I got a phone call in the late afternoon from a woman asking if I were “that Ring Finding guy”.
“That’s me!” I replied and another lost-ring story unfolded…
Marina and Sergey had been down on the remote Makalawena Beach taking photos while on their honeymoon. The couple, visiting from Oregon, had only been on the Big Island of Hawaii for a few days.
After applying sunscreen, the two posed for fun photos, playing in the wet sand near the water. One photo Sergey had his ring on – then the next – he didn’t! They literally showed us photos in the series on-and-off!
“My ring!,” he’d exclaimed. A heavy, tungsten ring, it had vanished without a trace in the deep sand. The group spent the rest of the afternoon digging for it to no avail.
The next morning Sylvie and I picked up Marina and Sergey and their cousin in our truck and started the long, bumpy 4×4 trail that headed down to the remote beach.
Once we’d hiked to the spot along the beach, my heart fell. Though we’d checked the tide charts, high tide was on its way in force – washing higher and higher over the spot Sergey had noticed the ring had gone missing.
Switching the detector on right away I got a target signal but digging the spot only hit lava rock below a thin layer of sand. Sylvie scanned the beach above the tide line in case the ring had been washed up there during the night’s high tide. I came back and back to that same place where I’d gotten the signal, fighting the water and waves as they got higher.
Sergey had tried digging with his hands while I showed him the place. Our long-handled scoop was useless as it was blocked by the lava rock buried beneath the sand – the water came in waves too strong and too rapid to have a chance to get to it. Sergey was on his hands and knees. “Try to feel under the rock and in crevasses for anything that moves,” I told him as both his arms were buried in sand. Almost two hours had passed at this point and we’d all lost hope that we’d find it.
Suddenly, Sergey stood up and yelled, “I got it!” – He’d felt under the rock and took hold of what moved in his fingers. If it had slipped, the ring would have been sucked out into the now-heavy surf.
All of us jumped around and celebrated. “This ring couldn’t be replaced,” explained Marina. “It was blessed by the church and we believe that we can only get one of these in our lives!”
Better get it resized!
Also check out www.BigIslandMetalDetecting.com for more photos!
Click here for a Google link to pics of the beach.
you are able to return their lost possessions to the them.
