Shell Beach gives up a 3ct ring after 19 days
The day started out slow with no good finds on the beach in Pismo… so it was a late lunch with plans to go fishing for a little dinner off the pier when my phone rang it was Rudy wanting to know if I could help him and his wife who had been exploring the tide pools and rocks in Shell Beach north of Pismo Beach the day before when his wife Rosa lost her 3ct custom made wedding ring. It all started when Rosa had dropped her cell phone in about 6″ of water right at the edge of the surf while jumping off the rocks unto the sandy beach. Rosa began frantically searching for the cell phone in the surf of the incoming tide and as she was feeling around in the soupy sand, seaweed and water mix she saw her 3ct diamond ring slide off her finger. Rosa found the cell phone about 6″ under the sand and seaweed mix, but the ring was nowhere to be seen. She called to her family and friends to help look and sift through the sand all the while the tide was rising.
I told Rudy I would meet them at the location which happened to be about the same time of day the ring was lost, now this area of Shell Beach is shear 100’+ cliffs with cascading steps leading down to the rock strewn beach, locally know as 1,000 steps beach. I got to the area where Rosa had jumped off the rocks and started my search. The tide was coming in and I knew I did not have much time to search before the waves and water depth would be to much for me to handle. I was in water up to my neck with about a foot of dead seaweed setting on the bottom, after about an hour with no targets of interest I felt it was getting unsafe to even be there as the waves were hitting the rocks with the rising tide. I told Rosa not to lose faith and that I would come back at a lower tide and continue to look for the ring.
I had been keeping an eye on the area nearly everyday, but the tides had not been low enough to proceed any farther out than I had been, then on 9/29/15 we had a minus low tide in the evening and I planned to try again for the ring. I began my search right where I left off 19 days before and in less than 5 min about 10′ farther out under the ledge of a large rock formation I got that sound that is so sweet to a detectorist ear, I knew it was the ring I just had to get my scoop in there to dig it out, after two scoops I had it. I won and the ocean gave up another treasure.
Once I got home I called Rosa and let here know the ring was recovered, all I heard was screaming and sounds of joy on the other end of the phone as she was telling others I had found it. We made plans to meet the next day as she and Rudy drove the 150 miles over to the coast from their home in the Central Valley town of Visalia to get the ring. All of this would have not been possible with out “The Ring Finders” web site.
Oh, on a side note a local Fresno ABC TV station got word and did a news piece on the recovery here is a link to the show http://abc30.com/news/visalia-womans-lost-wedding-ring-found-by-larry-the-ring-finder/1010970/
