Thursday, September 24, 2009

Ring Daddy #29

A couple of days ago I found an Iron Cross.



This is a German metal given for bravery. I have no idea if it is real...I hardly think it could be, but I don't see copy on it anywhere.
Yesterday, I slogged out to the beach with very little hope of finding anything. I was not in a good frame of mind for treasure hunting. It has been almost three weeks again since I found my last gold ring and I hunt almost every day, sometimes twice a day depending upon when low tide is. My enthusiasm has been crushed by the renourishment at MB. And the wind, oh the wind…there is none. I checked the forecast, the ten day outlook, for wind and the windiest day is 11 mph. A good bean fart has registered at 14 mph.
When I arrived a fair size crowd was at the waters edge watching the melee in the surf; an acre of baitfish, hundreds of small fish flipping, leaping into the air hoping to survive another few seconds while the bluefish tore into the school. And then a shark, three or four foot long, cleared the water and splashed down into the frenzy. Whoa! What a show!
I put the headphones on and went to work, enjoying the late summer heat that has lingered into the first days of fall. Amazing that it can be upper 80’s and three months from now it will be lower 30’s and snot flying out of the sky. I hate winter.
I don’t really know why I have been going out at low tide lately. The beach is hugely humped up at the low tide line and I rarely find anything there. For the past few weeks almost all my finds are from the upper third of the beach. I always wander down on the lower beach to make sure nothing has changed and it has not, a few pennies and pull tabs.
It takes me ten or fifteen minutes to find my first pull tab. Not good.
I look up and down the beach trying to read the beach. It all looks the same, nothing to give me hope. I slog on. And on.
I pick up a few coins along the same line that I have been hunting for weeks, on and on I go, bouncing like a pinball, zig zagging the upper beach, a coin here, a pull tab there.
Halfway back to the VW I get a nice foil sound. It is less noisy than a ketchup packet, close to a wadded up gum wrapper…but it sounds more wholesome, like the girl next door with the big blue eyes. Before I dig this signal I am already smiling. I could be wrong but I am pretty sure it is a thin banded gold ring. Out comes the sand. I kick the sand around and spot the gold ring. Bingo!

It looks as though it is part of a set with the thin curved band. Who cares!! It’s the first gold I’ve seen in ages. The diamond is a wannabe, cz.
Here is the mess from yesterday. $1.91 in change.
5:30 this morning I was out again. I headed north of where I hunted yesterday. The beach was empty and the darkened sky held a few stars and one planet showing in the cirrus clouds. I see wet beach to the north but I have done better to the south…so I go south. South was the wrong decision. I spend the first hour getting a few coins on the upper one third and then finally head north. I should have listened to myself and done the wet sand first. This part of the beach is not humped up; more flat with a slight incline and there are targets all the way to the encroaching low tide line. The sky is beginning to lighten and there are mountain clouds the color of dried blood at the horizon. A few folks with cameras have come to see the dawn. Three men are casting their lines into the surf. I glance to the east and a cloud has taken on the look of a B-17 Flying Fortress complete with props. A shrimp boat in the distance with its arms spread and the rigging give the impression of a pirate ship in the half light. It turns north to intercept the rising sun. I don’t see any gulls following the ship, not a good sign for a shrimp boat. Far to sea, dark large birds, ten perhaps, pelicans perhaps, are loosely flying as a flock. Pelicans are usually more organized.
The last two planets are gone, lost in the bluing sky.
I dig a key and think about the tourists. They’ve lost their prescription glasses and keys on the beach. They have to hotwire the car and then drive home blind. I’m chuckling and digging and watching the dawn.
The shrimp boat becomes a major player for the photographers as it heads into the red sun inching over the sea.
Good Morning America.
Quite a few targets this morning but no gold. $4.74 in change in three hours. One Canadian dime that gave a horrible signal.

1 comment:

admin said...

Jim I would love to see you write about where you find the holes in the water that I read about from you. Are they in the water when the beach has a cut or are you doing something else to find the holes. I am a new hunter in Florida waters and trying to learn as much as possible. Enjoy you writing and finds.