WALK ON THE BEACH

We went over to the beach yesterday early enough to miss most of the tourists. It was very restful.

I didn't know it until we moved here, but beaches, especially on barrier islands, change. We have a huge sandbar where once it was simply sand underwater. Looking southward, the sand on the left is where the sandbar begins. It keeps going northward (behind the photographer and up the beach).

This is taken when we walked northward, and the sandbar continued. You can see a stream, the sandbar, and then the ocean in the distance. Around here is where the sandbar used to begin.

Still going northward. We (and the doggie) are on the beach, looking out over the sandbar toward the ocean. See how high the sandbar's edge is? The stream in the middle used to be quite wide but has narrowed considerably.

The first thing we came across was a stranded jellyfish. In ten feet or so, we found another, and then another. We ended up seeing five or six of them.

Then we saw some horseshoe crabs. Or at least their shells where they had molted. Quite a few were over on the sandbar. On the beach, we only spotted four or five. I guess everyone knows these aren't really crabs.

 

Coming back, I noticed some shells up in the dried seaweed. I suspect someone may have been collecting them and forgot them since usually large ones are found with small ones.

And finally, we came across this. I couldn't figure out what it was till I got closer. It's an orange peel! Someone must have been watching the ocean while eating it, then threw it down. And there are plenty of trash cans around!

I love walking on the beach because you run across all kinds of things.

EARLY MORNING BEACH WALK

We've had company for a few days but are getting back on our schedule. Today, instead of walking down to the village, we went over to the beach. Few people were out, and they mostly had dogs with them. This time of year dogs aren't allowed on the beach between 9 and 6 so owners have to walk their pets early or late.

It was great, seeing the sandy expanse with so few people on it! This is the view south:

And this is the northeastern view. The sun trying to shine down didn't help my photography, but the middle is sand, not ocean. You can see the waves from the lower right corner, going up toward the left. And barely a soul in sight! Lovely day! Lovely time to walk!

SWIM TRAGEDY

Our sandbars here are enticing, but they're dangerous. The quickly rising sea means currents run so hard between them and the shore that people can be swept away. That's what happened this past weekend.

A thirty-year-old army sergeant and his children were on the sandbar as the tide began to come in. They floundered in the suddenly-deep water between the beach and sandbar, but bystanders pulled the children to safety. Unfortunately, a wave knocked the father down before rescuers could get to him. They did recover his body last night when fisherman at the pier saw the current carrying it past. Not much consolation, but it does mean some closure for the family.

Drownings like this happen a lot down here. It seems the currents claim someone every few years. The lifeguards leave at four; this drowning happened shortly after. There are also signs cautioning people about the currents, but I'm not sure they're prominent or explicit enough. People don't understand that going onto the sandbars during the rising tide means they can be stranded with a rushing stream of water between them and the shore.

Thinking of the widow and her children breaks your heart.