5 Golden Rings Lost in the Surf – Found and Returned Myrtle Beach SC

On Friday June 17^th, I got an e-mail from Josh that said in part that he lost 5 rings in the ocean and wondered if there was any way I could help. We went back and forth via e-mail and I finally asked for his number. As I was calling him, I’m thinking – 5 rings, must have had them on a towel and flipped the towel or something along those lines. When he answered his phone the first question I asked was, “is this legit?” He assured me it was and said that he was wearing all 5 rings and was throwing a football back and forth with a friend in the surf – not a good thing. He went on to say the finger he was wearing his class ring on was swollen so he moved that ring to his pinky. A few catches later and the football knocks the ring into the surf. At that point Josh said he took the other 4 rings off and put them on a chain he had around his neck. Guess where the football hit next, yep broke the chain and all 4 rings hit the water and disappeared. He also said he was back home in Virginia and this happened the previous Saturday. He gave me the hotel and a real good idea of the location and said he lost them in knee deep water about 1pm. Looking at the tide tables for that day I saw that high tide was within an hour of him losing the rings – no problem, the rings should be pretty close to the high tide line. On my way to the beach, he sends me a text saying he remembered that they all got up early that morning for breakfast and were on the beach and he lost them about 10am. Ok now I’m farther down the beach and in the surf which always makes a find a little tougher depending on the waves and wind.

When I got there I scoped out the area and realized with me having a bad ankle, the size of the area and an incoming tide that I could definitely use some help. I called my friend, Jim to see what he was doing. At the time he was busy and said he wouldn’t be able to make it, 5 minutes later he called me back saying he needed a break and would be right there. I had already started a north/south grid working the surf line when he showed up. I drew a line in the sand at about the mid search area and he worked north and I worked south of the line. At some point I decided I’d start doing an east/west grid line and go from about waist deep in the water to close to the high tide line. My fourth line I got a great signal and dug out two rings (one stuck inside the other). Bingo I had found the right spot. I got Jim’s attention and he came up to help find the other 3 rings. Again I started with a north/south grid starting at my mid-point line I had made. Jim made a couple of passes around the spot and found 2 more rings and then about 10 minutes later found the 5^th ring, which was the class ring, nine feet away from the spot of the other 4 rings. I sent Josh a picture of me wearing all 5 rings and he responded with OMG!

Got them all wrapped up and sent them home Friday and got a text from Josh today that he finally got them back.

Josh had to take 2 different pictures to show him with all 5 but the smile on his face says it all.

A big thanks to Jim Brouwer for his help once again.

Jim

 

Thanks for reading my blog!!!