After a couple of days of good NE swells, I decided on an impromptu road trip to a local beach which, although sanded in for the the last few visits, sometimes responds well to this wave direction.
Swells weren't as big, or as short a period as I would like, but you have to take the gamble sometimes.
Low was a couple of hours after sunrise this morning, so headed off in the light rain at 4 to give me a bit of time to have a reccy of different areas before the main operation.
On the Hunt: Arty Rain at 100kmh 
First few checkpoints weren't promising in the torchlight, full of sand and the swell nowhere near what had been forecast. Tried all my regular markers and all were under sand. Bugger.
Rather than waste the trip, I added a few dozen extra km to some lesser haunts in the hope there was some reflected cross-swell somewhere.
One small bay had a nice cut in the sand, the bottom of which was lined with pebbles that had washed into a line - good spot for coins.
It was only a short run, maybe 30m but it gave up a few old decimals and $8 in goldies before the targets lightened up into ali blobs etc.
Back to the car with 30min until low tide, enough to make another couple of nearby spots before making the decision which one to hunt.
First one was also full of sand, another $3 in goldies in the dry sand under a shady tree though.
Finding these distracted me, and I realised I was hanging around wasting valuable time hunting 'dead' sand.
Back in the car, the sun well up now and low tide.
Decision, do I gamble on the last beach having been cut up, or try one of the earlier potentially better ones but at a heavy time penalty meaning the tide would be moving in rapidly by the time I got there.
The last option, whilst not ideally oriented to the swells had a few smaller bays off each end that may get some reflected swells. I figured since I was this far from home and the day was looking like a bust anyway I'd give it a go.
Wandered down to the last beach and whilst there was some cutting, it was all in piled up sand from last summer - nothing had moved at all really.
Dilemma to stay or go back to Plan A was solved when I was given a 'sign' of a fresh and shiny $2 lying in the grass on the way back to the car.
I grabbed the gear and hit the beach, super soft, deep dry sand loaded with dry seaweed. Not much cop, and too early in the season for fresh drops.
Had a few exploratory scoops on the way down to the water, fresh sand down to at least a half metre. So the beach is out.
Headed over to a shady tree, which yielded.....one spoon.
Tried the sand near the rocks, knowing that this was likely to be the shallowest part of the beach. Couple of small sinkers and manky 1c pieces...
Decided to scramble around the headland - never been this way before, and found myself in a wee pocket cove, maybe 15m across by 10 deep. Steep rocks at each end headed out to sea and the swell coming in was being compressed by these into a power-wash effect.
Timing was fairly important as the previous surge of water often didn't get a chance to get out before the next rinse came in. One full pair of wellies and wet jeans later I was slightly relieved I could finally focus on swinging and not worry about leaping onto the nearest rock every thirty seconds or so.
This little gem of a bay has so much promise, not often you hit clay bedding under only 6" of sand in a surf area. Sinker after sinker were unearthed sitting quietly where they had come to rest years ago, and there she was - the first 9 carrots, lying on the clay, not more than 4" down.
Unfortunately, the scoop bounced off it slightly and I'm not game to try and reshape it having had enough 9k rings crumble on me.
15 minutes later, "You Beauty!" another 9k rose gold, also sitting on the clay. As I bent over to take the kill shot, a huge surge came up behind me and bowled me tit over tail! So there's me, rolling around in the foam, trying to hang onto everything, swearing under my breath as I spat out sand and desperately trying to keep a fix on where the ring lay.
Nek Minit I got mugged from behind!
Fortunately gold, being gold, stays put more than buoyant humans. I staggered to my feet, couple of quick scans to relocate the hole - jam the scoop in. Check the ring is out of the hole, and get the hell out.
Sitting on the rocks getting myself sorted out, I casually sieved the scoop in a rock pool and there it was "My Precious".
I always have a change in the car when detecting, this is the first time I've had to use it in anger though.
I shall call this bay "Alchemy Bay" for the wonderful way I watched lead turn into gold :)
Can't wait for the King tides next year!
Hunt Slow, Hunt Safe!
Mudwiggle the Drenched.
Edited by user Friday, 4 December 2015 1:14:25 PM(UTC)
| Reason: Not specified
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