of N.S. legislature.

Archaeologist says the large chamber isn't mentioned in any records or maps.

Archaeologists expected the land surrounding Province House in downtown Halifax to be fertile ground for finding artifacts, but they never expected to uncover an underground stone vault roughly the size of a living room...

Here is that link.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-scotia/province-house-grounds-artefacts-archaeologists-dig-archaeology-1.5026834

I seldom look at the comments, but figured there would be some relating this to the Oak Island show - and there were, including one that pointed out that this is very close to where they went to look for a stone they wanted to find.

---

This morning I took out my detector for a little while.  I only found clad, but I was reminded how important it is to spend time with your detector.  My pinpointing and target ID skills were a little rusty.  That is also one disadvantage of using different detectors.  It always take me a little while to make the transition.  I don't have trouble using the second detector, but I'm not quite as sharp.  There are a lot of subtle differences between detectors that you might not even notice unless you really focus on it.

--

The surf is supposed to be around two to four feet today and a little less tomorrow.


Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

1/23/19 Report - Current Beach Conditions and Development.

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

John Brooks Beach Tuesday Afternoon.

This is the kind of weather the snow birds come for, but it isn't exactly what detectorists hope for.

This worked about the same way as several other fronts that came through in recent months.  They're quick.  You get a north wind for a day or two and some small cuts, but then the wind shifts and it fails to develop any more.

As you can see, there were some cuts at John Brooks beach, but they were two feet at most.  The sand was mushy.

Detectorist at John Brooks Tuesday Afternoon.

This nice fellow was learning to use his new detector and quickly picked up a couple of coins in the small shell line.

The high tide didn't get as high on the beach as I expected.

Waves At John Brooks Yesterday Afternoon.

The waves were hitting the beach straight on when I was there.

Looking North From Frederick Douglas Beach.

The erosion at Frederick Douglas was less than that at John Brooks.  The sand was a little more firm though.

L

Looking South From Frederick Douglas Beach Tuesday Afternoon.

I then moved south a little to see how those beaches were doing.

Blind Creek Beach Tuesday Afternoon.

Blind Creek had been one of the better looking beaches in the area, but not today.  At least the wind kept the nudie birds covered.

Looking North from Blind Creek.

Blind Creek has become a busy beach.  Both nudist and tourist seem to like it.  Tuesday it didn't look much good at all.

I also looked at Fort Pierce South Jetty Park.  Evidently I forgot to take photos.  It didn't look half bad.  There were some fresh cuts, but they weren't as big as they sometimes are at that beach.

---

Wednesday the surf is expected to be around four to six feet.  The tides remain big, but the wind will be more southerly.  I'm not expecting much, but we'll see.

On my beach conditions rating scale I would consider this a two on my five point scale.  That means its transitional, but, like I said, I'm not expecting much more.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

12/27/18 Report - Some Treasure Coast Beaches Lightly Cut And Higher Surf Coming. Curse of Oak Island TV Show Comments By Viewers.

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

John Brooks Beach Thursday Morning.

I checked some beaches this morning.  John Brooks showed some small cuts, which evidently happened last night.

John Brooks Beach Thursday Morning.

Blind Creek had been nicely eroded some time in the not too distant past.  Unfortunately I missed that.  Today was too late.  

Blind Creek Beach Thursday Morning.

Fort Pierce South Jetty was mostly poor with the exception of a short area to the north that looked better.

Fort Pierce South Jetty Beach Thursday Morning.

I'm not expecting much more improvement in beach conditions despite the larger surf that is predicted.  The wind will be shifting more to the south.

---

I stumbled on some fun and interesting comments concerning the Oak Island TV show on reddit.  Here is one that echoes much of what I've said.

Curse of Oak Island has shown us a definite pattern.

Allow 'Metal Detection Expert' Gary Drayton find an interesting item or two. Last year, for example, the items included the brooch and the Tanit cross. This year it is another brooch and the Roman pilum.

The pattern:

-- Have Metal Detection Expert Gary Drayton immediately announce his assumption as to what the item is, what it consists of, and its age.

-- Call Rick.

-- Salivate over it in the War Room.

-- Hire an "expert" to say exactly what they want them to say.

-- Squeeze two or three episodes (or maybe more) out of it.

-- Include a photo of it in the show's intro as if it is some great discovery.

But the biggest thing... is it gets us arguing back and forth about the actual nature of the item and takes our focus off what we should really be looking at... the hunt for treasure!

As Dan Blankenship said in last Season's finale', as the Team sat around the Table of Pathetic, "These are just surface finds! They're leading you no closer to finding out if there's treasure on Oak Island!"

(Of course, this quote was bastardized, taken completely out of context, and used in promos for the finale', as producers clipped it to show Dan exclaiming: "... There's treasure on Oak Island!") (but I digress)

Example: They say it's Roman, they hire an "expert" to say it's Roman, and it forever becomes "Roman". Meanwhile, we do more research than the "Oak Island Team" or any UFO writer has done, and we can just about prove it isn't what the "expert" says it is.

Another classic example of this is a couple of Seasons ago when a rather obvious railroad spike was confidently pronounced by "Dr" Lori, to be a "decking nail from the Spanish Galleon". (Which just coincidentally (wink, wink) matched up with the outlandish theory of a Spanish Galleon being purposely sunk between the "two" Oak Islands, followed by the "two" islands being merged into one.)

Regardless, whether this new item is actually a pilum, a crossbow bolt, a frog gig, a property marker, etc, etc.... IT DOESN'T REALLY MATTER!

Even if we assume it is a Roman pilum... BIG DEAL! It was found near the shore at Lot 26. Is that leading them to buried treasure in the Money Pit area (or anywhere else, for that matter)?

Will excavation at Smith's Cove lead them closer to buried treasure?

Will searching through spoils lead them closer to buried treasure?

Don't get caught up in all the bull. Don't get hooked by a fishing hook which "looks like it was used to haul large chests on ships".

Here is the link.

https://www.reddit.com/r/OakIsland/comments/a41qo2/roman_pilum_or_not_dont_get_hooked/

There are some other humorous ones.

Could it be that the possible Crossbow Bolt found at Smiths Cove is a weapon of Ancient Roman origin? Or, perhaps even more intriguing, could it be that it is, in reality, the rusted shank of a 19th Century Hand Drill Bit like those below? Could the Antiquities Expert be a total hack? STAY TUNED! (i.redd.it)

submitted 22 days ago by Bill0Rights

Here is that link.

https://www.reddit.com/r/OakIsland/comments/a39j2h/could_it_be_that_the_possible_crossbow_bolt_found/

I had some readers that crossbow bolt was actually something else.  It sure didn't look like the examples I saw.

Seems like the "experts" don't have a lot of credibility with the viewers and for many the show is becoming a not too entertaining comedy.  There are many posts and comments about the show out there.  It does get viewers, but many are unimpressed by their misspent viewing time.

Here are a couple more to read.

https://www.reddit.com/r/OakIsland/comments/a1cep6/what_exactly_did_jack_and_gary_unearth/

https://www.andywhiteanthropology.com/blog/category/oak-island

---

Source: MagicSeaWeed.com.

It looks like the surf will not be quite as high as expected earlier, but worse yet, the winds won't be favorable.

Happy hunting,
Treasureguide@comcast.net