4/17/20 Report - Big News! Some Florida Beaches Opening This Evening. Using Metal Detecing Conductivity Numbers. Kirlian Photography.

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

Beach.

This is a beach.  I thought I'd post a picture of a beach in case you forgot what one looks like.  Those were the good old days.  You never know what you've got til its gone (Joni Mitchelle song).  It isn't a new beach photo, just reminiscing.

Just after I posted this photo, I saw the mayor of Jacksonville on TV saying that he was opening beaches at 5 PM Friday.  He said he wanted people to have more space to distance and the ability to get some exercise.  He asked people to continue observing social distancing and safe behavior.

6:15 PM Update: Happy beachgoers at Jacksonville beach are delighted to have their toes in the sand once again.

In St. Lucie and Martin County today, the beach accesses were still gated or barricaded.  The boat ramps are open, and there are good numbers of people out along the river.

There is word that DeSantis will start opening Florida beaches this evening.  I don't know if that is a sure thing or how many will open.

It seems there are people starting to petition for the beaches being opened.

I did a little mucking around in a real trashy area with the Equinox, and was using the conductivity numbers to pick through a small range of items.  They were fairly high conductive items of fairly small size.  A lot of them were copper electrical components, like the ones shown below.  I was able to avoid tons of aluminum and iron.

I did pick up a copper penny that was corroded down to about half its original weight.

The conductivity numbers can be used to pickup a fairly narrow range of items, which can be helpful.

I'm also trying to get my homemade Kirlian photography kit setup so I can get some good pictures of the coronas (not the bad type).

I did a post about that before.  Here is the setup installed in an old brief case.

Polaroid film can be used to capture the aura of objects, but I'm going to attempt to do it digitally now.

See https://treasurebeachesreport.blogspot.com/search?q=Kirlian for more about that.

I think I might be able to correlate the aura or discharge pattern with what detectorists refer to the item's halo effect.

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A lot of people read and contribute to this blog, including some of the very top salvage people to people who are thinking about swinging their detector for the first time.  I've finds showed finds from both ends of the continuum.  You might be surprised by who they are and their accomplishments.

Different types of people visit this blog and for different reasons.  Some only want to see what has been found and want to find more themselves.  But there are some, that come for other reasons.

One person, who was a salvage diver on one of the biggest and most important 1715 Fleet finds of all time told me he doesn't visit the blog to learn about metal detecting.  He said he reads the blog to learn more about living.

Another person, an author, told me how she is often inspired spiritually by the blog.

Unlike the fine authors who acknowledge this blog when they use it as a source, there is one that comes here to get ideas for his books but never acknowledges the source.

So its a very mixed bag, probably much more than you could imagine, and although I never hear from some who read this blog, I do hear from a lot of them.

Just this morning I heard from a practicing MD who has contributed to some of my featured posts in the past, and he said he found his first Barber Half this year, and found two half dollars in the same day for the first time.  Congratulations on the Barber half and double half day!

If you are easily triggered you might want to cover your eyes for the rest of this sentence, but he also lamented how people are voluntarily giving up their freedoms.  You probably won't hear me talk about that topic much in the future since it seems that some of the authorities had a change of heart and are ready to let things begin to open up before long.

The readers of this blog are varied, as am I.  Professionally I started out as a college psychology instructor.  I moved on to psychophysiological research, which included among other things a research grant from the Heart Fund to develop a constant-cuff blood pressure feedback system like ones you see in the pharmacies these days.  As computers evolved, I moved from batch processing and using keypunch and punch cards for statistical analysis, into interactive computing ( using a teletype which had a delay of a second or more between each keypress and response ) and developed what I believe to be the first programmerless CAI authoring system, Next I went into consulting and training development for about ten years, which included consulting for a variety of large organizations, including airline companies, the Navy, Federal Express, Martin Marietta and a variety of other schools, non-profits and other companies.  Eventually I returned to academia and taught computer science and education before moving to the Treasure Coast.

Here is the point of that - I always, whether in computer science, education or consulting, or metal detecting, employed the same type of analysis  and problem-solving skills. I brought the very same principles to my metal detecting that I used in my career, which is one thing that makes my approach to metal detecting a little different.  I hope that helps you understand a little better where I am coming from.

It might seem to you that I am off-topic when I am illustrating the use of the same analytical and problem solving skills in other areas.  But one of the things that is important to me is illustrating thee same types of skills as applied to a variety of situations and problems.

I am considering making some changes, but they might not be big changes.   I'm not sure yet exactly what I am going to do differently yet.

