Cable Bay Tag | The Ring Finders

Swift Recovery of Cable Bay Wedding Ring

  • from Paihia (New Zealand)
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Sam texted me yesterday to say he had just lost his wedding ring at Cable Bay.
Forty five minutes later I was kitting up to start the search.

Cable Bay is a much more dynamic beach than Coopers Beach in the previous recovery, so Sam contacting me as soon as possible gave him the very best chance of getting his ring returned.

I started down the beach to the low tide waterline, turned and started the first return sweep.
Two or three paces and a smooth golden tone was clear in the headphones.
First scoop wasn’t enough, but the second bite left the hole silent.
I sifted through the shells at the side of the hole and Sams wedding ring stood out in the afternoon sunlight.
I held it up to the unbelieving couple with a big smile, « This yours? »

Most recoveries are pure hard graft, physically and mentally.
It’s nice to have one like this once in a while.

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Wedding Ring Lost at Coopers Beach

  • from Paihia (New Zealand)
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The first of two recoveries at Doubtless Bay this week….

I was contacted by a friend of Dean after she heard he had lost his wedding ring in the sea a couple of weeks previously.
Hand crafted in the Shetland Islands off Scotland, he only wore it on special occasions.

Dean had taken a dip at Coopers Beach before the wedding, and felt the ring slip off his finger while in the water.
He had given it up as lost, as so many unfortunately do, but his friend Joanne heard about it and contacted me.

Although we had had rough seas since the loss which would have put it a little deeper under fresh sand, two weeks head start was still a very high probability of success for Coopers.
Unfortunately no-one who was there on the day was available, so by playing « Chinese Whispers » with Dean over the phone and some guidance from Joanne as to their regular swim spot I made a start.

Dean mentioned he had been « pretty much straight out from the kayaks », I arrived and found the cluster of kayaks tied up under the trees and set to work.
The search area progressively grew larger and larger – I operate to 95+ probability of detection and the search pattern markers in the sand expanded further outwards with no sign of the ring.
I had just closed off the area, and started to work on the wildcard possibilities. Unlikely to hold the ring, but I always close off the What-If scenarios, so often they aren’t where people think they should be.

Looking back across the search grid, I was happy I hadn’t missed it. Had a casual walker spotted it and picked it up? Was it really here?
Joanne arrived as I was starting to expand the area yet again, and informed me that Dean was referring to her kayaks further up the beach – that were no longer there as they had been removed before the rough weather!

Back to square one.

Search 2 now started in front of the kayaks that were no longer there…
I worked the new grid, but after another hour, there was nothing but the usual metallic rubbish of ancient bottle caps, can pull tabs and a couple of aluminium rivet heads worn off dinghies years ago.
Joanne had to head off with the kids, so I said I’d finish the next sweep and call it quits.

That sweep finished, I wasn’t ready to let it go so started another, and another… It takes a lot for me to walk away from a ring.

Joanne was long gone when, a quiet tone in the headphones, very faint – almost imperceptible but a definite fluctuation in the threshold hum of the machine but consistent.
I glanced at the display, the detector software didn’t even know it was there! My experienced ears could hear it though.
The scoop went in, me standing on it with all my weight to force it through the layers of tightly packed shell, and the signal remained in the hole.
Another bite, and another until in the fluid sand at the bottom of the hole I saw a flash of yellow nearly 40cm down.

I reached in and pulled a handful of sand out – As my fingers unfolded, the outline of Deans wedding ring emerged.
I sent a text to both Dean and Joanne – « Gottit! »

Dean was back up from Auckland the following weekend, and we arranged a meet to reunite him with the ring.

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Gold and Diamond Ring Lost at Coopers Beach – Found

  • from Paihia (New Zealand)
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Jess and family were up in Doubtless Bay yesterday, and went for a swim at Little Cable Bay.
As her husband waded into the water, he got caught by a wave and his brand new gold and diamond wedding ring was swept from his finger.
Jess’ mum posted on the local Facebook group pleading for help, and I threw the kit into the car and started the 70km journey north.
Low tide was approaching so I focused first on the waters edge, before switching to the submersible kit to clear out a bit wider before that area was lost to the incoming tide.

Another metal detectorist turned up to search a little later on, and I was grateful he didn’t interfere too much with my search pattern.
Unsure of his intentions (a lot of detectorists are what I refer to as ‘ring collectors’), I was keeping half an eye on him which was a distraction.
He didn’t last long though and headed away again after about an hour, this is where my success rate comes from – I don’t give up.

As the sun set, the family had to head away to put their young child to bed, so we shook hands and I carried on.
Night fell as the search continued, eventually overlapping the other detectorists grid, when I got a signal that could only be it – located under the other guys footprint in the sand!
The scoop went in, and about 4″ down I saw the edge of a ring in the sand
Lifting it out it was definitely the one. Job done.
As it was late, I wasn’t able to catch up with them that night, so  this morning, I met up with them for the handover as they headed south for home.

