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Pat Wipeout
This hunt started with a mysterious call from some unknown lady asking my wife if we sold underwater metal detectors. As the only Metal Detector Business on Oahu “All Island Treasure Detectors” my wife told them yes and asked “What can I help you with?” She said she would get back with us. I got the same call on my cellphone a little while later. I told them if they need help finding an item I provide that service too. Not sure what transpired but I finally got a call Sunday June 26th from Patti from Fort Worth Texas, while jet skiing with her granddaughter at the H2O Hawaii Kai Jet Ski course on Thursday 23 June they went over a rogue wave and Patti fell off. After swimming back to the jet ski she noticed her 35 year old Rolex watch was no longer on her wrist. Her heart sank. How was she going to find it in the murky waters of the Moanalua Bay. After reading my ring finders blog Patti realized I was the one to search for her treasured Rolex watch. I had to wait for the surf and wind to subside as the area is shallow 4-10 feet deep where the watch came off. My first attempt was July 7th. Jordan from H2O Water Sports took me out in their Zodiac to the spot he had snorkeled extensively hoping to find the watch. This turned into more of a familiarization with the area dive. It was murky and the visibility was only about 6-8 feet. Any movement near the bottom stirred up silt to the point of blindness. It was apparent I needed a grid line in order to do this hunt properly. Jordan put together a bright orange 100 foot long rope with mushroom anchors at both ends for the second dive. We stretched the rope parallel to the jet ski course on the shallow west end working east to the deeper water. I went up and down the length being careful not to stir up too much silt with my Excalibur detector. Thankfully the course was fairly sterile of trash and I only found a fishing weight, a pull tab and a coin. After an hour and a half underwater I told Jordan my air was nearly gone and we’d have to do a third dive. While on the surface Jordan reviewed all the still shots we had of Patti’s jet ski ride. They are from Go Pro videos available for purchase after your exhilarating ride. Each jet ski has a Go Pro mounted to video your experience. We actually had stills of Patti’s wipe-out and the Rolex watch separating from her wrist. Buoys and landmarks helped tremendously. With hurricane remnants fast approaching Oahu Jordan and I agreed the next morning was going to be our next best chance for awhile so we arranged to meet at 6 AM the next day. Jordan reviewed every possible angle of film to get several cross fixes of where Patti went into the water. He put my dive flag on that spot. I started my grid search where I had left off the day before and worked east toward the dive flag. I found two lead weights and three targets were too deep to be the Rolex so I passed them by. After encountering a small moray eel I found an Andrew Jackson Presidential dollar. Was this a sign? Sure enough on about my 6th leg I got a screaming target. There 2 feet in front of my face slightly exposed was a golden object. It was lying between a chunk of coral and some leafy sea growth. One wave of my hand and Patti’s watch fully exposed itself. I immediately grabbed it and stood up. I was in 5 feet of water and Jordan was snorkeling about 20 feet away. I yelled, “Finally, I got it.” Jordan came over and we high-fived each other. I then turned around and within 10 feet was my dive flag where Jordan had triangulated where the watch should be. That’s damn good and a GPS quality fix. As soon as we got back to H2O Jordan texted Patti that the watch was found. Two hearts and a thumbs up emoji was all I needed to see. Persistence and Jordan’s navigation made my most difficult hunt to date successful. Aloha to Patti and of course Jordan for all the help.