Tropical Storm Isaac sanibel

Tropical Storm Isaac blew through Sanibel last night and today without doing too much damage that I could see… thank goodness. Whew, we got lucky. Very lucky.

beach access donax ts isaac

Through sporadic rain and north east wind gusts, we headed to a few different beaches to see the effects of Isaac. The morning’s high tide brought waves crashing on to the sea oats and up on to the beach access boardwalks. Wow!

high tide tropical storm isaac sanibel

Then by the late afternoon at low tide, the water receded a bit to let us hunt for shells. Nothing yet but a few PEN SHELLS and a few areas of “shell crush” which is just bits and pieces of broken shells coating the sand.

Clark tropical storm isaac

We ran out to the Sanibel Pier yesterday to check the beach condition and met Joe (a meteorologist!) and Joanne from Las Vegas looking for any signs of shells. They weren’t finding so many whole shells yet but it was so much fun to meet y’all!

jo joanne shelling tropical storm isaac

Okay, this is interesting… Look at the beach erosion at the pier in the background of the photo with Joe and Joanne and remember that was yesterday. If you’ve ever been to this beach before, you’ve probably walked under the pier to get to the other side to look for shells. Now take a look at the photo I took today of the pier. Look at the difference with the sand! No way to walk under it now!

Sanibel Pier Tropical Storm Isaac 2012

We did not find any shells today but I will be at the beaches tomorrow to check the conditions. We still have high east winds so I’m still not expecting any good shelling until the winds change directions and start coming from the west. Of course I will keep you informed but my thoughts are now with the folks in Louisiana and surrounding areas that are now in Tropical Storm Isaac’s path. Please be safe!

Until I can give you more shelling news and updates for Sanibel and Captiva, I filmed a few areas of the beach today with my good friend Diane so you could come along with us on our check-up of TS Isaac. You won’t need a raincoat to join us but earplugs might help because that wind was howling!

waves ts isaac