Blog The Beach

One of the first things I noticed when I got serious about exploring Florida’s beaches is the tremendous variety of sand types that make up the beaches. There’s brown sand, gray sand, white sand, black sand, and combinations of all types.

I’ve put together a page of photographs that illustrate many of the varieties of sand and shell that you’ll encounter on Florida’s Beaches. I’m still out there collecting sand samples and sand photographs, so I’ll be adding more photos frequently. Now I have a box at home filled with samples of sand from beaches around the state. Check out my web page about Florida beach sand types.

The page even has a video I made with the VISIT FLORIDA crew at the Fort Myers Beach 21st Annual Sandsculpting Championship Festival back in November 2007. It happens every year, so you might want to drive down and check it out in 2008.

Upham Beach has a SERIOUS litter problem. Every time I’ve been to Upham Beach this summer I’ve encountered a shameful amount of plastic and paper litter. I’m not talking about one or two items here and there. Everybody can make the mistake of leaving a small piece of trash behind on rare occasions. I’m talking about deliberate disrespect for the beach. Much of the litter is left on the beach in front of the Envoy Point, Starlight Towers, and Caprice condominiums near the jetty.

The litter, I’m sad to say, appears largely to be attributable to teenagers (based on my personal observations). I’ll just leave it at that for now, although I reserve the right to publish actual photos of the perpetrators in the future. I’m amazed that the condo residents are so tolerant of this behavior.

To its credit, Suncoast Surfrider Foundation, under the direction of Mike Meehan, frequently stages cleanups of this area.  A couple of weeks after the last cleanup, I came back to Upham to find the mess pictured in the photos. In about 10 minutes, right on the beach in front of the aforementioned condominiums, I picked up a full 13 gallon trash bag of litter.

The litterbugs even leave their clothes in the bushes (on private property no less).

The beach is for all to enjoy and there is no reason to litter, nor is their a reason for us to tolerate the act of littering. Not only is litter ugly, some of it is dangerous to wildlife.

Many of us like to talk about being “green” and respecting the environment. Why don’t we start at Upham Beach?

Another side effect of a few irresponsible people littering the beach is credibility. The condo residents see the young people hanging out on the beach, riding their skimboards, etc., and leaving their litter behind, and associate this disrespectful behavior with surfers and beach culture in general.

In a recent St. Pete Beach Commission meeting where the surfing community was trying to assume a reasonable and credible position against rushing into building permanent rock structures on Upham Beach, one condo resident made a remark associating the surfers with throwing litter onto their property, attempting to call into question the credibility and motives of those associated with surfing.  Why put ourselves in this position?

Further, I’d like to point out that even though condos are often an eyesore, and frequently have little in the way of foliage and trees around them, a fine example of stewardship exists right above the beach in front of those Upham Beach condos by the jetty. A beautiful and peaceful garden is lovingly tended by the condominium residents and is open to the public. The gentleman below welcomed me into the garden as he was going about his work in the hot August sun.

Notice also the use of a compost bin to recycle garden waste (below). Sunset beach is visible on the other side of Blind Pass.

Yes, the condos are built too close to the Gulf, but the current residents are making the best of what they have.

Why don’t we ALL work together to make Upham a better place to play?

Tropical Storm Fay has been an unpredictable and defiant rainmaker. Constantly referred to as a minor storm and expected to develop into only a “minimal” hurricane, the storm has caused far more damage than Floridians expected.

Where did the forecast fall short?

• Fay was heavily promoted as a storm that would run up the west coast. Sure, it was noted that the storm could deviate notably from that track, but that was the most likely scenario. Instead, Fay took an early right hook and slammed into the lower southwest coast. Can you say “Hurricane Charlie? Most of us veteran hurricane survivors were not surprised by this at all.
• Fay was expected to immediately begin to weaken after it made landfall. In fact, after moving over land, Fay became better organized and the sustained winds increased to 60 mph.
• Fay was expected to drop 5 to 10 inches of rain. Instead, some areas have received 25 inches of rain in 24 hours.

