Sandy Point Beach (Portsmouth) 10.3.09
Trash collected: 11.14 lbs. (Rusty pipe:  7 lbs.)Sandy Point Beach is on the Sakonnet River.   It’s a local’s beach at the end of a long road winding past polo fields, a vineyard and some beautiful stables.  A lucky find and a recommendation from SurfRider Rhode Island.   It had been raining most of the day and the rain burned off as I arrived at mid-tide.  It was quiet.   One seagull on the beach.  The gull looked at me and moved along. 

I walked for several minutes and didn’t see anything to pick up.  After awhile I did find some trash – not much, but some.  Mostly glass, one plastic bottle, some pieces of plastic, a brick worn by the waves, and a large rusty pipe. 

A dog ran by, bounding ahead.  His owner looked at my bag and the rusty pipe in my hand.  ‘Are you cleaning the beach?’ he asked.  I nodded. ‘Thank you’, he said.  I wasn’t expecting ‘thank yous’, but they are really nice to hear.   I finished my cleanup.  As I got into my car, the gull sidelined back into position.  His beach now, I thought as I drove away.   Just a little bit cleaner.

Second Beach (Middletown) 10.4.09
Trash Collected: 3 lb.s 9 ozs.It’s early Sunday morning in Newport, around 7:30am.  It’s quiet as I head to Second Beach on Sachuest Bay in Rhode Island Sound.   I drive past Atlantic and Easton’s beaches and wind around to Purgatory Road and Paradise Avenue.  I’m at Second Beach.  All the activity is here.  Surfers out in the water.   Others changing into wet suits and waxing their boards in the parking lot.  Vans and trucks rolling in, dogs in the back.  This is a tight crowd, focused on the water.  I get glances but no smiles.  I get my bags and gloves and walk toward the beach.  The beach is fairly clean – just a few child’s plastic toys, some bottles, cans and plastic bags.  Lots of cigarette butts.  I gather a bag of trash in twenty minutes and weigh it – a little under 4 lbs. 

Second Beach is a beautiful beach, a surfer’s beach, a private world.  I first saw Second Beach two years ago, also early morning.  I’d taken a spin through Middletown, not sure where I was going.  I drove down that hill and fell in love.  The surfers – all ages, all sizes – the joy, the movement, the energy.  Second Beach in early morning never disappoints.