I went looking for a gold fix this morning - Mother Ocean didn't disappoint!

[bdahunter]

The ferry pilots didn't go on strike last night as anticipated but they told everyone on the ferry last night that they would be wildcatting today.(anything for a long weekend I'd say)
I was volunteered by my Princess to drive her and her gals from the ferry into Hamilton this morning which is kewl except that we helped a friend move house last night which meant we had to celebrate after the move and boy oh boy did we celebrate.
6AM comes early when you can't mange to stop the bed from spinning until after 1AM. We picked everyone up on the way in to town and it was going swimmingly until we hit a roadblock in the center of town, The Bermuda Regiment was on parade in the middle of Hamilton for the reopening of Parliament after the recent elections here. Total gridlock extended the 45 minute trip to a 1 hour trip and I still had to drive from town to the other end of the island to get to my hunting grounds. I anxiously watched the clock as it tick tocked towards low tide but finally got everyone dropped off and was on my way to the east end of the island, Down Country.
I wheeled into the parking area with 5 minutes to spare before low tide, grabbed my gear from the back of the jeep and started changing into my wetsuit in the front seat of the jeep. I was stripped down to underwear and Pirate Tee and about to slip on my wet suit when what pulls in right beside me in an otherwise deserted parking lot? A minibus full of preschoolers out on a day trip with there teachers and Moms. You never saw a pirate slip into a wet suit as fast as I did this morning.
The kiddies all piled off of the bus and headed towards the playground and I sorted out the rest of my gear and headed for the beach, one of the moms gave me the old up and down as I passed the playground so I can't be sure just what she saw.
Regained my composure and got into the water with a purpose as today I wanted GOLD, BIG FAT GOLD!! It's been over a week since I've seen the gleam of gold in the bottom of my scoop and I could feel the pressure starting to build in the back of my head, this bloody hobby is very addictive. I went through my normal routine and hit the Mine, no tiny, sparkly bits of gold today, I wanted the real deal. I worked the Mine for 45 minutes picking up a good chunk of clad and a silver, ball type ear ring and possibly a silver quarter. (it's still soaking in lemon juice and salt) The high percentage of quarters was a good sign as usually the gold is located just a little deeper than the band of quarters I was finding but when I went deeper it was all silence so I knew I had crossed up onto the edge of the 2nd sandbar. I started to turn back towards shore so I could work the area immediately inshore from the quarter line when I heard a Terrible sound - Excal Death Squeal! - my batteries were packing it in.
This meant I had between 5 and 15 minutes to find the gold and all I'd managed so far was some small silver, the race was on. I immediately focussed my thoughts on Gold and let my detector guide me in beyond the quarter line. My next target was a quarter so I knew I was on track and the very next tone was that mellow solid tone we surf pirates Love - Gold.
Two scoops later the Fat, Yellow, 14k Comfortfit Men's Band was staring up at me from the bottom of my scoop, BULLSEYE!! I managed two more pieces of clad and then the low farting sound of the battery packing it in came through my headphones telling me the hunt was officially over.

Cheers,

BDA

[anne]

Well done, nice one.

[pris]

WooHoo! What an exciting hunt I was on the edge of my seat, right there with ya.

[liquid1]

You aint right Bda..letting the school teacher see you like that lol..What a great story and awesome finds..In average how deep do you Dive/hunt in the water and how do you hold onto all the equipment..congrats on the find..your pulling the good stuff out for sure..james

[KellycoChick]

omg that is a hilarious story!! hahahaha!! I'm moving into a new house in two weeks and I am so ready for the celebration that will ensue at 1 in the morning after it's all done... but I think it's safe to say that none of us will try crawling around an island at 6am the next day!!

As for changing in the car... guess its time to get the windows tinted? Lol!! This cracked me up... I'm a girl and changing in the car just isn't much of an option for me, but you made out just fine and the kids were probably oblivious to it all...

Congrats on the gold tho!! I love hearing about determination paying off and this is just another example of it! Go charge the batteries and get ready for another day out there! I'm sure there's more where that came from!

[bdahunter]

It was an awkward situation, especially in Bermuda where the people are very prudish about such things. I did have my underwear on after all. The majority of my hunting occurs between waist deep to neck deep, I don't dive yet but I am going to get dive certified soon. Carrying the gear is pretty easy as I usually just wear my wetsuit, dive boots, polarized sunglasses, pirate bandana, trail patrol jcaket with mesh pockets for my finds, trash, keys and until recently waterproof camera, plus Excal 1000 and Babb's Scoop. It helps to be ambidexterous as the swinging and scooping gets tiring in the water after a while, especially when the water temp is low like it is at the moment.
In retrospect the yummy mummy who was checking me out may have just had a thing about guys in rubber suits, you never know what floats some peoples boats.

Kewl,

BDA

[EBCIII]

Great hunt BDA! The change routine sounded fun, Beale.

[gordiesgirl]

Awesome story, and ends with gold, Great hunt.

[Dylan]

WTG BdaHunter Glad you found you gold!

[SandSkimmer]

Great hunting .... you always have the nack for finding the good stuff...

keep up the good work...


jT