9/17/17 Report - Around The Treasure Coast. Beach Closures. Now Its Hurricane Maria.

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

Wabasso This Sunday Morning.

I took a look at a few beaches this morning.  But before I get into that, here are some that were closed.

Turtle Trail and Seagrape Trail beach accesses were closed as of about 8 AM this morning.  I doubt there is any good reason for that, but have my suspicions.  It seemed a few people parked outside and walked in. 

Walton Rocks was closed this morning as of about 10 AM.  People were also parked outside this access.

Ambersands, Treasure Shores, Golden Sands, Wabasso Beach, Rio Mar, John Brooks, and Frederick Douglas were all open today.  

There were detectorists at Wabasso early this morning, like many other mornings.  

You can see Wabasso Beach in the photo above.  The water had been high enough to hit the base of the cliff.

Ambersands Beach This Morning (Sunday)

Frederick Douglas Beach This Morning (Sunday)

Frederick Douglas Beach changed overnight.  John Brooks stayed about the same as it was yesterday.

Same View of Frederick Douglas Yesterday (Saturday)

Here is what Frederick Douglas looked like yesterday.  To the south (shown in this view) it changed a good bit.  But to the north it looked very similar to how it looked yesterday.

Frederick Douglas to the North Yesterday

The dip shown in the photo above was still there today.

There were quite a few targets, but most of them I could not get to because they were deep and kept getting washed over.

Jose didn't turn out to be the big deal.  The water didn't have any angle to it this morning.  At least the sand got stirred up some.   I'm sure there were and will be a few cob finds, but I'd only give about a 2 rating overall for the Treasure Coast at this point.  I'll have a poll in a few days to try to see how much was found.  Sorry I wasn't able to keep on top of things better this time.  I had a lot of other things to do and just got my home internet working minutes ago.

---

Find by Travis B.

Find by Travis B.

This ring was found by Travis B. in the Vero area Saturday.

It might not be centuries old, but maybe decades.

This kind of thing at least tells you that some things with a little age have surfaced in the area.  A good sign.





---

Dan C. is now convinced that he has his answer to the identify of the "gold nugget" he found.  Here is what he said.

Please thank "Duane" for his reply regarding the gold.

I knew it wasn't a nugget from jewelry (or a shipwreck) since there was no "polishing", in fact the pic labeled "top view 1" when zoomed in, shows fine ridges and the grey embedded material that wouldn't melt in muriatic acid must have been carbon, ie; ashes.

Now I can rest assured this mystery is solved. It is indeed a sort of morbid find.

Years ago, I hunted in the water at Saipan where a large WWII battle took place.

On one invasion beach, I found a section of human skull, and many human bones, in the shallow water, so this will not be the first morbid find.

On a side note, my hunts resulted in finally returning a gold class ring to a Navy officer who lost it there, over 60 years ago. The ring was returned to the eldest son  and the widow of James Cooney, who both reside in New York. It felt a huge relief to finally locate them.

On the gold splash, I hit it with a polishing wheel, and it does indeed now shine like gold.

Thanks again,

Dan C.

Thanks for following up Dan.  It is good to know that the mystery was solved to your satisfaction. Thanks for letting us know.

Thanks to all who took the time to provide input.

---

It might not be over yet.

Source: nhc.noaa.com

Maria looks to be headed towards the Bahamas.

The surf is predicted to decrease a little, but it is still big enough to improve conditions if it hits at the right direction.  Then there is another bump in the surf predicted for about a week out.  I suppose that one is from Maria.

Surf Predictions
Source: MagicSeaWeed.com

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

9/13/17 Report - Irma Finds. Bridge Openings and Beach Accesses Closed. Some Beaches Cut.

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

Haul From One Low Tide.

Photo submitted by Captain Jonah Martinez

Holes Where Recoveries Made

Photo by Captain Martinez

I'm still struggling with a strange computer that won't pick up the photos from my cell phone, so this post isn't going to be as good as I hoped.

I took some beautiful beach photos this morning but you aren't going to see them until later.

The bridge to South Hutchinson Island was open this morning.  I assume that the bridge to North Hutchinson Island was also open.  However the John Brooks beach access was closed this morning.

Jonah told me that 510 was open.  He said they were hunting Sunday AM and then the beach starting filling again.

At John Brooks there was a substantial cut this morning from the condos and north of that, which ran down at least to Frederick Douglas.  It was about four feet high and pretty far back towards the dunes.  I would say at the John Brooks walkover the cut was back to about forty yards in front of the walkover.

In front of the cut. there was a lot of mushy built up sand.  There were a lot of nice shells.  It was a good day for shell collectors.