Back in the early 1980’s, when I lived in Bradenton, one September we got 17 inches of rain over a 3 day period. Everything was so flooded and saturated that schools were closed because the buses and cars could not pass through the flooded streets. All drainage canals were overflowing. I can only imagine what 25 inches of rain must be like. Florida normally only receives about 56 inches of rain during an entire year.

Coming ashore in the Marco Island / Naples area packing wind gusts up to 86 miles per hour, and bringing a deluge of rain, Fay left thousands without power and made roads impassable with flooding. On the west coast in St. Petersburg where I live, we have received almost no measurable rain from Fay. Clouds, yes; a cooling breeze, yes; rain, just a few drops.

People were prepared for wind and storm surge, but were surprised by the extent of the flooding from rainfall. I think the damage, when tallied up, will be incredible. Much of the flooding was inland in areas not considered flood zones. I’ll bet that many of the flood damaged homes don’t carry flood insurance. Ouch!

As I remarked in my free beach safety e-book: “The damage caused in most areas affected by a hurricane will be much less than people expect, but in some areas, the damage will be far greater than anyone could have ever imagined.”

The indecisive tropical storm Fay has finally wandered ashore at Cape Romano, just south of Marco Island, early Tuesday morning, August 19th. Bringing 40 to 50 mph winds and heavy rains, the storm has left 28,000 people without power in Collier County and has caused flooding in the Marco Island and Naples area.

The entire west coast of Florida was on high alert because of the projected path being right up the west coast. But Fay took a sharp north turn over Cuba, and then an early right hook, taking it away from Florida’s west coast. I’m glad, partly because I just planted 4 young trees in the front yard and wasn’t looking forward to having them thrashed.

Surfers will be disappointed that Fay didn’t come into the Gulf, but there will likely be more storms between now and November.

Fay still has the potential of more flooding, tornadoes, and wind damage to mobile homes, so tonights news will be filled with storm stories. That’s Florida.

The National Hurricane center is indicating that conditions are very favorable for Fay to develop into a stronger storm, unlike last summer when high winds in the upper atmoshphere literally ripped storms apart before they could turn into a hurricane.

This is from the 5am Aug 16 discussion;

…AND DESPITE THE INTERACTION WITH MOUNTAINOUS TERRAIN…THE
STORM HAS A RELATIVE WELL-ORGANIZED APPEARANCE IN SATELLITE
IMAGERY.

That is pretty significant, I think, that the mountains of Haiti and the Dominican Republic have not broken up this still relatively weak storm.

However, they also recognize the uncertainties in 4 or 5 day forecast track, which everyone is focusing on because it’s all over the news. The hurricane center points out the differences in the hurricane track forecasting computer models:

THE GFDL AND HWRF TRACKS HEAD UP THE WESTERN
PORTION OF THE FLORIDA PENINSULA IN A FEW DAYS…WHILE THE GFS AND
UKMET ARE FARTHER WEST OVER THE EASTERN GULF OF MEXICO. IN THE
SHORTER TERM…THE MODELS ALSO DO NOT AGREE ON WHETHER THE CENTER
OF FAY WILL PASS OVER OR JUST SOUTH OF SOUTHEASTERN CUBA BEFORE
TURNING NORTHWESTWARD. THESE DIFFERING SOLUTIONS AGAIN HIGHLIGHT
THE PITFALLS OF FOCUSING TOO MUCH ON THE EXACT OFFICIAL FORECAST
TRACK…ESPECIALLY AT THE LONGER RANGES.

Also, the forecast of storm strength is very much uncertain:

INTENSITY FORECASTING IS ALWAYS DIFFICULT…BUT IN THIS CASE IS MADE
EVEN MORE COMPLICATED BY THE LIKELY INTERACTIONS WITH LAND DURING
THE NEXT FEW DAYS. ATMOSPHERIC AND OCEAN CONDITIONS ALONG THE
FORECAST TRACK APPEAR RATHER CONDUCIVE FOR STRENGTHENING…SO THE
MORE TIME FAY SPENDS OVER WATER…THE STRONGER IT IS LIKELY TO
BECOME…AND VICE VERSA.