Their Christmas is now much brighter than it had been 12Hrs ago.

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Wedding Ring Lost in Doubtless Bay, Found at 2am

  • from Paihia (New Zealand)
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Marys husband was fishing at Whatuwhiwhi while on holiday in the Doubtless Bay area.
He was doing quite well, and landed a nice Kahawai.
While he was cleaning the fish in the tide, his wedding ring slipped off and was lost.
Mary later posted on the local Facebook pages asking for people to keep an eye out for it – I know the beach well, and knew it would be unlikely to be exposed on the surface until a favourable erosion event took place – if ever.
On the basis of this, and with an earlier « Pay it Forward » recovery in-hand, I decided to make the 100km trip to Tokerau peninsula to catch the next low tide…at 3am.
It was a pleasant night, clear skies meant that I was able to work the beach by starlight and the light breeze coming off the sea carried the smell of seaweed.
It doesn’t get much better than this.
I had a rough start point, so started to work back and forth along the beach as the tide dropped.
With a campground nearby, the usual aluminium can tabs were present in good numbers though.
An hour passed, then in the wash at the waters edge, I got a double-thump in the phones.
The broken shell sand was loose enough for me to push my hand into it and my fingers closed around a familiar shape.  I glanced at my watch, it was just after 2am.
I took the Trophy Photo and, as it was such a pleasant night, carried on detecting on spec.
Until the novelty of can tabs wore off.
I waited until a reasonable hour before messaging Mary, unfortunately she didn’t see it before I had to head back south.
About a week later we were able to meet up and I could hand her husbands ring back.

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Gold Signet Ring Lost on Tokerau Beach, Quickly Found

  • from Paihia (New Zealand)
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Diane phoned me yesterday, her son had just lost his ring in the sea at Tokerau Beach in Doubtless Bay, NZ.
Fortunately it was at high tide, and the water was only a metre deep when lost.

I arrived a few hours later for low tide. Diane and Dan were there to meet me and we went through the usual twenty questions.
Diane told me that she had paced out to roughly where the ring had been lost – Textbook stuff to help your neighbourhood Ringfinder.

Both of them marked their respective « X » in the sand where they thought it might be and I started the search pattern, half an eye on the motorbikes and four-wheel drives roaring past (Tokerau Beach is classed as public highway, it’s supposed to be limited to 30km/h, but…).

It was nice to be out of surf and on nice open, flat, hard sand for the first time in a long while.

After about a dozen lines, I got a solid tone – could only be one thing.

It was about 5cm down – Dan’s face lit up as I showed it to him.

… Mums mark in the sand was the closest 🙂

 

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Gold Ring Lost at Cable Bay, NZ. Recovered Quickly by Experienced Ring Finder

  • from Paihia (New Zealand)
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MyJanne contacted me one evening a couple of days ago, she had been swimming in Doubtless Bay, NZ earlier in the day and had lost her gold ring in the water.

Fortunately, she contacted me straight away and I was able to be on site after work the following day to catch the falling tide.

The sea had picked up quite a bit since she lost the ring and I could see a lot of sand being moved in the shallows, there was potential for the ring to go deep in conditions like this. Time was of the essence if it was in this mobile soup of broken shell fragments.

MyJanne arrived shortly after and indicated out in the water where she thought the ring might be, I kitted up and waded out.
The initial area was a blank with only the occasional skeletal remnant of a long lost toy car or old decimal coin.
The grid was therefore opened up to go wider and further out into deeper water.

After about 90 minutes, I got a clean tone. Second scoop captured it and there, in with the seaweed and shell, was Myjannes lost ring.
MyJannes prompt call to an experienced ringfinder with a proven track record on water recoveries meant she had the very best chances of getting her ring back.

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Lost Ring at Tokerau, Found in the sea

