Gold wedding ring found with an underwater metal detector at Develiki, Halkidiki

Develiki is a quiet little beach on the Athos side of Halkidiki, with a handful of tavernas and a lot of calm, clear water. At around two in the afternoon on Monday 28 September the tide was low, and he was swimming about twenty metres out, where the water came up to his chest. Somewhere in that water his gold wedding ring slipped off his finger.

It was a plain, shiny gold ring, the kind you would think should be easy to spot on a sandy bottom. So he did what most people do. He put on a mask and snorkelled. He went back again and again and covered the whole area, and he never saw it. The bottom there is sand, with a layer of rocks close by, and in the shallows the sand is always moving. A gold ring does not stay on top for long.

The next morning his wife sent us a message: where they were staying, how far out, about a metre and a half deep, and that they were flying home on Sunday. Could we help, and what would it cost?

Our detectorist in Halkidiki asked the two questions that matter most for a search in the sea: when exactly had it gone, and was the bottom sand or rock? Then he offered to be on the beach at six the next morning, before the beach gets busy.

Before saying yes, the owner had some fair questions. How long would he search, and with what? A magnet, perhaps? We explained that a magnet would not help, because gold is not magnetic. What does find it is an underwater metal detector, swept slowly in overlapping lines across the area where he had been standing, for up to about three hours. Knowing roughly where he was when it happened made that area small enough to cover properly.

So at sunrise on Wednesday, with the sun coming up over the sea, our detectorist waded in with his underwater metal detector and a long-handled sand scoop and started working the area line by line. About three hours in, he found it: the plain gold wedding ring. The ring that hours of snorkelling had missed had been just under the sand the whole time.

It was found two days after it was lost, with days to spare before their flight home.

If you lose a ring in the sea, looking with a mask is worth a few minutes, but once it has settled into the sand your eyes will not find it. A metal detector made for underwater use will. Note roughly how far out you were and how deep the water was, and get in touch while you are still there.