My Beach Story, Buzzard's Pay, and the Wrong Pieces of 8's
well hit the jersey shore last week and hunted the beach for a change. The weather was about perfect for this time of year until friday when it started to get nasty due to Hurricane Noel's high winds. The sands were being shifted
and dumped on shore most of week. I really had "8" in the back of my mind, as in Piece of Eight.
Had quite a few dismal hunts with some objects being dug at 1.5 feet below sand.
At one area found a 1946 wheatie which puzzled me because it didn't look like
it had been on the beach for as long as it must have been. Also found a "Fantasy Island' copper token just larger than a quarter, and this was a perfect summary of all my hunts last week. *L*
I did find two pieces of "8" but they were lead sinkers (8 oz.) and both of these suckers were at least 1.5 feet under the sand. You really have to admire the guys hunting beaches all the time because they are digging quarters at a foot or more. And once you experience the quick-sand hole 'as I call them' in the wet sand area, you really have an idea what it must be like to attempt "in the water" retrieval methods. What happens in some wet sands at low tide is this - you'll dig a target that's 8" deep and once you get down to water level (maybe 6") the hole just starts filling with a wet sand and keeps caving in on you. And that's not even in the water!
Did find a rubber bass lure which I gave to a die-hard bass fisherman. And then
there was the banana flavored condom wrapper - say what? The things you learn about at the beach! *L*
Did meet two beach hunters who obviously had cleaned up the prime areas
that I was hunting. They were locals and hit certain areas all the time. The one
guy told me about his diamond ring finds etc. and disappeared into the sunset.
The other guy was more friendly and had hunted for 35 years in that area. He
hunted the beach like the wind and covered more ground than I've ever seen
anyone with a detector. He did give me some area tips and has long been a
member of the Piece of Eight club.
He found a 42K Rolex watch and thought it was fake because it had diamonds
all around the face of the watch. He took to a jeweler. Jeweler removed the back
plate to reveal name and serial number registered to owner. He did a lookup
in Rolex database and found owner. Jeweler would not give finder the watch back and said once entered in Rolex database - he must return to owner under Rolex insurance program. He took finder's name and address because Rolex pays out a reward for returned watches. I think he got a check for $2500.00. This was an interesting story to say the least.
On my final full day before leaving, just by fate and my apparent luck at running into the most unlikely situations - I ran into a TH'er who had connections that spanned all the way to Mel Fisher back in the day. We hit it right off the bat. After talking about our fav. subject at length, they showed me some of their finds and actually agreed to sell me one of their Pieces of Eight (they only had 3 or 4). Meeting this person made my day and my whole week! Some people are just wonderful - this was one of them!
And that's my Piece of Eight story - thanks for looking...
p.s. the first two TH'ers only told me their first names. Sounds familiar huh? *L*
Don't ask for the third TH'er's name because that's not for public domain.
well hit the jersey shore last week and hunted the beach for a change. The weather was about perfect for this time of year until friday when it started to get nasty due to Hurricane Noel's high winds. The sands were being shifted
and dumped on shore most of week. I really had "8" in the back of my mind, as in Piece of Eight.
Had quite a few dismal hunts with some objects being dug at 1.5 feet below sand.
At one area found a 1946 wheatie which puzzled me because it didn't look like
it had been on the beach for as long as it must have been. Also found a "Fantasy Island' copper token just larger than a quarter, and this was a perfect summary of all my hunts last week. *L*
I did find two pieces of "8" but they were lead sinkers (8 oz.) and both of these suckers were at least 1.5 feet under the sand. You really have to admire the guys hunting beaches all the time because they are digging quarters at a foot or more. And once you experience the quick-sand hole 'as I call them' in the wet sand area, you really have an idea what it must be like to attempt "in the water" retrieval methods. What happens in some wet sands at low tide is this - you'll dig a target that's 8" deep and once you get down to water level (maybe 6") the hole just starts filling with a wet sand and keeps caving in on you. And that's not even in the water!
Did find a rubber bass lure which I gave to a die-hard bass fisherman. And then
there was the banana flavored condom wrapper - say what? The things you learn about at the beach! *L*
Did meet two beach hunters who obviously had cleaned up the prime areas
that I was hunting. They were locals and hit certain areas all the time. The one
guy told me about his diamond ring finds etc. and disappeared into the sunset.
The other guy was more friendly and had hunted for 35 years in that area. He
hunted the beach like the wind and covered more ground than I've ever seen
anyone with a detector. He did give me some area tips and has long been a
member of the Piece of Eight club.
He found a 42K Rolex watch and thought it was fake because it had diamonds
all around the face of the watch. He took to a jeweler. Jeweler removed the back
plate to reveal name and serial number registered to owner. He did a lookup
in Rolex database and found owner. Jeweler would not give finder the watch back and said once entered in Rolex database - he must return to owner under Rolex insurance program. He took finder's name and address because Rolex pays out a reward for returned watches. I think he got a check for $2500.00. This was an interesting story to say the least.
On my final full day before leaving, just by fate and my apparent luck at running into the most unlikely situations - I ran into a TH'er who had connections that spanned all the way to Mel Fisher back in the day. We hit it right off the bat. After talking about our fav. subject at length, they showed me some of their finds and actually agreed to sell me one of their Pieces of Eight (they only had 3 or 4). Meeting this person made my day and my whole week! Some people are just wonderful - this was one of them!
And that's my Piece of Eight story - thanks for looking...
p.s. the first two TH'ers only told me their first names. Sounds familiar huh? *L*
Don't ask for the third TH'er's name because that's not for public domain.
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