FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. _ Bales of drugs, derelict vessels, seaweed, whales, and driftwood are among the many items to wash up on South Florida's beaches, but the latest flotsam and jetsam has made believers of some beach-goers.
A very large, barnacle-encrusted, wooden cross washed ashore behind the Ocean Manor Beach Resort along Galt Ocean Mile in Fort Lauderdale, during the weekend.
"It is fantastic," said Mary Ann Smolinski, visiting from Michigan. "It's amazing. Very spiritual."
A group of people dragged it up onto the beach from the water's edge behind the hotel at 4040 Galt Ocean Drive, she said.
"We were just lying on the beach and we saw a crowd of people around and I just got up to see what was going on," said Smolinski. "It was a cross that was laying right in the water."
John Skorupa, 74, of Fort Lauderdale, said he was walking along the beach early Saturday afternoon when he came upon the cross swaying in the surf and he took a few pictures.
"It was 20 foot long, like railroad ties," he said. "Really big, really big."
Speculation around the hotel tiki bar was lively. Everyone has a theory about where it came from, Skorupa said.
"The one that made sense to me was Puerto Rico because of the hurricanes they had there," he said. "But, it may be a sign of some kind."
He admits the discovery has also been a bit of a spiritual revelation.
"I called up a girlfriend that I went to church with a few times and I said, 'Let's start meeting again for church services,'" he said. "I brought her flowers."