  • from Paihia (New Zealand)
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Back up to Tokerau Beach, NZ, for a wedding ring in the tide this time.
Nathan was playing with his daughter in waist deep water, throwing her up and catching her.
As he released her, he saw his wedding ring come off and drop into the water. They searched for some time before accepting the ring was lost.
Back on shore, Nathan took a bearing and paced out an approximate distance to where he thought it was- then gave me a call.
I arrived for the evening low tide, waded out and got to work to find his lost wedding ring.
The sand leveled out below low tide mark, so « waist deep » went out about 50m or so – A huge potential area.
I had searched the indicated area by the time failing light and tide forced me out. Regrettably I advised Nathan that I had been unsuccessful, with nothing more than a handful of lead sinkers and rusty hooks in the pouch.
But I don’t walk away easily…
Up at 4am, I was back in the tide just after 5 – sharing the shallows with the dorsal fins of a dozen Rig sharks, focused on their own search for crabs as the night gave way to dawn.
I reviewed the search area of the previous day and decided that I was generally happy that had the ring been there, I would have likely found it.
I decided to extend the search area.
After about 2Hrs using various search patterns, I got a distinct ‘double thump’ of a shallow target, some 20m from the original area.
I lifted the scoop, sifted the sand out in the water and heard that ‘jangle’ that tells me – Job Done.
I think I woke Nathan up when I phoned him, « I’ve got something of yours here… »
It didn’t take him long to get down to the beach!
If you lose an item at the beach, make a note of where you are. Line up two landmarks, even better, line up another two at right angles to the first. Then give me a call, and I’ll do my utmost to get it back to you.
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Lost Gold Bangle at Tokerau, Found with Metal Detector

  • from Paihia (New Zealand)
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Cayla was enjoying the summer playing with her young daughter in the shallows at Tokerau Beach,  soon realising that the special gold bangle had slipped off her toddlers wrist.

Her partner did all the right things by marking above the high tide mark where they were on the beach and called me straight away, time is always against us with ocean recoveries…

As soon as I got his message I gave my apologies to family, loaded the kit in the car and headed off on the 90km drive to Doubtless Bay.

We arrived at the beach only to find that out of the available 13km of beach, a family had parked a half dozen utes right on top of ground zero. Cayla persuaded them to relocate one of them in a prime area so I could search.

A few false starts with beer can pull tabs and a couple of longline fishing traces (removing several hooks out of the sand in the process) and I had reached the utes.

I changed the direction of the grid to start working parallel to the vehicles to maximise coverage before we needed to ask a little firmer if they wouldn’t mind shuffling along a bit.  On the first run at the outer line of the first pattern, I got a clear and shallow signal.

My fingers dipped into the wet sand and lifted the tiniest most delicate gold bracelet.

I turned and held it up to Cayla and Scott who were a few metres away, smiles all round.

 

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Tiny Gold Ear Ring Found in Sand at Cable Bay.

  • from Paihia (New Zealand)
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Danielle contacted me after losing her tiny gold and diamond earring at Little Cable Bay, between Mangonui and Taipa.
She had spent some considerable time looking for it, but in the dry sand a tiny earring that blended in perfectly would have been virtually invisible to the eye.
I wasn’t able to get away from work for a few hours, but in this instance it worked out well with the tides.
She had sent me a photo which showed some trees lined up as a reference, so I could make a start as soon as I got there.
It didn’t take long to locate myself in the right spot and I started work, a very tedious process with a lot of interference from metallic rubbish that saturated the dry sands above the high tide line.
Danielle arrived soon after and was able to give me her best guess as to where it might be.
With a high probability location now identified, I changed up a few settings and started listening for the tiniest wisp of gold in among all the can tabs and flakes of tinfoil.
It was hard mentally processing each individual signal, digging the probable signals and flagging the unlikely, but possibles to revisit later if necessary.
About 10 minutes in, with the coil running under the surface of the loose and fluid dry sand, I got a repeatable signal only just audible over nearby rubbish.
I ran my hand through the sand, nothing was seen and the pinpointer didn’t pick it up, but I had moved the target. Was it yet another tiniest fragment of ancient drink can?
Slowly I progressively eliminated ever smaller piles of sand until there was one small heap left.
I grabbed it and slowly opened out my hand, scrutinising the grains as they fell through the slightest gap between my fingers, until resting in my palm was the distinctive shape of an earring.
Danielles eyes lit up when she realised her precious lost earring had been found in amongst several trillion grains of sand.
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Night Search to Find Lost Engagement Ring in Doubtless Bay

  • from Paihia (New Zealand)
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I had just returned from an ongoing search for an elusive sentimental earring in the sea at Paihia and was sitting down to dinner when the phone rang.

It was Sally, and she had lost her engagement ring at Cable Bay earlier in the day. She was very concerned as they were due to finish their holiday the next morning and head south.

This time of year the beaches are popular hunting grounds for the summer ring ‘collectors’, and time was against us.  I said I’d head up straight away.

I arrived a few minutes before Sally, and on the last vestiges of twilight started hunting under the trees where I understood they had been seeking shade – Turned out I was at the wrong trees, which highlights why it is almost essential to have the person involved on site if at all possible.

Sally and her husband quickly put me onto the correct location, and what could have taken hours – or even a no-find, was over in a matter of minutes with the wayward ring quickly returned to the rightful hand.

They were most apologetic about dragging me away so late in the evening, and very thankful that I was able to drop everything to ensure a positive outcome.  « I can reheat my dinner, you couldn’t replace your ring… » 🙂

An hour later, I sat down to my dinner, again.

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