SHORE THINGS: BEACHCOMBING ON A PRISTINE ABACO BEACH

June 15, 2013 by Rolling Harbour

SHORE THINGS: BEACHCOMBING ON A PRISTINE ABACO BEACH

The Abaco bay known as Rolling Harbour is a 3/4 mile curve of white sand beach, protected by an off-shore reef. The beach is pristine. Or it would be but for two factors. One is the seaweed that arrives when the wind is from the east – natural and biodegradable detritus. It provides food and camouflage for many species of shorebird – plover and sandpipers of all varieties from large to least. The second – far less easily dealt with – is the inevitable plastic junk washed up on every tide. This has to be collected up and ‘binned’, a never-ending cycle of plastic trash disposal. Except for the ATLAS V SPACE-ROCKET FAIRING found on the beach, that came from the Mars ‘Curiosity’ launch.

We kept is as a… curiosity, until it was eventually removed by the men in black…

I’d intended to have a ‘plastic beach trash’, Atlantic-gyre-rage rant, with angry / sad photos to match. Instead, I decided to illustrate a more positive side to beach life – things you may discover when you take a closer look at the sand under your feet. Like the coconut above. Many of these photos were taken by our friend Clare Latimer (to whom thanks for use permission); some by me.

A LONE FLOWERSEA STAR (DEFUNCT), WITH CRAB TRACKSSEA FAN (GORGONIAN)WASHED-UP BOTTLE (PROBABLY NOT RUM)

SEA BISCUITS

Thanks to Capt Rick Guest, who has contributed an interesting comment regarding the sea biscuit with a hole in it. He writes “the (Meoma) Sea Biscuit w/ the hole in it was dined upon by a Helmet Conch. The Cassis madagascariensis, or C.tuberosa drills the hole w/ its conveyer-belt-like radula teeth w/ some help from its acidic, saliva. Probably 98% of all symetrical holes in marine invertebrates are of this nature. Murex, Naticas, Helmets, and many Cephalapods (via a Stylet), are the usual B&E suspects. The Cone shells utilize a modified radula in the form of a harpoon which is attached to a venom tube.” For more on the vicious cone shell, and other creatures to avoid, click HERE

DRIFTWOOD. IT’S LIKE… OH, USE YOUR IMAGINATIONA WILSON’S PLOVER NESTHORSESHOE CRAB (LIMULUS)A SCULPTURE? AN EMBRYONIC SHELTER? LARGE BIRD FOOTPRINTSMORE BIRD PRINTS AND CRAB TRACKS CRABUS CUTICUSCONCH SHELLS & OTHER BEACH TREASURESCRAB HOLE & TRACKSSOME IDIOT’S LEFT HIS… OH! IT’S MINE

BEACHCOMBING: AN INVASION OF BEADS AT ROLLING HARBOUR

December 19, 2012 by Rolling Harbour

BEACHCOMBING: A BEAD INVASION AT ROLLING HARBOUR

The Delphi Club beach at Rolling Harbour is an undeniably beautiful 3/4 mile curve of white-sand bay, shelving gently into pale blue water. Many interesting things get washed up on the shore, besides shells, sea glass, and vast quantities of seaweed (with a fair amount of junk) that must be regularly cleared. It’s a good place for desultory beachcombing, and some of the finds have featured in earlier posts, with the help of KASIA

Delphi Club, Rolling Harbour, Abaco

Of course that is not in the least unusual in these parts, though Delphi can claim the unique distinction of a 12 foot booster rocket fairing from the Mars ‘Curiosity’ launch, washed up early in 2012 (see short posts on the developing story at ONE & TWO & THREE)

Sandy's Mystery Object

There are large glass and wooden floats. Things that might be car parts. Wooden pallets. Not, as yet, any of the yellow plastic ducks so often written about (see book review of MOBY DUCK). Now, we have an invasion of coloured beads. 2012 has been a prime year for bead beachcombing, a specialist field. At times, guests have had a field day (if you can have one of those on a beach?) collecting these small beads. One large flagon has already been filled and, as Peter Mantle observes, “our cup runneth over”.

An important Christmas task – and not a difficult one, I envisage – will be to empty another suitably large vessel. Drinking is likely to be involved. Meanwhile, an explanation for this beach bead influx over many months would be good to find. A container of children’s toys sadly washed overboard? Evidence of some arcane fishing method? An explosion in a necklace factory? Beads deemed unsuitable for rosaries? Rejects from the World Marbles Convention? Has anyone else experienced finding these multicoloured beads on their local beaches? I know that a few beachcombers follow this blog (thanks!) from other parts of the world. Any beads? All contributions by way of the COMMENT link, or an email to rolling harbour.delphi[at]gmail.com, welcome.

