Engagement Ring Lost at La Jolla Shores... Found

I received a call in early Sept from Zach about two lost rings at La Jolla Shores. His fiance Maria had been out kayaking with her friends and on the return leg of the trip, got caught in a wave, overturned, and her engagement and promise rings came off in the waist deep surf. By the time I got the call, Maria had returned to San Bruno so I had to go by a map and description of the search area.

After gridding the area for three days (about 12 hours) I had to  give Zach the bad news that I just couldn’t find them. I had found many other target so I figured it was unlikely anyone else had hunted the area and found them,  but, I told him I would keep it on my « list » and check with others I knew to see if it had been found. Nobody fessed up so I put it on my « return at low tide » list so I could venture out a bit further in the ocean.

Fast forward a month…..nice minus tide and calm conditions made the area inviting to search. After about 2 hours of virtually no targets, I get a weak but promising sound in my Excalibur’s headphones. In about knee deep water, I sifted one full scoop and discovered a beautiful platinum diamond ring in the bottom. Since I had earlier received a photo of the rings, I knew right away that I finally had one of them. I searched another couple of hours centered around that find, but still couldn’t come up with the promise ring. A task for another day. I texted Zach with a photo and the question, « does this look familiar? » and received an excited reply « YES! »

He said he would fly down here in a couple of days to pick it up. Since he hadn’t been here when it was lost, he wanted to go to the site and see where it all happened, so, I picked him up at the airport early Friday morning and took him there, where we snapped a few photos and took a little tour of the area. Over a nice breakfast, I learned that he hadn’t told her about finding the ring. He plans on getting it resized and proposing  to her again! Boy will she be surprised when she sees that ring again! (I hope you’re going to video that Zach!) Oh, and they were scheduled to have some of their upcoming wedding photos taken this coming weekend, so the timing couldn’t have been better.

Even though it was one of the most difficult and longest  searches I’ve had so far (about 16 hours total), it was very satisfying to make this recovery. It was a pleasure to meet you Zach and thank you for the generous reward. Maybe you two will decide to honeymoon in San Diego, now that Maria’s painful memories are alleved somewhat. Wherever you go, I hope you have a great time and happy marriage!

Right about where the surfer is in the first photo is where I found the ring. Tide’s quite a ways in compared to when I found it, but you get the idea.