Keep an eye on Fay.

The news is all abuzz with tropical storm Fay. The computer models have it zeroed in on the west coast and the track is looking rather like Charlie’s in 2004. But as we all know, the 5 day forecast for ANYTHING is notoriously inaccurate. A lot can happen between Friday and Monday.

Will I be grabbing some extra bottled water this weekend? And some batteries and food that doesn’t need refridgeration? Yea, probably so. Nothing worse than running around at the last minute and finding nothing but empty shelves.

This could end up being a real test for those T-groins at Upham Beach.

The Ponce Inlet Lighthouse was completed in 1887 after 3 years of construction. The lighthouse museum here at Lighthouse Point Park has done an incredible job of restoring and maintaining this historic structure and many of the original buildings at the lighthouse station. This really is a “must see” if you are in the Daytona Beach area. Climbing the stairs to the top of this 175 foot structure is great fun and I promise you the view is fabulous. I have a great slide show of my visit to Ponce Inlet’s Lighthouse Point Park and my climb up to the top. Be sure to check it out, and while you’re there, check out all my photos of the beautiful beaches of Ponce Inlet.

How many beaches on the southwest coast of Florida appear today as they did 500 years ago? Not very many. But Caspersen Beach is one of those rare places. Just take a look at the photo above. The beach is lined with cabbage palms (Florida’s state tree). Native grasses and sea grapes join the palms to create one of the few truly natural beaches in this part of Florida.

The beach is very dark at night, and very quiet. This attracts plenty of egg-laying sea turtles and other wildlife. After sunset this beach is nearly deserted, and you can often enjoy complete solitude by taking a long walk up the beach.

There is an old road bed that runs parallel to the beach under the palms. It is nearly desintegrated now, but you can see bits and pieces of it here and there.

Caspersen Beach Park is located just south of downtown Venice, at the southern terminus of Harbor Drive. There is no fee to enter or to park your vehicle. The southern end of Harbor Drive is quite scenic. The dunes block the view of the Gulf in most places, but are themselves a wonder to behold.

I’ve managed to live in Florida for 48 years without having seen a coyote, and I’ve spent more than my share of time out in the wilds. But I just came across a story on Naplesnews.com about a rash of Coyote/ domestic animal attacks in Lee and Collier Counties (that’s the Fort Myers / Naples area). What caught my attention was surveillance video of a coyote hunting and killing a woman’s cat in the Naples area.

I guess what struck me as interesting, even more than the coyote and the unlucky cat, is the sophisticated video surveillance that this lady had set up around her mobile home. Is that amazing or what? I wonder if she’s had trouble with crime in her neighborhood. That’s some serious bucks to spend on cameras and such. Pretty handy though. I could have used that type of surveillance around my house on a few occasions in the recent past. Good for her.

Here is an interactive map of the many documented cases of coyotes in conflict with domestic animals in southwest Florida. I notice that most seem to be in the areas near the interstate where humans are RAPIDLY moving into formerly wilderness areas.

There don’t seem to be any documented coyote incidents near the beaches. So breath easy, all you beach visitors.

Snorkeling in Sebastian Inlet is quite popular, despite (or perhaps because of) the strong tidal currents. On a recent trip to the fabulous Sebastian Inlet State Park, I saw a dozen or so snorkelers climb down the rocks to the water, put on their gear, and hop in the water with their dive flag (to warn boaters away).

The incoming tidal current was very strong and carried the snorkelers along the rocks on the north side of the inlet, and under the bridge. The underwater visibility was fairly good, and I’m sure there were plenty of fish and other marine life for them to enjoy.

I always warn against swimming in inlets and passes, but with the right knowledge, experience, and gear, it can be a lot of fun, and reasonably safe. Not for the inexperienced.