Some of the beads collected during the year – another container needed urgently
Beachcombing Beads

STIMULATING CURIOSITY IN ABACO: DELPHI CLUB’S SMALL PART OF THE MARS MISSION

August 6, 2012 by Rolling Harbour

One of the first colour images from the Mars rover Curiosity – a composite panorama 9 August 2012 (NASA)

STIMULATING CURIOSITY IN ABACO

THE DELPHI CLUB’S PART OF THE MARS ROVER MISSION

One of the first images from Mars

CURIOSITY landed on Mars today. This is the best chance yet of answering Ziggy Stardust’s rhetorical question “Is there life on Mars?”, and doffing an astronaut’s helmet to space pioneer Major Tom along the way… Assiduous readers of the blog will both recall that a while ago, the Delphi Club was privileged to be involved in a small part of the ‘Curiosity’ Mars Rover project. It’s a prime example of what one might call “extreme beachcombing…”

“One small part for a space program, one giant chunk of junk for the Delphi beach…” (S Walker)

Here are the links to the 3 short illustrated reports (rockets, boys!) in this blog from early 2012

1. ABACO BEACHCOMBING: MYSTERY OBJECT FROM THE DELPHI CLUB BEACH HERE 1

The discovery by Sandy Walker of the item above on the Delphi Club beach, Abaco: 12 feet of conical mystery

2. ‘SO LONG, ARIANE’: FROM ROCKS TO ROCKETS ON THE DELPHI CLUB BEACH, ABACO HERE 2

News of a positive ID by serial number as rocket débris from the Mars Program Curiosity Rover launch

3. BEACHCOMBING ‘CURIOSITY’ ON ABACO: OUT OF THIS WORLD TO THE RED PLANET HERE 3

Confirmation of this item as part of the booster rocket fairing of the Altas V rocket used to launch Curiosity in Nov 2011

◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊

The episode had a slightly bathetic ending. Initial lack of official interest in the cone, which I personally hoped could then be planted deep in the coppice or pine forest for future generations to discover and wonder about, suddenly changed. In due course a team of astro-science persons (in a large black truck and white protective suits, I’d like to believe) came and took it away. This forestalled my other idea: cutting it up into hundreds – or thousands – of small pieces and selling them on eBay (possible in aid of the Abaco Parrots). A 12 foot cone of gleaming heat-resistant secret Abaconite space material. 5000 tiny pieces @ $100 each… Hmmmmmmmmm

Here are some links to play with

OFFICIAL MARS EXPLORATION PROGRAM SITE

WIKI-DETAILS

(Oh come on, admit it, you enjoyed those just a bit?)

Credit NASA / Telegraph

BEACHCOMBING ‘CURIOSITY’ ON ABACO: OUT OF THIS WORLD TO THE RED PLANET

February 2, 2012 by Rolling Harbour

More news about the the space rocket debris washed up on the Delphi Club beach, Abaco. The booster rocket fairing found by Sandy fortunately had a serial number on it. Various inquiries have been made and a definitive explanation of the item has now been given by the NTSB. It turns out that the fairing was not, after all, from the Ariane 5 launch in French Guyana. More exciting than that – it comes from a Mars Program launch to put the Space Rover Curiosity on Mars. There’s an excellent Wikipedia article on the mission to be found at WIKIMARS

Bob Swaim at the NTSB has emailed Sandy to say “The serial number of the fairing fragment is from a part that was on a Delta V [sic – it was in fact an Atlas V, see comments] rocket launch of November 26, 2011. In August, a new car-sized rover will touch down on Mars and you’ll have something from the mission!” He has kindly provided a link to the launch – see image below and direct link HERE He has also given a direct link to the NASA MARS PROGRAM site from which I have taken the screen clip below. You will see an image of the Mars Rover Curiosity, and the time countdown until touch-down at the exact moment I took the shot…

I contacted Bill Ailor, Principal Scientist/Engineer, Center for Orbital and Reentry Debris Studies, The Aerospace Corporation AERO CORP thinking a booster fairing might be of interest for their rocket debris database. He writes

Thanks for the notification (and for your excellent web page – looks like a wonderful spot). On the website, we catalog debris that has reentered from orbit and don’t include payload fairings, solid and first stage rocket boosters, and other “range” debris, since these are suborbital and the launch is designed so that the debris impacts is in known safe areas. That debris can sometimes float outside of the safe area and wash ashore.I should mention that we recently reentered a small device that might one day float to your beach. I’ve attached a description. Let us know if you see that one

Although the device he mentions may have in fact have landed a long distance away (the South Pacific even), best keep an eye out for this…REBR Fact Sheet By a strange coincidence in a huge world, the Aerospace Database shows that in 1965 reentry debris was recovered from a beach on Abaco:

In early 1965 an object having the appearance of a space fragment was reported washed ashore on Abaco Island in the Bahamas

Possibly from the Atlas-Mariner I booster which was destroyed by the range safety officer shortly after launch on 22 July 1962, and landed in the designated ocean impact area

Apologies if I have got sidetracked from normal beachcombing duties – shells and stuff – but wildlife blogging doesn’t get more exciting than this – well, unless they find a colony of Abaco parrots on Mars…