My last 3 hunts have been a study in a degrading hunting ground.
Yesterday morning I caught the low tide around 9:30 and it was target city; after 3 hours I had landed 4 gold and 3 silver.
10k men's comfort fit gold band
10k ladies ring with 1 carat of diamond bagettes
14k ladies' thin gold band
18k gold hoop earring
.925 St. Christopher medallion with silver chain
.925 Celtic Cross with silver chain
.925 Heavy Men's Bracelet with silver inlay
junker 18k HGE ring (too bad - so sad)
HGE (gold plated junk) 'ANDRE' bracelet with the inscription "I Love You, Claudia" (apparently not enough to buy a real gold bracelet)
Conditions were excellent and the winds were at their lowest level in many weeks.
I came back around 5pm yesterday, to see if I had missed anything - what a difference a few hours makes. The wind had shifted and picked up considerably, the sand had been pushed up onto the beach at least several feet deep. The prominent cut in the beach from this morning was vitually gone and the rip tides were already running strong. A few passes in the shallows, getting pounded by heavy surf and I had enough; so I retreated to the much calmer bathing area at the western end of the beach.
I skirted around for a while and found very little, until I hit an area of the bathing area that is normally covered with heavy sand but that sand had been stripped away by the high surf. Deep down inside a crack between the underlying bedrock of the bathing area I found two .52 ? caliber lead slugs and a 9k ladie's ring with a jet heart in the center. Only the English allow gold jewellery to be made in such a low carat, so I know it is an English ring.
(upon cleaning, part of the ring broke away because the base metals [2/3 of this ring] had leached out of it over the years - I'll put this one in the junk bin for the gold refinery)
Today I caught the low tide for 3 hours, in the hope that the surf had quieted down a bit from yesterday aftenoon. It was not to be, the surf was still crashing in and even though I tried to go deep, it is clear that the sands have shifted greatly overnight. Very few targets, only 1 junker ring with a cat' face full of rhinestones. Odds are, my Princess will love it as she appreciates kitsch in jewellery. Twice I was grabbed by riptides and had to fight my way to safety. I was fortunate as I made it to firm ground safely on both ocassions, the tourist with the huge potbelly got swept out past the rocks when he decided to pose for a pic. His wife , who was taking the pic, was shocked when a rogue wave knocked him down into the riptide and he was totally spent by the time he managed to dogpaddle back to terra ferma - 1 more tourist that almost became a statistic. There is no telling these people to be careful, he was very sheepish when I asked him if he was all right after having told him 10 minutes earlier to stay shallow because of the rip currents - what can you do with stupid people!!
Clearly, conditions have changed dramatically at Horseshoe Bay in the past 24 hours, hopefully by the weekend things will have settled down a bit and there will be more loot to be had. Until then, I'll be resting up as my right arm is killing me.
Cheers,
BDA
PS: Sorry about the lack of pics but the camera is dead and won't be replaced for at least 6 weeks.
Yesterday morning I caught the low tide around 9:30 and it was target city; after 3 hours I had landed 4 gold and 3 silver.
10k men's comfort fit gold band
10k ladies ring with 1 carat of diamond bagettes
14k ladies' thin gold band
18k gold hoop earring
.925 St. Christopher medallion with silver chain
.925 Celtic Cross with silver chain
.925 Heavy Men's Bracelet with silver inlay
junker 18k HGE ring (too bad - so sad)
HGE (gold plated junk) 'ANDRE' bracelet with the inscription "I Love You, Claudia" (apparently not enough to buy a real gold bracelet)
Conditions were excellent and the winds were at their lowest level in many weeks.
I came back around 5pm yesterday, to see if I had missed anything - what a difference a few hours makes. The wind had shifted and picked up considerably, the sand had been pushed up onto the beach at least several feet deep. The prominent cut in the beach from this morning was vitually gone and the rip tides were already running strong. A few passes in the shallows, getting pounded by heavy surf and I had enough; so I retreated to the much calmer bathing area at the western end of the beach.
I skirted around for a while and found very little, until I hit an area of the bathing area that is normally covered with heavy sand but that sand had been stripped away by the high surf. Deep down inside a crack between the underlying bedrock of the bathing area I found two .52 ? caliber lead slugs and a 9k ladie's ring with a jet heart in the center. Only the English allow gold jewellery to be made in such a low carat, so I know it is an English ring.
(upon cleaning, part of the ring broke away because the base metals [2/3 of this ring] had leached out of it over the years - I'll put this one in the junk bin for the gold refinery)Today I caught the low tide for 3 hours, in the hope that the surf had quieted down a bit from yesterday aftenoon. It was not to be, the surf was still crashing in and even though I tried to go deep, it is clear that the sands have shifted greatly overnight. Very few targets, only 1 junker ring with a cat' face full of rhinestones. Odds are, my Princess will love it as she appreciates kitsch in jewellery. Twice I was grabbed by riptides and had to fight my way to safety. I was fortunate as I made it to firm ground safely on both ocassions, the tourist with the huge potbelly got swept out past the rocks when he decided to pose for a pic. His wife , who was taking the pic, was shocked when a rogue wave knocked him down into the riptide and he was totally spent by the time he managed to dogpaddle back to terra ferma - 1 more tourist that almost became a statistic. There is no telling these people to be careful, he was very sheepish when I asked him if he was all right after having told him 10 minutes earlier to stay shallow because of the rip currents - what can you do with stupid people!!
Clearly, conditions have changed dramatically at Horseshoe Bay in the past 24 hours, hopefully by the weekend things will have settled down a bit and there will be more loot to be had. Until then, I'll be resting up as my right arm is killing me.
Cheers,
BDA
PS: Sorry about the lack of pics but the camera is dead and won't be replaced for at least 6 weeks.
