Received a text from Dave and Lori yesterday evening from Buckhorn Lake, North of Peterborough. Dave was at the dock with his brother in law Marco, when he was wiping his hands and his diamond wedding ring fell off his finger, bounced once on the deck and then between two deck boards and into the water. The good part is that they both saw the ring fly off and go in between the boards into the water (under the deck). The bad part was that there was almost two feet of silt, branches and dead wood under the deck. Silt and weeds are the worst conditions to find any jewelry under water.
I met with them mid afternoon today and after getting all the facts, got into the water and dove under the deck. The worst part about silt bottoms is that as soon as you disturb any of it, visibility goes to 0%. From there, it’s all about your metal detector, pin pointer and feeling with your bare hands while laying on the bottom. First target up, an old pair of vise grips. Second target, an old pop can. Then, I removed as much dead wood and debris as possible to hopefully hear the right target. After an hour or so, had to come out of the water to warm up and regroup. Lori fed me a nice hot cup of coffee and some Italian pastry and back in the water I went. This time I heard a very faint signal and again, with zero visibility, started digging into the silt with my fingers and pin pointer. About forty minutes later, I finally felt Dave’s ring, moved away from the deck until I had enough visibility to look and confirm that it was indeed his lost wedding ring. As I surfaced, I got Marco’s attention and signalled to him that I had found the ring and gestured for him to grab my IPhone and start recording as I wanted to get Dave’s reaction as I reunited him with his ring. Dave and Lori were ecstatic and it was great to witness the joy and happiness they felt as he slipped his ring back onto his finger. Another story that ends well. I even got treated to a glass of champagne, cold meat and cheese before heading back home. I love what I do.
My husband and I are so incredibly happy to have found Stephane.
My husband’s ring fell off his hand as he was wiping off some spider webs he got on his hands from our dock chairs. I rarely see my husband as upset as he was when this happened. We were both stunned and did not know what to do.
We are new to Buckhorn and having work done on our property and so we reached out to the wonderful people around town that have helped us so far. Unfortunately despite reaching out to so many people, it was very difficult to find anyone that could help us. The water conditions were not good. Cold water, lots of silt/wood, deeper water, and to make things worse – it happened late Friday afternoon.
We did not know what to do but we did know that the longer the rings stayed in the water – the less likely it would ever be retrieved. Then, as I was feverishly googling for help, I came across Stephane’s website. My husband reached out to Stephane and he promptly replied and agreed to come out the next day which was a Saturday. He had to drive 3 hours to get to our place! We were trying to stay positive and really did not know to what to expect but we did see some of the testimonials so we were quite hopeful. At least for the first little while but as time passed as as it approached almost 2 hours of almost non stop underwater searching, we both started to feel the excitement dwindle.
But Stephane never gave up. He was shivering and cold but continued to go under our dock, in the dark and blindly feel his way through silt, sticks and stones – until he finally found it! We were both in shock and disbelief!
Stephane is a wonderful and kind man. It is clear he is an amazing scuba diver but what stood out even more, he is commitment to help people when they have already given up hope. He works tirelessly to ensure he is successful not for the money, but for the satisfaction he gets out of bringing people so much happiness and joy!
It was truly a pleasure meeting Stephane. In a world that is filled with distrust and misinformation – we can attest to the fact that Stephane truly does live up to his reputation!!!!
We are so happy that we are now referring to our inlet as Stephane’s inlet:)
Thanks again Stephane!
Lori and Dave
Hi Lori and Dave,
It was a real pleasure to meet you both. Your appreciation and kind words truly touched me and are really appreciated. I am so happy that I was able to bring a happy ending to this unfortunate situation, and reunite Dave with his gorgeous ring.
Steph