This adventure started on Sunday, Nov 30th around 11:30 am when I received a text saying, “Hi Jim. We lost a men’s gold wedding band at Ocean Isle Beach on Wednesday. Any chance it is findable? It was in the surf as the tide was going out.” I texted her back and told her I’d call her shortly. A short time later I called the number attached to the text and spoke to Susan. She told me that the ring was lost at approximately 3 pm on Wednesday, Nov 26th. A check of the tide tables for the 26th showed low tide was at 5:24 pm, meaning the ring was lost about 2 ½ hours before low tide. Susan also said that there was a couple of gentlemen metal detecting who had looked for the ring without success. Looking at the tide tables for Sunday, low tide was at 9:15 pm. I told Susan I’d be out there around 7 pm that evening. My next concern was finding a place to park, since Susan and her group had already left to go home. But I’d figure that out when I got there.
It was dark when I got there at 6:50 pm. I pulled in the driveway of the house and took a picture of it with the name, “Sea Wolf,” and sent it to Susan to let her know I was there. As I’m trying to figure out where to park, the cleaning crew was leaving. I explained what I was doing and was granted permission to park in the driveway. That problem solved. Made my way out on the beach and went through Susan’s text messages again to make sure I was in the right area. Up to this point, I was assuming the lost ring belonged to her husband. In her text she said that her son, Logan was the one who lost his yellow gold wedding ring 4 to 5 houses down from the house they were renting. So my plan was to go to the far side of the 6th house and work a grid back to the house they rented. I had just enough moon light to see my grid lines from dragging my sand scoop in the sand to keep me on track. I was working from the mid-tide line down to ankle/shin deep in the ocean. I passed the 5th, 4th, and 3rd houses with no luck, other than 2 pennies, 2 pull tabs and a tungsten ring that had been buried for quite a while. It was close to 9 pm and reaching dead low tide. As I was coming out of the water behind the 2nd house, I got a solid 16/17 on the Minelab Equinox 800 VDI (visual display indicator) and I knew I had Logan’s gold ring. After 4 days of sitting in the surf under the moving water and shifting sand, it took me a couple of scoops to get the ring out. Bingo. I sent a picture of the ring to Susan who sent it to Logan and he identified it. I got the ring in the mail on Monday and sent it on its way back home to Virginia with an estimated delivery date of today, Friday.
Susan – Thank you for contacting me to help find Logan’s ring.
Logan – So happy I could help find your ring and get it back where it belongs.
Jim
I cannot recommend Jim highly enough. He was so kind and delightful to deal with and he was successful. So thrilled to be his 337th ring found and returned. Thank you, Jim. You put a smile on Logan and our entire extended family’s faces!