Lost a ring on a St Barts beach?

Gustavia is the capital, shaped by a port busy with boats and sailing yachts, with shops and restaurants along the harbor. Boat trips and sea excursions set off from the port. Shell Beach, also called Grands Galets, is a pebble beach close to town, named for the shells scattered across its sand, and a place to stop for a swim. A loss on a quay or off a boat is a different search from one on the beach, so say which it was.

St Jean is a busy neighborhood set around a bay of calm, shallow, turquoise water, with a beach, beach clubs and shops. There is a water sports center on the beach. Shops and cafés are a few steps from the sand; name the beach club nearest your spot and the way you walked into the village.

Flamands has a long white-sand beach, open to the ocean and backed by hills. Its consistent waves and long shoreline suit bodyboarders and skimboarders, and on calmer days people paddleboard along the shore. Send two pins if you can, one at your towel and one where you went into the water.

Colombier beach can only be reached by boat or on the hiking trails from Petite Anse or Colombier, and its bay has clear water for snorkeling and swimming. Petite Anse, nearby, is a cove with shallow, clear water and white sand, well suited to swimming and snorkeling.

Lorient Beach has light-colored sand and opens wide to the ocean. People from the neighborhood use it every day, and its waves make it a known surf spot. It suits swimming or surfing depending on the conditions. Say whether you were out with the surfers or swimming in a calmer patch.

Grand Cul-de-Sac is a small, protected cove forming a lagoon. The water is so shallow that you can stand knee-deep over a long distance. People wade out to watch the marine life, some from transparent kayaks, and kitesurfers and windsurfers use the lagoon as well. A few hotels sit around the lagoon. Petit Cul-de-Sac, a small beach on the eastern side, is protected by a coral reef and has calm water, and people go there for picnics.

Gouverneur is easy to reach and opens onto a long stretch of pale sand with deep blue water, surrounded by green hills. People come to swim, sunbathe and walk the shoreline, and certain areas are well suited to snorkeling when the sea is calm. A photo toward the hills from where you sat gives a searcher a way to find the same patch of sand.

Saline is reached along a sandy path through low dunes, and then the beach opens out, a vast stretch of pale sand with no shops on it. The salt ponds just before the beach are also a place to walk. With so much open sand, a picture from your towel back toward the path helps, if you took one.

At Toiny, Atlantic waves break on an open, unspoiled coast, and the sea is often rough; surfers come for it. Anse des Cayes is another surfers' beach, with a cove largely covered by coral. Grand Fond is open to the ocean and framed by rocks. Something lost in the surf at these beaches may be a long shot, and you would hear that from us first.