Best Find Ever! Water Skilz!

[Fitzwilk]

After an early morning hunt in the wet sand I took a break and headed back to the truck parked on the beach. Hot as blazes so I decided to go for a swim. Waded out about 25 yards and dove into a wave. Swam around some to cool off. As I was heading back to the truck I realized I forgot to zip up my key pocket. Grabbed the pocket area to feel for the keys.......they were gone. Man that is an awful feeling. Truck key, house key and the key to the truck cap. Luckily I didn't lock the truck cap so I was able to get the Excalibur and head back out into the surf to search. After about an hour of repeating a grid pattern in waist to chest deep water I started to think it was a lost cause. Not a single tone. Not even any null signals. Surf seemed to be building and getting choppier. Gave up and headed back to the truck to figure out the logistics of getting out of my predicament. I had 18 cents of crusty coins and some pull tabs in my pocket. Wallet locked in the cab of course. I'm screwed I thought.

Decided to go back into the water for another try. Retraced my path to the water and on the first return pass got a medium tone in waist deep water. Immediately dove down and grabbed a fistful of sand. Bingo! What a relief. Moral of the story is always keep a spare set of keys in one of those hide a key set ups.

 

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[Fitzwilk]

Forget to mention the strange part. Here is one of the few finds from my water hunt the previous day. Hope he had a spare set. Or an Excaliber.

 

[Irishgoldhound]

Lol. What a story! Those keys look almost identical to yours. Nice recovery!

 

[bigscoop]

Lucky you. I just found two different sets of keys today. One set was a homeowners set and the other was to a condo rental. Will either drop the condo set in the mail on Tuesday or just make a stop there if I'm going to be back over that way.

 

[Fitzwilk]

Thanks guys. It felt better than any gold ring I've ever found. Well....almost.

 

[bigscoop]

Here's some food for thought. Whenever i go to the beach, which is quite frequent, I never have anything in the vehicle that I can afford to lose. I take my driver's license, my cell phone, a cooler, my easy chair, and my metal detecting gear. I leave my car unlocked even when I'm going to be 1/2 mile down the beach. "I never take my keys into the water with me." I learned the hard way during my first year of water hunting down here. Had two gold rings in my pouch and somehow the surf even managed to turn that up-side-down at some point and when I finally got out of the water and back to the vehicle the two rings were gone, along with my spare key. Beach patrol was good enough to unlock my vehicle so I could get my regular set of keys. Since then whenever i go to the beach I go very light, a little cash for the day tucked away just in case.

 

[search and recovery]

Good ending to a bad situation. I always take one of those waterproof cell phone cases with me clipped to a belt loop and zip it inside my finds bag which is around my waist. Only carry one key for car and a proper ID card. Never take drivers license in the water with me.

 

[RustyGold]

Has to be one of the greater Hunts! Glad you found those keys! Shows you know what you're doing!