Stand still. A ring that slips off in the sand stays within a step of where it went. It does not roll, and it does not wash away.
This coast has two things working against you that are not the same thing: the tide moves the waterline a long way, and the wind covers whatever lies in dry sand. Both are beaten by the same two facts: where exactly, and when.
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The beaches of Esquinzo and Butihondo lie below the hotels on the slope, and each hotel has its own path or stairway down. That stairway is the best fixed point on the whole beach: it does not move with the tide, it is in every photo, and whoever comes to search can start from it without you being there.
Say which hotel, which stairs, and how far along the beach you walked from the bottom of them, left or right as you face the sea. “About forty steps to the right of the steps from the hotel, halfway between the dry sand and the water at four in the afternoon” is a search area. “Esquinzo beach” is three kilometres of sand.
Here the beach is flat and the water goes out a long way. The strip you walked along at five in the afternoon can be dry sand far from the water the next morning, or under a metre of sea. A ring lost near the waterline has not moved, but the waterline has, and a searcher who only knows “near the water” is looking in the wrong place.
So give the time, and say whether you were in the wet sand, in the water, or up in the dry sand by the towels. The wet lower beach is the easiest ground there is for a detector: firm, shallow, and the ring stays near the surface. The dry upper beach is where the wind buries things, which makes the search slower but not hopeless.
A lot of rings on this coast are not lost in the sea at all. The water is cool, fingers shrink, and the ring comes off when you pull at a wetsuit, a rash vest or a towel, almost always on the sand, a couple of metres from where your things were. If that is how it went, the place to think about is where you got changed, not where you swam.
Esquinzo and Butihondo: the beaches below the hotels, with the stairs as landmarks. Say which hotel. Further south the sand runs on past the lighthouse into Playa del Matorral at Morro Jable, with the promenade behind it: there the promenade and the lighthouse are the fixed points. North of Esquinzo the coast opens into the Sotavento beaches and the lagoon, where the water comes and goes with the tide and the kite schools stand: say which school or which car park you walked down from.
Most of the Jandía peninsula is a natural park. The bathing beaches in front of the hotels are where people swim every day, and looking for your own ring there is not what the Canary heritage law regulates, though no Canary law says that in so many words. The line between beach and park is close on this coast, and the dunes and the ground behind the beach are not a place for a detector. Whoever comes to search finds out where the line runs before they switch on. That is their job, not yours. More on the islands: Is metal detecting legal in Spain?
Under Spanish law whoever finds a ring has to give it back or hand it in to the town (Article 615 of the Civil Code). These beaches belong to Pájara, and the Policía Local has an office in Morro Jable. Ask your hotel reception too, today and again in a week: most things that are picked up on a hotel beach end up at the reception.
Most people notice at the airport or while unpacking. You do not need to be on the island. The hotel, the stairs, the day and the time are enough to start with.
Retrievly does not search. It connects the person who lost something with people nearby who own a detector and will go and look.
The first searches on Retrievly happened on exactly this coast. There may still be nobody signed up near your beach on the day you need them; if not, we go and look for someone and send them your request.
Only a rough circle is shown in public. The exact spot goes to the one person you choose.
Posting is free and no money goes through Retrievly. A thank-you, if you want to give one, is between you and whoever goes out.
Post the same day and draw the circle tight: those two decide it more than anything else. Retrievly vets nobody, so meet in daylight, somewhere public.
Post a requestNo account needed, not even to post. We ask for your email at the very end, nothing else.
Kenny built Retrievly. He has snorkelled the Danube for years and keeps bringing up things that belong to other people: wallets with the ID still in them, phones, keys. That is where Retrievly came from.
More about Kenny