Lost ring found in Crystal Lake Benzie County, Michigan
Received a call from Max on Friday he had lost his Platinum wedding band in Crystal Lake on Wednesday. He was on the lake for a day of fun boating with the family. He was throwing a football and swimming just having a relaxing day. They had pulled the boat up on a sand bar in 4 feet of water about 50 yards off shore. The next morning he noticed his ring was missing.
I met him at the closest spot to the location on shore. He got permission to cross private property for me to get to the search area. The search area was very large and not having an exact spot the boat was anchored. Plus the wind was blowing directly into the shoreline with waves about 1 to 1 1/2 foot high and winds 15-20 mph. Max had to fly home the next day back to California and wanted to try to get the ring before flying back home. The boat was anchored in water about 4 feet deep. He pointed me in the direction of the area they anchored the boat in. Searched the area for 3 hours and the waves were growing. After the second wave went over my head, I decided to stop for the night and wait till the winds either died down or change direction. Called Max back and told him the plan and he did not want me to go back he was happy with my effort. I was not happy yet till the area had been completely searched.
Waited till Sunday and the wind was blowing off shore and the surface was calm. I had asked Max to text me any pictures the group had facing the shoreline. In the background of one of the pictures, I noticed a small pine tree lining up with a window frame on a house. On the other side of the picture in the background the land owners property I had to cross had a boat on a lift. The support for the canopy lined up with the windshield on the boat. I used those 2 points to triangulate a starting boat position. Max had stated he was in an area about 100 foot circle around the boat. So, I started the second search from the area I could not get to Friday due to the waves. I used snowplow stakes to mark a grid area and found the ring about 20 feet away from the Triangulated spot I had marked.
Shipped the ring to Max in California and I’m happy to help out.