It sounds like it might not be forever before we can go to the beach again.

Trivia question:  You might have heard that Battelle is developing technology to sterilize facemasks to they can be reused.  What put them on the map?  See answer below.

Good time to research and study.
TreasureGuide@comcast.net



Battelle developed the Xerox copy machine.

I did a little work with them (very little) back in the seventies, I think it was.

4/1/20 Report - What Is Open Or Closed.

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

The following is my understanding at the present time.

Governor DeSantis said he is not going to order all beaches closed (as of March 25).

DeSantis issued a "Safer at Home Order" beginning Saturday, which mandates staying at home 24/7, except for "essential businesses and individuals."  You may travel for essential activities and outdoor activities. No gatherings of more than ten people.

Dade, Broward and Palm beaches are closed.  Governor DeSantis closed all businesses in those hot spots. 

There was a suit against DeSantis to force him to close all beaches.  I don't know what happened with that, but most local areas closed their beaches anyhow. 

•  St. Lucie County beaches closed effective March 23 based upon failure of crowds to honor social distancing, according to TCPalm.

•  Indian River County beaches closed as of March 23.

• Martin County beaches closed as of March 22.

• Brevard County - some beaches closed. This one is a little more complicated.  Beaches in unincorporated areas are open (as of March 31).  Cocoa Beach, Satellite Beach, Indian Harbor Beach, Indialantic Beach, Melborne Beach are closed.

In most of those areas, beach accesses are closed, gated and patrolled by officers.

As of March 24, in Vero beach people can walk along JC Park boardwalk but they can't go to the shoreline.  They can use the park areas of public beach, such as the grassy areas.

People with private access, such as hotel guests, HOA and condominium residents and community association members can visit the beaches.

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Question: if you kick ten gathered people off a beach, are they just going to gather elsewhere?  Or do you ask them to separate or just shut the beach for everyone?


I consider my readers to be intelligent people who can read and independently think for themselves.


The surf will be building up to 6 to 9 feet by Sunday.


Do well,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

9/6/19 Report - Indian River County Says No To Tourism and Keeps Beaches Closed. Bad Hurricanes Not New. A Few Finds.

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

Vero Beach This Morning.

Indian River County Turns Away Tourists and Beach-Goers.  

If you came to Florida to visit the beaches, stay away from Indian River County.  The county beaches were closed.

Two were being guarded by the Sheriff's Office.  Marked cars were parked in front of the closed gates at both Turtle and Seagrape Trails the past few days.  I don't know why the extra expense to guard those two particular beaches was necessary.

The gates were closed this morning at Turtle Trail, Seagrape Trail, Wabasso, Treasure Shores, Golden Sands, Amber Sands, and probably others that I did not see.

At least a dozen cars were parked along the road by Treasure Shores this morning.  I noticed one older couple walking into the park.

Several detectorists were also parked along the road about half way between Wabasso and Seagrape Trail.  There is a path there that has been used by detectorists for decades.

You can get onto the beach at Vero (See photo above.).  One detectorist was busy there this morning. There was apparently no danger there.

The gates at Rio Mar were also open, but there were no parking spots open. 

Round Island park was also closed.

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Pablo M. Sent This Photo of a 9/4 Find From Turtle Trail.

Pablo M. sent this photo of a find from Turtle Trail.  I can't quite make it out.

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Dave sent this message and a photo of his recent finds from Walton Rocks.

Hello. Yesterday I started at south end Walton Rocks, up high in front of condos and found some hard pack cutting into dunes. Tide hitting as I left.  A lot of clad, lures,sinkers,1 piece silver ,old wood iron banding still attached. As always you are spot on when it comes to your posts., I appreciate all the hard work it takes. Look fwd to your blogs end of every day.   Dave.

Walton Rocks Finds.

Finds and photo by Dave.

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Dorian may not be as unique as some suggest.

One of the most fatal hurricanes in history hit West Palm Beach in 1928 as a category four, killing at least 3500 people when Lake Okeechobee overflowed.

While the 1928 storm was the most deadly, the most powerful storm hit on Labor Day of 1935

The other irony: while the Okeechobee storm was one of if not the deadliest in state history, the most powerful meteorologically was a storm that came as the strongest one in recorded U.S.  history on September 2, 1935 — Labor Day. Originally, it was projected to hit on the same date (until it slowed, coming in now, they say, early Wednesday, if at all; we’ll see soon…). No other storm had lower barometric pressure (892) nor greater wind speed (at one point sustained winds of 185, at least for a full minute). But now Doria is about that same strength. The Labor Day Hurricane’s storm surge was eighteen to twenty feet, badly damaging the Florida Keys and actually obliterating one of them, Islamorada. We once interviewed a survivor who lost virtually everyone in his large family and had to swim all night in the dark as a child.

