Morning Beach Walk

I woke earlier than usual this morning and decided to take an early morning stroll on the beach. It was a beautiful morning for such a walk, and I arrived about the time the sun was rising.

As you can see, there are not many people on the beach at sunrise in Indialantic. Along with the crabs and birds, I had the beach pretty much to myself. There was a young couple who had come down to observe the sunrise from the top of one of the accesses to the beach.

The beach was littered with fresh sargassum. Strong easterly winds have been bringing in a lot of seaweed in recent days. Under penalty of law, you are not allowed to remove any sargassum from the beach. Apparently it is good for the beach eco system.

After a pleasant and refreshing walk, I returned home to face the rest of the day.

Jellyfish and Sargassum

This is my first post in over two years! Hopefully I'll now be able to get to the beach enough to make at least some postings in this blog.

I just had to get to the beach to see the jellyfish that the news mentioned that were stinging bathers along beaches in Brevard County. I carried a camera so I could document my find. Along the stretch of beach that my wife and I walked Friday in Indialantic, we didn’t see a single jellyfish! We did, however, see lots of sargassum brought in by the strong easterly winds.

Perhaps the jellyfish were only further north in the Cocoa Beach area. Maybe they will show up today.

I did, however, take a couple pictures of the sargassum on the beach which I am posting here.

Interestingly, I did notice that turtle nesting season is underway. Pictures of their tracks will make for a future posting.

Temporarily Suspending This Blog

Due to the serious nature of my wife’s illness at the present time, I need to temporarily suspend posting to this blog. I am unable to get to the beach to learn of and write of the interesting things that are occurring. If you read this blog, I hope that you will bookmark the address so that you can easily check back at a future date. Also, if you are a person of faith, I would appreciate it if you upheld my wife in prayer. Her name is Sue.

Fishing Cart

I don’t know how many people are going to brave the wind and cold to walk the beach or fish today or any day this weekend. The wind is strong from the north about 14 mph but gusting into the mid 20s. The current is very strong and the ocean is on the rough side with lots of whitecaps.

Today is a day to think of other things. For fishermen, one other thing might be a fishing cart. Fishing carts are popular with some surf anglers. Last week I saw the fishing cart pictured. As you can see, it is a homemade cart. It stands taller than most carts I’ve seen. I posted pictures of 2 other fishing carts on October 31, 2008 and November 29, 2008.

Beach Going Vehicles!

I took this picture this past weekend. Most people walk to the beach. Some small children, however, are lucky enough to ride to the beach in style as evidenced by the two children “vehicles” pictured. Don’t you wish they had such “vehicles” when you were a child?

If you walk the beach today, you won’t encounter many people. Not only does it feel cold, but there is a cold north wind. In the morning, the ocean was rather calm, but I think it will kick up as the day progresses.

I have not seen many fish caught in the surf recently. What I have seen caught have been on the small side (Jack Cravelle, whiting, sharks). If any legal sized pompano were being caught, I did not see it.

Full Moon at the Beach

I seldom go to the beach at night time, but last night was an exception. The moon looked so gigantic in the eastern sky that I just had to go down and take a look at how the moon looked from the beach. As you can see, it was quite a site. A couple came walking by as I stood there. I said hello to them, but they must have been so enamored by the romance of the evening that they never returned the greeting!

Unlike so many days the last couple of weeks, today doesn’t look like a good beach day. It is overcast and perhaps a little drizzly. I expect the beach will be as deserted this afternoon as it was packed yesterday afternoon.

The northerly wind is light today. The water appears clean and the ocean is pretty flat. I don’t know how the fishing will be. The people with whom I talked with the last couple of days were not catching much. I wonder where the pompano went?

Gator Orange Sandspikes

When I walked the beach yesterday afternoon, I saw a fisherman using orange colored sandspikes. I would have called them Gator sandspikes, but they were missing blue! He had not caught anything when I talked with him, but he will be a happy fisherman today if he rooted for the new national champions, the Florida Gators.

Speaking of Florida Gator items, someone had orange colored flowers delivered to my wife in the hospital yesterday that were in a blue vase. I think there was an orange ribbon around the top of the vase.

Although the fish were not biting along the portion of Indialantic’s beach that I walked yesterday, I think that today could be a better day. The water is very clean. Perhaps the northerly wind will cause more wave action among the otherwise calm waters.

Today should be another great day for walking the beach. There have been some great beach days during the last couple of weeks.