I was contacted by Kim whom had lost her wedding band overboard while she and her husband were anchored with some other boats in a small cove on Rangeley Lake, Maine. They saved the GPS coordinates and we returned to the site upon my arrival. The silty bottom became churned up during my search and I found myself in near zero visibility, like diving in chocolate milk. I used about 2 tanks of air before finding the ring a recovering in about eight feet of water about ten feet from the location saved on GPS. Tough search with no way to get bearings in very low visibility. While enjoying a celebratory cold beverage back ashore, conversation turned to dogs so I will be donating a portion of the generous reward I received to P. A. W. S. Animal shelter in Camden, Maine.
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While boating with friends, my wedding band & engagement ring went flying off my finger when I tried to swat a fly away from my face. Thankfully the engagement ring landed on our friend’s boat which was tied up next to us, but the wedding band was gone. We searched our boat and our friends, we weren’t even sure it landed in the water but my husband jumped in anyway to look for it, nothing. The next day we went back and my husband spent over two hours snorkeling trying to find it, no luck. After contacting our insurance agent we confirmed that it was fully covered but we didn’t want another ring, we wanted that one.
I found Sean Kelly from theRingFinder.com on line, located in Rockport over 100 miles away, I wasn’t even sure he would travel to Rangeley but thankfully he did. Sean and his wife Darcy drove nearly three hours to help us.
The ring was in 6-8 feet of water, the bottom was really silty, it took very little movement and visibility was almost completely gone. Given the size of the ring, the conditions and the amount of time that had passed (a week by the time we found Sean and he was able to come to our rescue) I really didn’t think it could be found but I knew we had to try, it was our Hail Mary.
After an hour of searching, Sean came back to the boat for a second tank of air, a short rest and back into the water he went. Visibility was near zero due to the silty bottom, we could tell he was having a difficult time keeping his bearings but he was persistent.
Nearing the second hour, I had pretty much given up hope and was resolved that my ring was gone forever. I started putting things away, preparing for the trip back to camp, and trying not to cry. But then Sean swam back to our boat, held out his hand and showed me my wedding band, I didn’t even try to hold back the tears. I think I was just as shocked to see it again as the day I lost it.
Sean was awesome! He worked tirelessly until he found the ring and was invested in the search as much as we were. You can tell this is very personal for him, and his family. His wife couldn’t wait to call their daughter and let her know her Dad had found the wedding ring. We are so grateful and thankful to Sean, and his family who are so supportive, we could not have done it without him.
If you lose something, first don’t panic. Second find some way to mark the location as best you can (my husband used gps, and took a photo of the shore line). Next, contact Sean! Oh, and DO NOT post on social media, let the professionals get there first!