Gold engagement ring found at the wash line at Vale Centeanes the next night

Öznur and her husband were on holiday on the Algarve, staying in an Airbnb near Carvoeiro. On the afternoon of Monday 14 September, between three and four, her gold engagement ring came off at Praia do Vale Centeanes. It happened right at the wash line, where the foam of each wave runs up the sand and drains back, and the tide was coming in.

They searched for it themselves, hard. By the time Öznur messaged us she told us we were their last hope, and that the ring meant a great deal to her. They were flying home on the 18th.

The most useful thing she did was describe the spot properly. There is a sign at the top of that part of the beach, and she had been standing directly below it. The ring went in within about a metre and a half either side of the sign, on a line running straight down to the water. So instead of a whole beach, the search was a strip about three metres wide.

A ring lost at the wash line on a rising tide does not wash out to sea. It drops into the soft, churned sand and is covered within minutes, which is why it disappears so quickly and why a detector finds it where eyes and fingers cannot. The catch is that the spot is under water for half the day. So the search waited for low tide, which on Tuesday 15 September was late in the evening.

Our detectorist met Öznur and her husband on the beach after dark and worked the strip below the sign. The ring came up that night. The photo was taken on the sand straight afterwards.

Öznur’s first message afterwards was a very happy one, and she offered to pass our details to their Airbnb host in case another guest ever loses something on that beach.

Two things made this one work. A fixed landmark to measure from, and searching when the tide had pulled back off the spot.