# Singer Island Beach



## MILOIOWA (Sep 10, 2012)

From the webcam pics looks like the beach is in bad shape. Anyone know if they have plans to reconstruct it at all?


----------



## suenmike32 (Sep 13, 2012)

Hi Miloiowa,
As an owner at Ocean Pointe, I'm always curious about what goes on there.
I checked our web-cam from the pumping station and unfortunately, it is not showing the beach in front of OP at this time.
Where are you getting your photos from, (that would indicate that the beach is in tough shape)?
Thanks,
Mike


----------



## MILOIOWA (Sep 13, 2012)

http://www.co.palm-beach.fl.us/webcams/lwi/dig001.jpg


----------



## suenmike32 (Sep 14, 2012)

I see what you're saying (having logged onto your link). As I recall over the last few years there has always been a minimal amount of beach down near the pump station. (near Kingfish). As you look up further toward the main part of the resort, the beach gets a bit wider. Last Feb & Mar it was quite nice, but not as wide as 6-7 years ago
Over the past 8 years, the beach has been eroding significantly due to 2-3 hurricanes that came extremely close and I believe that the pumping station is designed to correct that and attempt to move sand toward the beach. Last year they were constantly dredging the inlet and bringing sand out to the mouth so that it would wash up on the beach. So, in answer to your question, I think that beach preservation is an ongoing thing. All they can do is try, but Mother Nature always has the final say.
Mike


----------



## simpsontruckdriver (Sep 14, 2012)

Plus, the stuff on the beach is washed-up seaweed. That happens on most beaches in Florida when a storm comes near, like all the storms we've had this past summer. It's ugly, but harmless, as well as too expensive to cleam up. Most areas would rather let nature clean up her mess than spend tons of money to do it.

TS


----------



## MILOIOWA (Sep 14, 2012)

Ok, it just looks a lot narrower than when we were there June of 11. Does appear to be wider down towards PBS resort-which it was then too so that makes sense. I love it there and hope they can get it back to the way it was. If not, oh well I guess, still loveit there LOL!


----------



## chriskre (Sep 14, 2012)

I was there in May on an exchange and they put us in the building near that pump station.  Why they built the buildings in front of that area is beyond me.    Awful beach with a huge drop off.  Not appealing at all.:ignore: 

The area closer to PBS and the main resort was a lot better.
It was too rough the week we were there due to a big storm so we weren't able to go in the ocean but this week in FL has been beautiful so I'm sure it's better now.


----------



## dougp26364 (Sep 15, 2012)

It very well may be narrower. This time of year it starts getting hammered by off shore storms that take their toll on the beach. I believe the beach will look different at different times of the year. Months when there are fewer storms off shore, the beach will be smoother and wider. During hurricane season, if the beach is getting hammered frequently by waves from off shore storms or storms directly over the area, the beach will get narrower as there's less time to recover.

This beach has become narrower since we first set foot on it in 2001. There has also been significant storms that have come through while there hasn't been much of a break from year to year to allow the beach to recover. Give it a couple of light storm seasons and the beach will begin to look wider and more level.


----------



## fashionlady (Sep 15, 2012)

I live in Palm Beach Gardens which is 10 min from singer island. We have been having a lot of storms this season. the beaches are nice here most of the time. Singer Island is nice beach. but as a  local I prefer Juno beach. the nice thing about singer Island is you can go across the bridge and get a water taxi to take you to peanut island for the day. Which is an island with restrooms etc. you can bbq there. There are a couple of boats that sell food.


----------



## Paumavista (Sep 16, 2012)

*Like Cancun*



simpsontruckdriver said:


> Plus, the stuff on the beach is washed-up seaweed. That happens on most beaches in Florida when a storm comes near, like all the storms we've had this past summer. It's ugly, but harmless, as well as too expensive to cleam up. Most areas would rather let nature clean up her mess than spend tons of money to do it.
> 
> TS



OK......a little off topic....we were at Oceana Palms last December and were also disappointed in the beach (we were used to Hilton Head and SC large *wide* flat beaches).  We also didn't find the beach on Singer to be particularly clean....lots of little trash.

Then we visited the Royals in Cancun for a week this past February....WOW, they DO sweep the beaches every day!!  & they had groups walking up and down the beach in front of the resort picking up any little trash.  It was beautiful.  For "city" beaches they were absolutely the cleanest, nicest we have seen.  Perhaps with all those big resorts on Singer they could at least chip in for a tractor to pick up trash, etc.


----------



## dougp26364 (Sep 16, 2012)

Paumavista said:


> OK......a little off topic....we were at Oceana Palms last December and were also disappointed in the beach (we were used to Hilton Head and SC large *wide* flat beaches).  We also didn't find the beach on Singer to be particularly clean....lots of little trash.
> 
> Then we visited the Royals in Cancun for a week this past February....WOW, they DO sweep the beaches every day!!  & they had groups walking up and down the beach in front of the resort picking up any little trash.  It was beautiful.  For "city" beaches they were absolutely the cleanest, nicest we have seen.  Perhaps with all those big resorts on Singer they could at least chip in for a tractor to pick up trash, etc.



