I got a call from Andrew at Punaluu Beach Park at around 5PM. Great rush hour traffic! Andrew explained to me that he and his wife Meghan were laying in about 2 feet of water and when he stood up his wedding band slipped off into the water. He felt it drop off and immediately reached into the water and sand to retrieve his ring but as usual the sand consumed it. Meghan and Andrew looked for a while but never saw a hint of the ring. So 34 miles and about an hour away. I had my daughter check the traffic APP and the roads were clear. I loaded up and called Andrew and told him I’d get there as soon as I could. He said they would wait at the beach in their rental car. The scenic ride up along the East coast of Oahu is spectacular. Several bays, the Koolau mountains and China-man’s Hat Island make the drive breathtaking. I was there in no time. Andrew took me down to the beach to show me where in the water he was when the ring fell off. He was very sure of the location so I started a circular search with him as the pivot point. There was a lot of deep trash and under the sand was very chunky coral rocks. After about five trash targets and seeing how the waves were crashing on the beach with a fairly solid bottom I decided to move shore-ward to the wave curl. I thought with the hard bottom the ring probably tumbled up to that point. As I went along the wave curl I saw a Portuguese Man-O-War floating between Andrew and myself. I warned him to watch out and let me know if any more come into our area. The bubble and deep purple streamer isn’t hard to miss. My first target had that familiar sound and one scoop there was Andrew’s ring. Elapsed time 7 minutes. Andrew and Meghan were both surprised and grateful. From Austin, Texas and Married just 4 days with the lost ring back on his finger there were « Smiles » all around. Aloha to Andrew & Meghan.
Congrats Joe! Well done! Didn’t know there were Portuguese Man-O-War jelly fish around here!
Yes watch out they hurt like Hell. Especially on the windward side of the islands. Trade winds blow those air sacks to our shoreline. Aloha, Joe
Thanks again Joe you’re a lifesaver! We both appreciate how quickly you responded and how dedicated you were to finding the ring. Hopefully we never run into that problem again but if we do I know who we’ll be calling! Thanks again!