Written by the TreasureGuide for the exclusive use of the Treasure Beaches Report.
Turtle Trail Monday Afternoon.
Photo by DJ.
The Treasure Coast beaches didn't change much since yesterday morning. I visited some of the main 1715 Fleet beaches yesterday morning and some yesterday afternoon and some again this morning (Tuesday). None had cuts yesterday and none had cuts today. The waves were still hitting from the same direction, and the beaches hadn't changed. All of the high surf didn't do much for us. As I've often said, it takes more than big waves.
Above you can see a photo of Turtle Trail taken Monday afternoon. The water hit the bottom of the dunes, but it was almost entirely renourishment sand that was exposed. More on that some other time.
JamminJack sent these beach cam images from the Sebastian Inlet beach cam. As you can see below, more high water, but no cuts.
Sebastian Inlet Beach Cam Images
Submitted by JamminJack.
You might be wondering why no erosion with all the water. First, the angles weren't good. We had northeast winds but the swells were hitting the beaches directly at a 90 degree angle (straight on).
I often show MagicSeaWeed predictions, but here is something from MagicSeaWeed that I usually don't show. It will help explain. You'll see it left on the MagicSeaWeed surf prediction page just to the left of the tide data.
Source: MagicSeaWeed.com.
It shows an ENE wind and swell. But even though the wind and surf is coming from a bit of an angle it is hitting the beach straight on because the beach does nor run exactly north to south. It slants so that the ENE wind is hitting it at a 90 degree angle.
Another thing is that the waves will be affected by other things. They will wrap around objects and when they encounter shallow water.
A couple days ago (9/20) I posted this Ventusky.com image showing the wave predictions.
Notice that the waves closest to Florida (little black curved lines just off the coast) are coming directly at the coastline, which is what happened. The wind was coming more from the north, but the waves were not so much from the north.
What I saw on the beaches the past couple of days was the waves breaking way out in front of the beach and losing most of their energy and then pushing the stirred-up sand in and onto the slope of the beach. There is a lot of sand out in front of the beach, which is where a lot of the renourishment sand went. That is what was keeping most of the wave energy from hitting the beach.
Did you notice there was not hardly a single seashell to be seen on any of the beaches? It was just the suspended sand being pushed up onto the beach.
Here is a short video clip showing that.
It was the same on the Vero area wreck beaches as John Brooks and Frederick Douglass. There was a lot of sand in front of the beach and the waves were breaking out in front and then the swash was pushing sand in.
I won't show many more photos today because the beaches I saw looked about the same today as yesterday. However, here is one beach I didn't visit. DJ sent this photo of Rio Mar as it looked Monday morning. It probably didn't change much, if it is like the beaches I saw today.
Photo by DJ.
There is more we can learn form the past couple of days. I'll get into some of that tomorrow.
Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net.