There's a LOT of politics on that little island. I'd hate to think about how many palms would need to be "greased" and how many years of fighting it would take to get it done. Marriott had to make many concessions to get permission to build Oceana Palms. The Ocean Mall has taken forever with all the fighting to get the old decrepit mall raized and a new mall built. There was suppose to be a hotel built on top of it but the city fought tooth and nail to limit the number of floors to such a small number that it would never be profitable, thus it never happened. And yet, there are multi-million dollar high rise condo's all along the beach. Things that make you go hmmmmm.


----------



## Paumavista (Sep 16, 2012)

*Interesting re: Mall-stores*



dougp26364 said:


> There's a LOT of politics on that little island. I'd hate to think about how many palms would need to be "greased" and how many years of fighting it would take to get it done. Marriott had to make many concessions to get permission to build Oceana Palms. The Ocean Mall has taken forever with all the fighting to get the old decrepit mall raized and a new mall built. There was suppose to be a hotel built on top of it but the city fought tooth and nail to limit the number of floors to such a small number that it would never be profitable, thus it never happened. And yet, there are multi-million dollar high rise condo's all along the beach. Things that make you go hmmmmm.



Interesting you mentioned the little stores there as well......we thought it would be such a nice little area for a few more restaurants etc (seemed not to be well used).  Of course there was alot of construction along the main street (and hopefully there will be a nice sidewalk someday)....but even nicer would be a walkway on the "beachside" of all the resorts.  Kind of like they have in Aruba, or the main beach in Maui....where you can walk from hotel to hotel & then down to the restaurants - - would make for a wonderful area.....and the island isn't so big that it would be such a hugh walk......
Oh well too bad, but it is one of the reasons it's not really high on  my "return to" list.


----------



## suenmike32 (Sep 17, 2012)

Paumavista said:


> Interesting you mentioned the little stores there as well......we thought it would be such a nice little area for a few more restaurants etc (seemed not to be well used).  Of course there was alot of construction along the main street (and hopefully there will be a nice sidewalk someday)....but even nicer would be a walkway on the "beachside" of all the resorts.  Kind of like they have in Aruba, or the main beach in Maui....where you can walk from hotel to hotel & then down to the restaurants - - would make for a wonderful area.....and the island isn't so big that it would be such a hugh walk......
> Oh well too bad, but it is one of the reasons it's not really high on  my "return to" list.


We've seen a ton of major changes at the small shopping center of which you speak (over the past 9 years). The older wooden buildings have been totally removed and replaced by a modern concrete construction shopping area with at least 3 restaurants, a Wings store and 2-3 yet unrented spaces. The area is quite nice and the town did an outstanding job refurbishing the Riviera Beach park (directly across the street from the small mall). To be honest, I walk the beach many times from Riviera all the way to the inlet and have never seen volumes of trash. Daily, I see employees of the firm that rents umbrellas raking and burying seaweed and I also see the trash barrels emptied at least once if not twice a day.
I don't think that you will ever see a walkway behind the buildings (facing the beach), not only because of privacy issues but because of environmental issues with the nesting of sea-turtles.
If you haven't been to the Singer Island mall in several years, I think you will be very surprised...and hopefully impressed.


----------



## captbob (Sep 17, 2012)

*Where's the Beach*

The major problem with the beach is the proximity of the harbor entrance to Palm Beach itself. The sand is moved by the current Southward along to the shore counter to the Northward running Gulf Stream which runs 2-5 miles offshore. The breakwater at the entrance to Lake Worth, Palm Beach is there to keep the sand from shoaling and making the harbor too shallow for the big ships that use it. 

The Sand Pump at the North Breakwater is there to pump the sand that builds up behind the North Breakwall under the channel and deliver it south where it can continue its journey. Even though it does pump quite a volume of sand under the channel it's effects have not succeded in keeping sand out of the channel. We have seen a dredger moving material out of the channel this spring and more recently moving sand away from the beach just north of the breakwall. This is to keep the sand from moving around the East end of the breakwall and once again making it too shallow.

The result of all this intended sand movement has been to lessen the sand buildup by the breakwall and thus the beach has diminished dramatically. I don't see the beach coming back, storm or no storms because they will pump sand and dredge to keep the channel open. The only way to resore the beach would be to extend the North Breakwall 200-400 feet and allow more sand to build up behind it. The cost of doing that is much more than the occasional dredging that needs to be performed. Surely the cost outweighs the desire of the Timeshare owners to have a nice beach. 

:deadhorse:


----------

