Sewer Clean Out, Surf City, LBI, recovered by Edward Trapper, NJ Ring Finder
What a wonderful weekend it was going to be, fantastic weather, great company, car is all unloaded, and just sitting on the outside on the deck, having a cold drink, enjoying the ocean breeze, when a voice from inside hollers, “we have a problem” !!!! Linda went inside to see what I might be, and it was most peoples nightmare, a clogged toilet. One would think this is an easy fix, but unfortunately it was not. After 2 days of trying to plunge the clog, it was now backing up in the downstairs laundry slop sink. A local plumber on LBI come out to assess the situation, unfortunately without locating the outside cleanout he was not able to finish the job. She called the guy he recommended who handles much lager jobs, and would be equipped with a 200′ snake. Once again, without the location of the outside cleanout he was not able to do anything either. That’s where I come into play. After 2 days, Linda called me wondering if I was able to locate a sewer cleanout. My concern was, if it was all plastic my equipment would not be helpful. After a short conversation, I headed out to try and help. After looking the entire plumbing situation over, I received many possible signals, in the area the cleanout should be. After quite a bit of digging, the cleanout was located, and now Linda could have the plumber return to snake out the entire line. This was a “stinky” situation to start of the weekend, but ended up on a positive note.
Jennifer called to inquire about the possibility of recovering her wedding and engagement ring, that accidently flew off her finger into the water, at the boat dock. As usual I questioned her about exactly what had happened, as well as any information she might know about the water depth, clarity, current, etc. She explained that she had opened the state room door, stepped out onto the finger dock, and was brushing some crumbs off one of the boat cushions, when both rings flew right off her finger, into the dark water below. Jennifer was adamant this was exactly what happened, and confirmed both rings must be pretty much straight down, or possibly under the other boat, or under the finger pier. The water was a workable depth of around 5′ or so, depending on what end of the finger pier I was. Knowing how deep and dark the water was, I had to gather many items to ensure I had what was needed, to make this a successful recovery. Once on location at low tide, the water did average 5′, so that was a good thing. What wasn’t so good was how black and muddy the bottom was, as you can see the nasty black mud in the one picture. after clearing MANY targets, which is common in marina locations, I got a promising signal, that turned out to be Jennifer’s wedding ring. She was quite surprised I was able to find it with all the trash on the bottom. One would figure the other ring would be right near by, but after another 45 minutes, I had no luck. I really didn’t want to throw in the towel, but I was leaving for vacation early the following morning, and had to call it a day. Jennifer was extremely grateful, as I promised her I would return the first chance I had after I got home.
Gregg called and asked if I would be able to help him find his wedding ring he had lost on the dune walkover in Holgate NJ. We were having some unusual swarming mosquitos, and when he was heading over to the ocean they bombarded him when he was almost at the top. When he tried to swat them away, unfortunately his wedding ring flew off his hand and most likely landed up on the dunes somewhere. We arranged to meet the next afternoon, knowing his ring would be safe in that location. I had read on one of the local Facebook pages how bad they were after days of heavy rain, but never experienced anything quite this like this. I pulled up in the driveway, and no sooner had my door opened, I would venture to say, there were 20 or more in my truck. With that said, out came the sweatshirt and bug spray. I really hate mosquitos. Greg and I went over again exactly what had happened, as we walked quickly to the spot he had marked with some little sticks and stuff. I turned on my machine, put on the headphones, and for whatever reason it would not quiet down. I asked him to stand facing exactly the way he was, and to demonstrate the swatting motion he used when the ring went flying. It looked like it probably could have flown up in the dune grass, but with the motion he showed me, my hunch was it went straight down. So, as these nuisance bugs are like a cloud around us, I moved back to where I turned on the machine, which was also the spot he was when the ring came off. And now I know why the machine was so noisy!!!!! Bingo!!!! It was sitting right on top of his ring. The more detective work one can do the better. The entire hunt only lasted about 10 minutes at best. Making memories again on LBI.