Look what we found at the beach this morning!

Today's bike ride to the beach took a surprising turn. Instead of watching the sun rise swiftly over the horizon, I became totally captivated by an unusual beachcombing find.

Yesterday's storm must have washed ashore a huge fishing net complete with brass rings, thick rope and numerous crabs, shrimp, shells, sponge and assorted cans and other trash caught within its woven confines.

Two other beachcombers stopped to check out the huge fishing net and thick ropes that washed ashore this morning in New Smyrna Beach 

As I got off my bike to take a closer look, several other people also stopped to check it too. Working together we freed as many crabs and shrimp as we could and separated out the trash and fishing line to take away and dispose of before any birds became entangled.  

Being the incorrigible hoarders that we are, I called up Ralph, who was still at home, and told him to meet me at the beach.

"We found a huge fishing net with a bunch of thick rope," I told him.

A short while later he joined me and together we managed to separate the rope from the net and load the entire wet, sandy mass onto my recumbent 'Fun Cycle'.

With the net and the rope on my bike there was no room for me to sit and pedal so I pulled the trike back to the 27th Ave parking lot while Ralph biked home to get the van and trailer.

Today my Fun Cycle doubled as a wheelbarrow waiting at the 27th Ave Park for Ralph to pick me up and take the rope and netting away.  

End of story:  We missed the sunrise but gained several yards of thick sea and sand encrusted netting and rope.  Not a bad trade off even if we have no idea yet what we're going to do with this latest in a series of too-good-to-leave-on-the-beach finds.