Saturday

We rode our bikes out to Honeymoon Island this morning to inspect the beach project progress. There was a State Park representative giving information on the project. They expect to be finished in August, maybe mid July. They won’t open any of the new beach until they are through with all of it.

The representative said that the machines use plant-based fuel in case there is a leak or fuel spill. In that case, the environment would not be harmed. Also, she said that the machinery has to be trashed after the project is over because the sand and salt water ruin the metal, engines, and hydraulics. I had wondered about that. So much for protecting the environment.

The project costs $1.8 million

Only Oasis Beach will be restored at this time. That means North Beach, Main Beach, and dog beach will remain narrow. Oasis Beach was considered an emergency project because the surf was eroding the parking lot. There was zero beach at high tide. The other beaches will have to wait for the next regularly scheduled nourishment, sometime in the next year.

The dredgers will be going 250 yards beyond the North Beach parking lot. That’s the direction they are coming in the picture above.

The project will go about 200 yards beyond where John is, towards the north.

Dog Beach on the southern tip of Honeymoon is much shorter now. The inlet behind me is considerably wider.

Dog Beach is also more crowded.

This is the southern tip. They left a thin spit of sand and an island. Not sure why.

The tiny, green channel marker, 5A, in the photo above used to be a few yards off the southern tip. We used to turn around when we got to the point where we were almost standing in front of the sign. The channel used to be very narrow here.

Here’s a close up. All of the sand that used to be here has been sucked up and moved up the island and deposited on Oasis Beach.

Most of the water above the current beach in the picture above used to be sand.

Walking back north on Dog Beach.

It was a beautiful day, eventually getting up to 90 degrees. It was about 81 this morning with humidity in the 60s.

After lunch, I went to Weaver Park to exercise. This is a selfie of me doing sit ups.

Then I rode south on the Pinellas Trail and turned around at the edge of Clearwater.

 

We came upon a baby armadillo on our afternoon walk. Toby was very curious.

I think we have a family of these living in our front plant bed.

Today’s bike routes to Honeymoon Island and to Alt.-19 on the edge of Clearwater 

Miles walked: 6

Miles biked: 24.85