Written by the Treasureguide for the exclusive use of treasurebeachesreport.blogspot.com.
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| Treasure Coast Reale Found Back in the 1980s Photo submitted by JamminJack. |
JamminJack sent me some of his memories of events that took place about a week, as he recalls, after the Thanksgiving Storm of 84. He said, "... I think it was the following week. Most of A1A was closed before, during, and after the major part of the storm. Many may remember a lot of A1A was washed out, but where there was a will there was a way. I have some images of surfers during that month, and following month. Still looking for shots of the coastline, etc. I also remember a lot of the known restaurants were washed out underneath. I think both Chucks and Red Tail were damaged."
I had only been out of the service a short while, and was staying at my grandmother's in Ft. Pierce. The surf was choppy that day, so decided to head up to Sebastian Inlet hoping it would be more rideable. Surf was huge along A1A, and you could see where parts of the road was getting hit by surf.
That particular day was unrideable on the north side of Sebastian Inlet. The surf on the Southside of Sebastian Inlet was breaking and appeared to be rideable waves.
I paddled out, and actually caught a wave, but was not comfortable. This spot was nicknamed, "Monster Hole" because of the huge sharks in this area.
As I was heading through the dunes to my car, which was parked on A1A, I was stopped by a few people asking me how was it. I told them was nerve wrecking because that spot was known for huge sharks.
One of them told me they dove in that area, and was called the Pine Wreck. (It was named for the Australian Pines which were flag shaped from the onshore wind.) It turned out to be Bob Weller, and his crew.
I was invited back to the Cabin which was owned by a friend of his. They were amazed who my grandmother was, and her connection to the Real 8 group.
I still had the detector that Kip and my grandmother bought me at the coin shop in the Ft. Pierce Hotel in the late 60s. (I always took it with me if the surf was not good.)
I used to detect behind the Red Tail Restaurant because of the stories of shipwreck coins found (I also worked there later on.) and the beach in front of the Bryn Mawr campground. Red Tail foundation is still there (near Avalon Park), and Bryn Mawr is a 55+ mobile home park.
I had the opportunity to metal detect some of the cuts, and few of the cuts that many did not know about.
One of the cuts was near Chuck's restaurant north of Bon Steel. There where a lot of reales found by beachcombers and detectors.
Another one was near the Green Cabin Wreck where the campsite connected to that wreck opened up. It is now Disney Resort at Wabasso Beach.
The largest cut that I knew of was south of the old state marker "A." This is now in the area where the cabanas are located south of Turtle Trail.
John Brandon found some of his first gold escudos at this cut. If I remember, he and his wife were celebrating either their wedding or honeymoon, and were staying at John's Island. (I will be glad to be corrected if I got this info wrong. Was a long time, ago.)
I cannot remember how many days this lasted, but I was fortunate to have been part of it, and to have met a new friend, Bob Weller.
Soon after, I moved back to Puerto Rico until Hurricane Hugo hit the island in 1989. When I came back to Florida, I met more salvagers; Jon Wilson, Clyde, Steve Shouppe, Lazzeri, Harold Holden, etc.
I was invited on many of the boats and given duties of tagging objects as they were retrieved.
It was educating, but hard work. Nothing came easy. Several times gear was stolen, and confrontations over who had rights to certain spots often occurred.
Even though I had been involved with the stories, people, and adventures since childhood, I
wondered if I would had kept pursuing interest in 1715 Fleet if I never met Bob Weller.
36 years later and still interested!
Jammin Jack
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| Surfers Tuesday Morning On The Treasure Coast. |
The swells were building up three or four feet before crashing on the front beach and pushing rocks and shells up the hill. I tried to get a photo of that, but my timing wasn't good.
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There are two main ways that cuts are formed on the beach. The main requirement is that the water returning down the slope has to maintain enough speed to carry the sand with it rather than slowly stopping and dropping the sand.
One way that can happen is for the beach to get steep enough that the water rushes back quickly. The period between waves must also allow the water to return before the return water is stopped by another incoming wave.
The other way involves the angled slicing waves that I've described before. Rather than going directly up the beach and returning back down the same way, the water hits at an angle and slices along the front of the cut. When the angle is great enough the water does not slow much before returning and therefore carries a lot of sand with it.
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| Source: nhc.noaa.gov |
There is a lot to watch out there. Be alert and be prepared.
It looks like the first system will stay south of us.
The second system is headed more in our direction, but at this time looks like it might fizzle out before getting here.
We'll have to keep watching that one though.
Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net