Armada on the Horizon

[Arlo]

I glanced out the west window of the condo this morning to see more vessels at one time than any time I've been here. Had my telephoto fully extended so not terribly sharp. The closest was hauling another rig of some kind behind it. You who are more experienced from the area will be able to identify or speculate what type of vessels they were I'm sure.



I walked Gulf Blvd again today down into the middle walkover of the new park, then took my shoes off and waded back west to the condo. Water felt fine after the first mild shock. As I came back up the condo elevator in my shorts and bare feet, I was joined by one of the building's maintenance men wearing a stocking cap and heavy jacket.

Us northerners are tough cookies. 50 degrees on a sunny day is like the tropics to us!

Arlo

[Kenny Wilder]

It appears to be ships and support boats for the Destin beach restoration project. The tugboat in the foreground is pulling what appear to be two platforms. The platform to the left may be one of the buildings that are used on the beach that stores many of the tools to repair equipment and the 36 inch steel pipes that are used to distribute the sand on the beach from a dredge ship. The platform to the right may be the anchored floating connector from a dredge ship to the 36 inch steel pipes that run onto the beach. The large ship on the horizon appears to be the dredge ship. To the left of the dredge ship is the bow with the cranes that handle the 36inch rubber pipes that will connect to the anchored platform once it is in place about 1200 to 1500 feet off the beach. The small boats to the right and to the left of the dredge ship are trawlers that will work about four miles off the Destin beach. The trawlers function is to drag large nets in the areas where the sand will be dredged to safely capture sea turtles so that they don’t get sucked up with the sand into the dredge ship. These areas offshore are called sand boroughs.

I shot about 1,000 photos of the entire Navarre Beach Restoration Project that started in March 2006 and ended in November 2006. I have two online photo galleries where you can view close up shots in high resolution of the same type of dredge ship, supporting water craft and equipment on the Gulf and on Navarre Beach. Click on the following two galleries.


I shot about 1,000 photos of the entire Navarre Beach Restoration Project that started in March 2006 and ended in November 2006. I have two online photo galleries where you can view close up shots of the same type of dredge ship, supporting water craft and equipment on the Gulf and on Navarre Beach. Click on the following two galleries.

Navarre Beach Restoration Project of 2006
http://www.pbase.com/kennywilder/startrestoration

Onboard the R.N. Weeks Dredge Ship
http://www.pbase.com/kennywilder/rn_weeks

The dredge ship sometimes at Destin may collect sand just outside of Destin Pass instead of several miles off the beach like was done at Navarre Beach in 2006.

[skipper]

Does anybody know if there's a plan to rebuild our beach?

[Kenny Wilder]

skipper,

Yes, there is a plan to rebuild certain areas of Navarre Beach.

The Navarre Beach Restoration Project of 2009 has been extensively discussed on the Navarre Beach Life Forum’s sub-forum “Navarre Beach Restoration”. Most of your questions should be answered there. Be sure to read Commissioner Gordon Goodin’s e-mail posted on this forum dated January 9, 2009. This particular post includes the comments by Cliff Truitt, the engineer and environmental consultant retained by Santa Rosa County to oversee the project. There are numerous federal and Florida state permits and environmental assessments that will need to be signed off on before any restoration work can proceed. The “Navarre Beach Restoration” Forum link is http://navarrebeachlife.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=3636

I will contact Commissioner Goodin to see if there is an update on the Restoration Project.