Donna reached out to me about a lost ring in their lagoon. Her husband, Joe, had been working on their boat when their dog suddenly jumped into the water. Joe immediately followed, jumping in to help the dog back onto the dock. At some point during the process, either when he hit the water or while lifting the dog his wedding ring slipped off. He didn’t realize it was missing until he had gotten out and dried off.
Joe was certain the ring had to be somewhere between the back of the boat and about 20 feet along the bulkhead toward the neighbor’s dock. After searching on their own for a while, Donna, who was familiar with my page, decided to reach out to me. Since low tide was early the next morning, we arranged to meet then for the best chance of recovery.
When I arrived, Joe showed me exactly where he had entered the water and where he had lifted the dog up onto their dock. Even at low tide, the water was chest-deep, which made detecting tricky without a weight belt. Just a few feet from the bulkhead, the lagoon dropped off quickly to chin-deep water, too deep to work without diving gear. I had to be careful navigating the area, as barnacles on the bulkhead could easily cause cuts with just a slight brush against them.
As expected in a boating dock, there was a lot of debris, screws, bolts, nuts, washers, and even remnants of the old bulkhead, including cinder blocks, or some type of concrete. Each signal had to be checked carefully, as many of those objects sound similar to a ring. I worked all the way to the neighbors dock, the farthest point Joe had gone to rescue the dog, but had no luck.
Deciding to retrace my steps, I moved back along the bulkhead, where there the water much shallower. About halfway through, I got a solid low-tone signal that didn’t waver. Since the ring had only been lost the day before, I knew it would be right on top. I took one shallow scoop and there it was!
At first, Joe couldn’t see what was in my scoop. But when I held up the ring, he was completely amazed. He immediately called up to Donna, who was upstairs, and she was just as shocked. Their neighbor, who had been watching the recovery, was equally impressed.
Despite the deep water, debris, and difficult conditions, I was able to recover Joe’s ring in about 40 minutes. It was a tough search, but seeing their excitement and relief made it all worth it.
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Melissa sent me a message in a bit of a panic—her husband Ed had just lost his wedding ring on the beach and she wanted to know if I was available to help. They were sitting right there when he realized the ring was gone. One moment he had it, and the next, it had vanished into the sand. I reassured them to stay put, letting them know I could be there in about half an hour. When I arrived, I quickly marked off the perimeter around where they had been sitting and got to work. In less than five minutes, I heard the satisfying clink of metal in my scoop. The ring was safely recovered, much to their relief. Another fantastic recovery on the Jersey Shore !!
