3 lost rings at Imperial Beach found.

Karen contacted me saying that she had lost three rings the day before, in “mostly” ankle deep water at around low tide, while playing around with a football. We agreed to meet an hour and a half before low tide today to conduct a search. She met me along with her son and they described to me the search area. My jaw almost dropped when I found out it was about the size of two football fields of water and wet sand. Even on land, that size of area can take a while. In the water that time gets multiplied many fold. We discussed the most likely area and I started at one end of that spot and headed north toward the center of the search area running a grid from wet sand into knee deep surf while she and her son wandered around the beach using their recently purchased metal detector (not one suited for salt water searching). An hour and 15 minutes later with only two junk targets total, I was starting to run out of low tide. I had covered less than 1/4 of the area, so, I figured I’d start a cross grid and run parallel to the shore. I started out in knee deep surf and work my way toward shore, covering the entire length of the search area (a city block long). After a couple of passes, Karen said she had to head home and fix dinner. I said I would continue on and call her if I had any news. I was beginning to think I’d have to come back the next day with some help to cover the area before the worsening tides would make it more difficult. Not knowing if the rings all came off at one time was another question I mulled over. They could be all together, or, 100 yards apart from each other if they fell off one at a time. Another pass and a half and I got a nice solid 11 on my Equinox and one shallow scoop later I had the previously described gold band in my scoop. A foot away and the wedding band guard came to light. Another foot away and the engagement ring practically jumped up into the light when I passed the coil over it and the sand washed right off the top of  the ring leaving it shining in the late afternoon sun. I took a look at where I was, and if I had initially gone south from my starting point, instead of north, I would have found the rings on the first pass! Ah well, decisions have their consequences! A quick call later telling Karen to “about face” and head back down to the beach because I found them, resulted in squeals of delight and disbelief that the rings were found. A happy Karen donned her rings and revealed to others on the beach the “miracle” of getting her rings back. Even though it never gets old, it’s just another day in the life of a Ring Finder. Thanks for the reward Karen.