Beach Combing - Hunting For Sea Glass.

Escaping to Lynyards Cay for some beach days. The windward side is a great place to collect sea glass.

The last few weeks have been a blur of cold fronts coming through the Abacos which has mainly kept us in Marsh Harbour.  

Good times in Marsh Harbour with the crews of 'Hunda' and 'Joho'

We escaped down to Lynyard Cay 20 miles away briefly so that I could wander the windward beaches for sea glass but soon we were scuttling back to the protection of Marsh Harbour for the next bit of yucky westerly weather.  

Beach gatherings at Lynyards Cay.

Eventually we got the weather window we were looking for to leave the Abacos and headed south to Eluthera where we sit as the rain pours now. But not before I got two more days happily beach combing at Lynyards Cay.  While everybody knows that Sim is a bit of a maintenance nut, for which we both are eternally grateful as there is no denying this life would be a lot harder if he wasn’t. I’m a bit of a beachcombing nut. I LOVE walking on beaches, so much so I drive others nuts! Over the years the things I beach walk for have evolved from shells and sand dollars to seabean’s and driftwood to sea glass.  I have better collections than I have seen on display in museums of New York! But to be honest, its mainly just about being on the beach. 

These days I have to be selective on what I collect as we just don’t have the space to keep stuff. My latest fad is sea glass.  I’m totally obsessed with it and have been for a couple of years now.  I know to many, it is just broken glass, akin, as my sister said, to smashing a plate on the floor and handing me the pieces. But this is where you are wrong. It can take up to 40 years of tumbling in the ocean for a piece of broken glass to become a well rounded, smooth piece of frosted glass.

Some of my favourite pieces (that didn't break!)

So what do I do with all this sea glass? For the most part it’s all about the hunt. I just love walking on beaches. I’ll happily go on my own and lose hours wandering up and down the same stretch of beach, toes sinking into sand, listening to the roar of the ocean, salty hair whipping my face, thinking of nothing except for where I am. I love it, and find it both therapeutic and relaxing.  

Beautiful sea glsss

My favourite pieces I keep in a box that I get out every now and again to admire. (Though mental note to self not to do this when I have had a drink as dropped boxes and glass don’t go – I’m sadly a few fine pieces down). With the rest I make mobiles or mosaics, though I admit I am not very talented.  I make bracelets and necklaces with sliver wire and lately I have started to silver solder pieces.  I don’t pretend to be very good at this but, like beach walking it’s something I enjoy and as Sim says it keeps me quiet for a while.

My favourite - I call them 'Mermaids Tears' simple but elegant.

One of the bigger pieces I soldered together.