An ideal, drop anchor along coast and metal detect

[ssullivan]

BBill - you can detect the beach all you want, with few restrictions. It's the in-water detecting I was talking about. Rick is absolutly right about people having salvage rights up to the water mark. Most of the treasures are found in the water, not on the beach.

[Tropic Cat]

Sean, It depends. After a heavy storm at sea, a lot is washed up on shore.

For those who must give this a try, here is a very genuine treasure map. Use it at your own risk.

http://www.thepracticalsailor.com/1715_treasure.html

Rick in Florida

[ssullivan]

True, Rick. But... the vast majority is most certainly somewhere near the pile of cannons and ballast, right? I'm just trying to say to the last poster that "yes, Rick is correct" about the restrictions.

[BBill]

Actually, I'm not debating what Rick says but only saying you can beachcomb without being arrested if not in a lease area. But thanks for clarifying. If you look back at the wrecks off the surfline around Sebastian, they found coins on the beach first and then went into the water to find the wreck. They are just outside of where the surf breaks.
B.

[Tropic Cat]

Bill,

I take it that you live somewhere near me?

I've only heard of one instance where this was a problem. in '95 we had a direct hit from Hurricane Erin. The beachcombers were out in force in the days immediately following the storm and one guy came up with an emerald necklace. He was excited, of course, and promptly showed everyone on the beach what he found.

In the end, he lost it, but was compensated somewhat.

Those treasure directions I posted are for real.

Rick in Florida

[rtbates]

No to the anchoring off the beach, unless you had a non veering wind that was and will remain blowing from land to sea.
Otherwise you're sitting on a lee shore with little hope of escape if you drag onto the beach. Actually as soon as you drag into the surf your done.

randy

[wayland]

My plans have changed since I posted the first question in this forum. Sounds like to many cops on the beach looking for profits and our detectors. I found a low priced sonar you can pull behind your boat so I will be going to the deeper ocean, out of sight out of mind, Am I becoming a real pirate? Wayland

[wayland]

Originally Posted by rtbates

No to the anchoring off the beach, unless you had a non veering wind that was and will remain blowing from land to sea.
Otherwise you're sitting on a lee shore with little hope of escape if you drag onto the beach. Actually as soon as you drag into the surf your done.

randy

Thanks Randy, I was thinking about my anchor pulling loose with the waves hitting my boat, When on shore I thought about having some binoculars to keep a check on my boat time to time. If something looked wrong I could take my dingy back to my boat real quick. Now with all the talk of cops taking away my detector and the beach patrol I've given up on the FL beaches and area. The sonar I am buying will show me what's on the bottom in the deeper ocean. I feel safe diving to 150 foot, If I find something deeper I will look into finding a robot. Think I will pull my sonar from Virginia to Portugal to start my search. Wayland

[coot]

Originally Posted by wayland

My plan is to sail along the coast, drop anchor when I see a beach with lots of people, I will stay a mile or two off shore. when afternoon arrives I will move closer to shore, then take my dingy and metal detector to the beach and work the beach for gold.
Is the logical?

If I understand this correctly, the idea is to look for jewelry that people lost on the beach, right?

[wayland]

Originally Posted by coot

If I understand this correctly, the idea is to look for jewelry that people lost on the beach, right?

Hello Mark, Yes that was my ideal at first, I have searched Texas beaches without any problem. Now I will go to the deeper sea. Wayland

[Canibul]

I spent an entire 40 year career running sidescan sonars, mapping the seafloor, navigating ROVs ( what you call 'robots') and manned submersibles. Finding aircraft, boats, pipelines, rocks, live mines, and lots of other, uh..Navy stuff. I have used sonars by EG&G, Klein, Edo, Wesmar, Marine Sonics, etc. etc. I know a bit about navigation, magnetometers, sub-bottom profilers,sector scanning sonars and other high tech underwater ocean goodies. So if I can be of any help with advice, let me know before you spend too much money.

For example, your sonar wont tell you whether an object is wood, metal, rock, etc. Thats impossible. A lot of the sucess with sidescan sonar is knowing what you are looking at. The resolution, and maximum range side to side, that you will get with your sonar is dependent upon the frequency. I suggest you add a small magnetometer to your equipment list.

[videorov]

There are plenty of people on the beach looking with their metal detectors. Just take a look after a big storm.

[BBill]

Originally Posted by rickm505

Bill,

I take it that you live somewhere near me?

I've only heard of one instance where this was a problem. in '95 we had a direct hit from Hurricane Erin. The beachcombers were out in force in the days immediately following the storm and one guy came up with an emerald necklace. He was excited, of course, and promptly showed everyone on the beach what he found.

In the end, he lost it, but was compensated somewhat.

Those treasure directions I posted are for real.

Rick in Florida

It's a small world...50+ yrs in Brevard Co. For several yrs I kept boats at the old Pines Marina (Telemar). The marina owner (Johnson) kept a 60'ish treasure hunting boat there when not working a site. He had artifacts and plenty of stories. If memory serves right he and Mel Fisher worked together on several wrecks before Mel hit it big in the Keys.

B.