“It’s devastating,” said Joy Jibrilu, director general of the Bahamas’ Ministry of Tourism and Aviation. “There has been huge damage to property and infrastructure. Luckily, no loss of life reported.”

With its maximum sustained winds of 185 mph (295 kph) and gusts up to 220 mph, Dorian tied the record for the most powerful Atlantic hurricane ever to come ashore, equaling the Labor Day hurricane of 1935, before the storms were named.

Source of quote: https://spiritdailyblog.com/commentary/remembering-two-storms

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Three deaths in Florida were attributed to injuries sustained during hurricane preparation.  I can only imagine how many other injuries there were.

I have some good emails on that subject that I'll probably post in the future.

I expect to have some more find photos to share before long.

That is all for now.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

9/1/19 Report - Beach Closings and Beach Conditions, Including Some Early Erosion.

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

Fort Pierce South Inlet Park Afternoon 8/31.

I took a look at some of the South Hutchinson Island beaches Saturday afternoon.

The gates at John Brooks and Frederick Douglass beaches were closed when I was there, which was around 3 or 4 PM.  I could not see any reason why they were closed, especially considering that you could visit the other neighboring beaches.

I also saw barricades on the west side of the causeway, but they were on the side of the road instead of blocking the causeway.  It seemed they either planned to block the causeway and decided not to, or were getting ready to.

Fort Pierce South Inlet Beach 8/31 Around 3 or 4 PM.

There was already some erosion at some locations, as you can see from the following photos.

South Hutchinson Island 8/31 Afternoon.

South Hutchinson Island Erosion 8/31 Afternoon.

North of John Brooks 8/31 Afternoon.

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DJ drove from Sebastian to Vero on a little earlier in the day and found all of the Indian River County beach accesses closed, including Wabasso.  He did walk over the dunes north of McClarty and took the photos below.  He said he saw two other detectorists.

North of McLarty Afternoon 8/31

Photo by DJ

Beach North of McLarty on 8/31

Photo by DJ

North of McLarty on 8/31.

Photo by DJ.

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The surf is supposed to begin building on Sunday.

It seems that all of the Vero and Indian River County beaches were closed except for the beaches between McLarty and the Sebastian Inlet.

On South Hutchinson Island the gates were closed at John Brooks and Frederick Douglass beaches, and possibly other beaches. You could however visit some of the other beaches.

There was some erosion at a few spots. I could see that the high tide had been high on the beach.

I'm posting this early, but I had a lot of material ready.Please let me know of any other beach closings or openings.  Thanks in advance.

Source: MagicSeaWeed.com.

Happy hunting,

TreasureGuide@comcast.net

8/31/19 Report Addendum. Vero and Indian River County Beaches Closing at 5 PM Today.

It looks like many beaches are going to be closing at 5 PM today.  I received Instagram notice from Alberto yesterday.

Thanks to Alberto S. for this notice.

If you have any updates on this or any other beach closings, please let me know.  Thanks in advance.


And thanks to all others who have sent emails lately.  I haven't had much time to respond, but your emails and thoughts are appreciated.

12/10/17 Report - Ole Timer Talk: 10 Different Gold Items One Short Hunt.

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

I've posted a few Ole Timer Talk pieces in this blog, but haven't told any of my experiences that way.
A few came to mind last night.  I've referred to parts of those experiences to illustrate some things I wanted to explain, but I haven't described them as completely as I could.

The experience I'm going to talk about today happened on an otherwise normal day about thirty years ago, so I'm sad to say that I forgot a lot about it.  That is mostly why I haven't told it this way.  Fortunately I have some written records to refresh my memory and help me get the most important parts right.

My records were scribbled in cursive with a lead pencil.  The paper is now old yellow crinkled tablet paper.  The entries are labeled with the month and day, but not the year.  That was a big mistake that didn't seem like it would be a problem at the time.

One sunny day near low tide in early February I arrived at a beach that I detected frequently back in those days.  I don't recall any, people on the beach, which is kind of strange for a nice day down south, so I would guess it was early morning.  The parking fee there was something like four dollars, so people mostly parked elsewhere if they could.  There were no other detectorists there.  That I know for sure.

The surf must have been calm.  I don't remember it being an issue at all.

