<p><strong>On Saturday, June 23, 2012 at about noon or so, I received a call from Natalya indicating that she was at Muir Beach in Mill Valley, CA and that she had lost her ring earlier that day.</strong> The distress in her voice was clearly evident. She asked me for advice, and I told her that I could come down and help her search. After about a 2 hour drive, my wife Judy and I arrived at the parking lot of the Tennessee Valley Trailhead. Her boyfriend Andrew met me at the trailhead, and after about a 2 mile walk, we arrived at the small hidden beach.</p> [split] <p>During the walk, he informed me that she was very stressed at the loss, and was not willing to leave the beach until the ring was found. It was a beautiful warm day, perfect for a visit to a California coastal beach. Upon arrival, I was introduced to Natalya, who was guarding a small section of beach where she thought she had lost her white gold diamond studded engagement ring.</p> <p>Natalya informed me that she had tripped and taken a fall, and that during the fall, her ring had flown off her left hand and disappeared into the sand. It was clear that there had been a lot of digging in front of where she had landed on the beach after her fall. After hearing the story of how she fell, however, I decided to begin my search behind the area where she landed since she told me that she had thrown her right arm forward and her left arm backward during the fall.</p> <p>I turned on my favorite metal detector, my White’s V3i which was equipped with my coil of choice, a White’s Eclipse DD 6X10 inch. Although the beach was made up of all black sand, the V3i had no problem balancing out the minerals. I began my search and noted to myself that although this was a very popular beach, there were no junk targets sounding off. After about a 1O minute search, I heard the tone of a nonferrous metal in my headset, I re-scanned the target and noted that the signal was a double with a null in the middle.</p> <p>My screen showed 3 green bars lined up vertically, and a Visual Discrimination Indicator of 31. The icons showed ring or aluminum pull tab. I pinpointed the target, and bent down to investigate. My detector indicated that the target was virtually right on the surface. I began to carefully move the sand aside where I believed the target to be, and immediately her beautiful engagement ring appeared.</p> <p>My White’s V3i had done its job again! Natalya’s ring was about a half inch below the surface. I heard a few people that were watching me search gasp in delight as the ring appeared. I picked up the ring and presented it to Natalya. She was so happy, that she started crying, came over and gave me a big hug while thanking me profusely! She was happy, Andrew was happy (and relieved) and I was happy to have helped another person become reunited with a lost ring. It ended up being a great day for all.</p>