For beach metal detecting overall, I'd rate conditions as no better than a three on my five point scale.  I would not be surprised if it deteriorates until Jose sends us some good north winds.

The only beach I saw was John Brooks so I'm going on the basis of what I saw and the reports I received.  So far I'm very iffy on my rating.

If this computer was cooperating better, I would explain my rating scale again.

Too bad I couldn't post the pictures I took, but I'll get another look at the beaches sometime soon and hopefully be able to post more photos.

I don't really know why the John Brooks access was not open today.  I suspect more beach accesses will be open tomorrow, but can't say which ones will or won't.  Sometimes it is difficult to see any reason for some closures.

I got some reports from North Florida, and it seems they got some improved beach detecting conditions.  I know of one shipwreck under the beach up that way that yielded a variety of large spikes.

Someone asked me about the West Coast of Florida.  I'll try to address that, better in the future, but I'd bet treasure coins will be found in the Naples area where they have been found in the past.

I hope I get my computer going soon.  This one is driving me crazy.

I hope everybody is well.  I'll try again later today or tomorrow.

Be safe,

TreasureGuide@comcast.net

10/23/16 Report - Iron Finds. Poll Results. Parks and Beach Accesses Open and Closed.

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

Post-Matthew Iron Find

Iron finds are often very corroded and difficult to identify with precision.  Proper conservation is absolutely necessary if you want to keep them.  I've talked about that in the past and if you search through the blog you'll find excellent instructions on what must be done.

Another Matthew Iron Find.

Some iron finds just won't clean up.  Sometimes the iron will be completely gone and nothing will remain except an empty mold in the shape of the object.  Sometimes other items will be in the clump, so it is good to check.

When I first dug this one I thought it might be a grapeshot, but don't think so now.

---

The most recent blog poll has closed and the results are in (below).

If you detected since hurricane Matthew, what did you find?

Treasure coin(s) on the Treasure Coast	5 (9%)
Treasure coin(s) elsewhere	1 (1%)
Old shipwreck artifact(s) on the Treasure Coast	4 (7%)
Old shipwreck artifact(s) elsewhere	1 (1%)
Modern coins and items	27 (49%)
Nothing but junk	17 (30%)

As you can see, nearly ten percent of those that responded to the poll and had detected after Hurricane Matthew, found a treasure coin on the Treasure Coast.  That is an important number for me.  It is just right for what I rated as  level 2 detecting conditions for the Treasure Coast.  It is neither to high nor two low.  If it had been much higher I would hope that my rating would have been a three or more.  Of course that was undoubtedly helped along by the high number of people that were out detecting after the storm.

During a "1" rating I would expect almost nobody finding treasure coins, only an extremely rare exception.

You can also see that almost as many people found some type of shipwreck artifact on the Treasure Coast.  That could be almost anything from a spike to a cross or jewelry.

There were also some coins and artifacts reported from other places than the Treasure Coast, but not many.  The majority of those that read this blog are people that detect the Treasure Coast, so it is not surprising that that number is not higher.  

Nearly half of the respondents reported finding modern coins and items, and thirty percent reported finding nothing but junk.

The poll could have been constructed better, and I probably should have allowed multiple responses rather than a single response per person.  I don't take as much time as I should to construct these polls and always find something that I should have done differently.  Nonetheless, the results are still informative.  People did find treasure coins and shipwreck items, and I am very happy that my "2" beach detecting conditions rating seemed to be so accurate - neither too high nor too low.

Not only was it accurately predicted that cobs would be found, but the prediction of how many was also pretty good.

As I said before, Matthew was more like Sandy than Frances or Jeanne.  We got high water and some cobs, but not anything like the erosion and cuts of the other two storms.

Thanks much to all who responded and made this information available.

---


Darrell S. submitted the following report.

According to my sources here is the following for upcoming week.

Sebastian Inlet State Park on the west side of A1A are reopened.

McLarty Museum reopened.

North Jetty Sebastian Inlet still closed.

Sebastian Bridge was closed, and no update, but assume the entrance to the campground, which is reopen, should be accessible.

ALL Indian River County Parks are under close supervision. Some open, others closed.

Turtle Trail will be closed due to loss of vegetation.

This report is from County Park site posted on October 20th.

Sea Grape is closed for repairs.

Ambersand, Treasure Shore, and Golden Sand were closed but may be open now.

Recreation Department No. 772-567-8000.

Great info Darrel. Thanks much!

I don't know why loss of vegetation results in a beach closing. Most if not all of it was planted recently in renourishment sand and was therefore nothing that you would expect to last more than a few years anyhow.


http://www.foxnews.com/science/2016/10/21/investigator-claims-ufo-wreckage-is-evidence-aliens-visited-earth-250000-years-ago.html