I was in South Florida and was targeting modern jewelry in those days.  I had a few years of detecting under my belt, but was not much more than what I would consider to be a beginner.  I was using a Fisher Aquanaut 1280 at that time, I think.  Maybe I had started using a modified Nautilus.  I'm not sure about that.

When I arrived at the beach, I noticed a good bit of erosion.  It wasn't what you usually see.  The erosion was right at the front of the beach.  There was no slope between the cut and the water.  The cut was right at the waters edge.  The front of the beach had been cut back and the sand spread out in the shallow water.  Very often there is a cut farther back on the beach and then a slope down to the waterline.  In this case the cut fell off into the water.  It was more like the beach had been moved back a few feet.

Red angular line shows surface after erosion.
Grey line shows target distribution.

I stepped over the cliff and into the very shallow water.  It was only up to my ankles or lower leg.  I mostly hunted in shallow water back then.  I moved my coil.  Bingo.  Good target on the first swing.  I dug it up.  Blackened coin.  Without moving on, I took another swing,  Bingo again.  Another blackened coin.  There were targets everywhere.  I'd say every square foot had a target.  In the next four hours of the hunt, I picked up twenty dollars in quarters alone.  I remember telling somebody (Kevin Reilly) that, which is why I remember that number.  But it wasn't only coins.

The targets were not deep - at least not the ones I was digging.  I don't remember digging any big holes.  I didn't get around to that.  There were so many targets that I never got to the deeper ones that day, if there were any.  

I don't know what the total face value of the blackened coins was that day, because  I only recorded the nice jewelry finds and the general location.

Below is what my notes show for that day.  The notes are pretty much as they are written, although they were scribbled and not real easy to decipher.  Maybe that was intentional. 

2/4 -  at North picnic area below new play equipment - blue star sapphire ring, 2 gold ear rings,"SC" signet ring, and 10k band in water  Also silver double heart ring.

2/4 - middle picnic area just south of walkover -  14 k black pearl and diamond ring, also silver and turquoise ring.  In water.

2/4 - south picnic area by life guard station by turtle cage in water - silver love knot ring, silver and turquoise ring, gold religious charm, 2 class rings, 1 14k band.

What I recorded for that four hour hunt was 10 pieces of gold jewelry.

I left after about four hours.  I don't know why I left (maybe I had to do something), but I'm sure I dug less than 20 percent of the available targets in the area that day.  I was going to return the next day, and I did.  I have a couple entries for 2/5.  

I didn't record how many coins I found.  When I first started metal detecting, I recorded the number of each denomination of coin that I found.  From those records I knew when my Aquanaut paid for itself in clad coins, which it did in one year.  It cost me something over $600 for the detector, if I correctly recall, and I knew when I found enough change to cover the cost of that detector.

If I encountered the same situation today, I would do some things differently.  First of all I would try to hunt as long as it took to clean the area of all targets.  If for some reason I couldn't do that, I would  try to cherry pick the gold.  At the time I didn't have the skill to do that very well.   I'm sure the second approach would have meant missing some gold because the target density was so high.  You'll find more than you think after you clean out a lot of the louder targets, so the best practice would have been to spend the time to clean it all out properly even if it took more than one day.  Problem with that is that you never know when conditions will suddenly change and it all disappears.

As an aside, the only problem I ever had with the 1280 was, after I first got it, I kept breaking the plastic things that the upper forearm fit into.  They finally sent me metal ones to replace the plastic ones.  It was very reliable.  Fisher did a tune-up on it for me once.  I sold that detector after a few years and got nearly the purchase price for it.

I'm glad I have my records for that hunt.  They helped refresh my memory so I could tell the story.  It was a long time ago but a time to remember.

It s funny how some details stick so vividly in memory while other fade.

The second day I don't remember as well and my records do not seem to be as complete, but I do have entries showing an 18k charm, a crucifix with gold chain, a 10K band, a Jesus and Mary medallion, and a 14k nugget band.  I don't know what other coins or what else was found.

The one big thing I remember about the second day, and I remember it very clearly, is the end.  As I walked back to the car I looked up and noticed a weather front coming in.  A thick layer of clouds was arriving from the north.

The next day I returned to the same spot, and quickly found that it was all over.  No more targets at all.   It opened up suddenly and closed just as suddenly.  That is the way it goes, and why it is so important to make hay when the sun shines.

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The cold front definitely arrived to the Treasure Coast.  The wind has been out of the west and north. We have some nice cold air.  The surf is small.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net