It was a very dark night on the windswept Carmel Main when I got the call, and although we had a bit of a language barrier, I was able to make out « Sunset, ring, lost, beach, Carmel, help, you have machine. » I grabbed my detector, scoop and all-important headlamp and headed out to the beach. The young couple from Italy had been enjoying an iconic California sunset, and as darkness fell, the young guy, wiping sand off his shorts, wiped his wedding band right off his hand, and right down a sandy slope. They wisely marked the spot they were at with a backpack, and so when I found them in my headlamps beam, I turned on my machine and I got to work. I swept in concentric circles from the backpack spot for about twenty minutes, chatting about how much I liked Italy when I visited as a teen. Unfortunately, we found nothing but aluminum pull tabs. Things looked grim. I figured maybe the ring flew farther than they surmised, and maybe some unlucky foot traffic also slid the ring down hill. I worked my way down slope and eventually, I did get a « faint 11 » on my Equinox. Sadly, after three or four attempts, the signal disappeared. I walked back up the slope, and asked the young lady if there happened to be anything shiny in my scoop, she reached in and pulled out their white gold wedding band held it up and cheered. Disaster averted, and I got a huge hug from her, than one from the guy too! He gave me some « American Dollars » as a reward, and I even got an invite to Italy! I was happy to send the now much happier couple off to Morro Bay, to continue their vacation!
