Diamonds In paradise

Diamonds In Paradise
   It was a typical hot muggy tropical day when my son and I stepped off the plane at Charlotte Amallie on the island of St Thomas. The date was July 6th. We were to be met by a friend and taken to a apartment where I would stay and use as a center for my treasure hunting this summer in the Virgin Islands. First things first, I had to get my son certified as an Open Water diver. He would go through a PADI instruction course to get his certification. He had dove with me for several years and I wanted him to be legal. At 15 years of age he was anxious to follow in my footsteps. My ride showed up an hour and a half late and it did not put me in the greatest of moods for my first day. To fly all this way and not even have a ride when I got there didn�t say much for the friend, but that is a different story. That relationship would end by the end of my stay here on the islands.
   The next morning I was up bright and early even after spending the whole previous day flying from the west coast of California with three flight changes in between. We gathered up my sons diving gear and headed to Coki beach where he was to be certified. I spent the next three days searching the beach sand with my DFX while he dove and passed his written exam. I found some costume jewelry and lots of clad coins in the sand. Seemed like I could not walk a step without getting a hit on the detector. It was coin heaven. In three days I ended up with about $45.00 in quarters, dimes, nickels and pennies, but no significant jewelry. I really wanted to be more thorough, but the tourists from the cruise ships were so thick on the beach that at times I could do nothing. I did not want to be intrusive and give metal detecting a bad name. Gerrison passed his tests with flying colors and we were off on our treasure hunting exploits. But that is a different story for another time. This story is about my best ring find to date.
I was primarily using the Whites DFX on the beach and in the shallows the Whites Beach Hunter ID. I had brought several coils for the DFX. I decided to use the small eclipse Shooter DD coil as it was light and easy to work over the sand. These beaches are huge and I wanted to move swiftly. I had a lot of area to cover. When I wasn�t diving on a wreck site I wanted to spend my time scouring and scrubbing the beaches. After inquiring around I found that a beach next to the Marriot Hotel named Morning Star was where a lot of the wealthy tourists frequented. It was just south of Charlotte and easy to get to. The downfall was that the beach was lined up with hundreds of steel lounge chairs. This is where the little coil would shine. I arrived with my son early in the morning and started at the south end of the beach. He was using his DFX with a larger DD coil. I set my detector to the preset beach mode and started in. There was a volleyball court at the south end of the beach and we started there. Immediately we were getting all sorts of change, mostly quarters. Gerrison got a nice solid ring hit and at 6 inches pulled up his first ever, gold ring. It was a women�s gold ring. Kind of a cute design, He was jazzed as it was his first gold ring ever. We worked our way off of the volleyball court and headed up the beach sweeping as we went finding all sorts of change. About 100 feet up the beach I had the next big find. It was a platinum men�s wedding band. I tried it on. It was a perfect fit. Now there would be no excuse for me not to have a wedding band on. The wife was going to be pleased. You know how that goes, kind of like being branded. We continued further on down working in between the rows of lounge chairs. This is where the small coil really paid off. Gerrison could not get to close to the lounge chairs without interference. Gerrison succeeded in finding a couple of toe rings that were not very expensive. The change just kept rolling in. I could tell it had been a while since anyone had worked this beach. A lot of the clad pennies were very badly corroded and in bad shape. By now we had worked our way down about half way down the beach. It was time for a Pina Colada break at the little restaurant I saw sticking out onto the sand at the north end of the beach. It was hot and I was thirsty. The tourists that were there seemed curious, but no one asked questions. Gerrison got a soda and I sipped on a cold one studying the beach. I would really have loved to hit the water with the Beach Hunter, but the surf was way up that day and it was too rough. Soon we were headed back down the beach and sweeping the sand again. I had shown Gerrison that I actually scrubbed the sand with my coil. Using long arching sweeps of the coil at a medium speed. The beaches here were heavily mineralized and the DFX had given me some problems ground balancing once or twice, but it had settled down and was working just fine. My next find was a men�s diamond pinky ring. Looked to have three nice � CT diamonds and the gold was stamped 10 CT. I was ecstatic, but the best was to come yet. We continued on down the beach working our way in between lounge chairs, doing our best to not disturb the tourists. I did not want any complaints to the hotel management and a bad reflection on metal detecting. I know my scoop really got a workout with coin after coin as we worked our way northward. Gerrison was getting tired and had plopped himself into one of the chairs. I was determined to find some more and better stuff. My determination was soon to pay off. Our ride was due in about 30 minutes and I wasn�t going to give up yet. I had done about � of the beach and was exhausted. We had been in the hot sun all day and the hot sand had burnt my feet. I actually had blisters from the hot sand even though I had sandals on. My son just could not believe I was still going on and on. Finally it happened. I got a nice hit indicating another ring. I pinpointed the spot with the detector and scooped the sand up. After shaking out the sand in the scoop, I could not believe my eyes. There in the bottom of my scoop was lying the largest diamond ring I had ever found. It as a beautiful 2 ct marquis cut diamond surrounded by 18 Princess cut diamonds. There were 9 diamonds on each side of the center stone. The ring had a makers mark stamped inside of it with a 18 ct stamp. There was also stamped a serial number. I called my son over and we just stared at the ring trying not to draw much attention. He was astounded. I looked at him and said. �See son what determination gets you.� Our ride soon arrived and we kept our mouths shut. Only telling the driver we had found change. I called my wife and of course the ring was readily accepted and was to be confiscated as soon as I got home. After all she had worked hard to pay for my flights, was her justification. Women! The next day I went into the old town of Charlotte and looked up a reliable jeweler at Cardows. He looked the ring over and I asked how much it was worth. He, for a small fee appraised it at over $12,000.00. We had also ended up with about $90.00 in change the day I found the ring.
   This ended the beach hunting for a few days as we had shipwrecks to dive, on other islands. We ferried out the next day and another adventure started that took place under the water. But like I say that is another story. Just remember to keep researching, searching, and finding.

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