treasure coast beaches Florida

[billinstuart]

Well, just cruised beaches from Ampersand to unknown wreck...and realized that Indian River County (Vero) has systematically greatly restricted to all their beaches. First, high tides, some erosion, nasty surf. Second, no access to Corrigans (uh, legal access). Seems that they prefer selling land to Yankees who don't have the sense not to build IN the ocean, then whine when their new house washes away, so they bring in dozers to rearrange the beach. All St. Lucie except Colored Beach is open. About a 1' cut at Ampersand, but the last time I wuz there I swear a garbage truck is sunk out there. No snow tho...hehehe.

 

[sherpa t]

Decided to give the Daytona area a try today, glad I did. Sunrise to 11:00 am I hit a good spot. NO TRASH .. none... pulled 49 coins. One was a nice silver US quarter. The rest modern clads. Alot of dimes, then alot of quarters, decided I would try and find nickels. With a little effort to carfully watch the meter, got five of them too. ( generally hunt allmetal )
I've been plugging away at a inland site, Penny's regularly, wheat back , 50's and 60's none higher than early 70's. Sat. finally got a quarter out of it and a few feet up a nice 42 silver dime. But it's loaded with alum. trash. The silver dime almost inticed me back today.. glad I went to the beach. It was truly a joy not to dig alum can bits and tops.

 

[Darod]

Hey Bill,

Did you read that small paperback book on the 1715 wreck sites? The one where they say they will tell you exactly how to get to the beach and give you land marks and everything!!! What a joke that book is. I bought it and then read it from front to back about 6 times, memorized the locations and access points. Drove down there,....I just live in Melbourne so it's not a long drive,....and found that 99 % of the access points are gone,....like magic, "Poof" . Now where the access used to be there is a 4 story condo. What a joke. I ended up just spending a bunch of money on gas and taking a long long drive. When I got home I looked at the book again and saw that it was copyrighted in 1993. CHRIST! no wonder.

Live an learn.

If you find any good access points over there, let me know! I really want to hit some of those areas, you never know if you'll get lucky.

Rod

 

[billinstuart]

The ah access points are still there, they are just closed to the public for "repairs". Many are pretty tiny. The powers that be want the beach for themselves. All beach accesses are public property, and cannot be sold without a condemnation procedure, which generally doesn't happen in Florida. I drove past one in Vero a dozen times before I found it...no signage, and "closed".

 

[DiggerX]

This' the result of heavy pressure from both oceanfront development companies and oceanfront home owners. In defence of the latter, trespassing is rampant on Florida oceanfront. I can't blame them for wanting to cull the numbers. But not at the expense of public access to the legal portions. There are usually OPEN legal access areas, but you may have to hunt for them. They've hidden some of them quite well. The only other option is to try and get access from someone in the neighborhood (if it's a single family area).

Doc

 

[samreale]

Beach location?

Last time I MD'd on Florida's east coast was around Sebastion. Beach was called Turtle Beach. Can't recall exaclty where that is now. I read references to Chuck's Steak House, and seem to think it was in that area.

Anyone familiar with this beach and where it is located?

 

[nick1878]

Are they closing the beaches or just the access to them? Is chucks steakhouse still there. I say a bunch of use here chip in and buy the steakhouse and us it asa base of operations. Then we can keep everyone else off 'our'beach.

 

[wreckdiver1715]

Sorry, Chucks Steakhouse did not survive, and that location is now just a vacant lot. I?m not sure if they took it down just prior to the hurricanes, or if Mother Nature did it. In any case that building has been vacant for many years.

 

[cobra]

I was at Bonsteel/Chucks yesterday. FEMA has had massive amounts of sand brought in to "stabilize" the dunes. Now instead of a 5 to 8 foot drop off exposing the dune wall, there is a very large
sand berm in front of the dunes which slopes down at a 45 degree angle to the beach. In the process of backfilling the dunes it looks like they have added some sand to the actual flat part of the beach.
There are also a lot of rutts from the heavy equiptment. The entire beach for several miles north of Chucks also is getting the FEMA treatment. Bonsteel is still "technically closed" but is used every day by the locals for access to the beach. Those small parking areas just south of the inlet are open and the beach there is not getting the FEMA treatment. Ambersands parking is open. The last time I was there the beach trash was just unreal, but there was a nice cut.

Great thing about the beach....if you don't like it today..just wait..it will change soon enough!

 

[rgecy]

Wreckdiver,
Chucks Steakhouse was demo'd right before the Hurricanes.? I thought I was loosing my mind.? I kept driving back and forth to make sure I was in the right place. Just a vacant parking lot!

That trip down after the first hurricane was terrible.? Didn't find anything worth mentioning and I had to sleep in my truck for 2 nights.? No shower!? Saw some good finds from other people.? One guy was working the dune line just in front of me at Corrigans and found a nice 8 reale.? Just my luck. I did find alot of clad and a nice ring, but nothing from 1715 fleet.

Robert in SC

 

[Floater]

Hey Bill,

Did you read that small paperback book on the 1715 wreck sites?? The one where they say they will tell you exactly how to get to the beach and give you land marks and everything!!! ? ?What a joke that book is.? I bought it and then read it from front to back about 6 times, memorized the locations and access points.? Drove down there,....I just live in Melbourne so it's not a long drive,....and found that 99 % of the access points are gone,....like magic, "Poof" .? Now where the access used to be there is a 4 story condo.? What a joke.? I ended up just spending a bunch of money on gas and taking a long long drive.? When I got home I looked at the book again and saw that it was copyrighted in 1993.? CHRIST!? no wonder.?

Live an learn.?

If you find any good access points over there, let me know!? I really want to hit some of those areas, you never know if you'll get lucky.

I have read that Book also and Questioned the validity of oot,s info. So many ythings change and its only like 30 pages long so its not like War And Peace . Maybe someone should Publush an access guid for TH er,s in the Area ROD. I nwould buy one ande Im sure the updated info would be appreciated by all. Since I am not in that area it would not be a task for me but Hey ROD maybe you could take this one on Or BILL in Stuart. Come on guys make it a little easier for your brothers and sisters in the MD club. LOL. Hey at least use the crayons on a new road map for us. LOL

Rod

 

[jsturg]

Although I believe the books were published 10+ years ago, they're not *too* inaccurate. You won't find large beach markers as shown in the book. The wrecks haven't moved too much. The parking areas are about the same (when they're open) with no more or no fewer spots. References to non-public beach accesses are probably pretty much invalid due to development. Chuck's is gone but Bonsteel seems to be its replacement. What seems to be most inaccurate now is the best place to hunt on the beach as there are none. It's going to take a while to recover from all of the past, current, and future beach restoration projects. I'm not sure if this is still current but this is what is publicly available on beach restoration in the 1715 area:

http://www.ircgov.com/Departments/Public_Works/Coastal_Engineering_Section/Project_Schedule.htm
also:
http://www.dep.state.fl.us/beaches/publications/pdf/cen-atl.pdf

Regardless, timing and luck are our friends and the odds are ZERO if you don't try so keep trying!

Jeff

 

[wreckdiver1715]

We just have to move the hunt off shore until Mother Nature puts thing right.

 

[Jimi D Pirate]

Jeff, I've been out of town, now I'm back in the saddle. I will send you some info on scuba rental but I need to know where you will be staying. E-mail me if you like AMNiteOwl@aol.com I will be taking my hand held GPS while attending the seminar I will take coordinates while Bob pinpoints where treasure has been found along the beach. I don't believe you can get any closer than that!
Take care.