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Lanzarote · Canary Islands

Lost a ring on a beach in Lanzarote

Stand still. It is in the sand under you, and every step you take moves you away from the spot you remember.

On Lanzarote the clock is the wind. Dry sand really does travel here, so this is a today job, not a Saturday job.

The first few minutes

  1. Stop. Do not carry on looking while you walk. Mark first.
  2. Push something in. A parasol, a flip-flop, a bottle. Something the trade wind will not take.
  3. Do not dig. Hands only bury it further.
  4. Two photographs. The spot, and the beach with a fixed landmark: steps, a beach bar, the block that was behind you.
  5. The time. It tells a searcher where the waterline was when it happened.

The wind is what runs the clock

The trade wind blows most of the year and on the open beaches it genuinely moves dry sand. A ring sitting two centimetres down today sits noticeably deeper after a windy week. It is not lost, the search simply gets slower and deeper.

Gold does not wander sideways, it goes straight down. That is the good half of it, and it is why these searches work at all. What a metal detector can and cannot find.

Where it usually happens

Puerto del Carmen — Playa Grande is long and fine-sanded; Playa Chica is small, stony and full of divers. Say which one, because they are not the same search.

Costa Teguise, Playa de las Cucharas — the windiest on this list, boards on the water and people changing on the sand. Most losses here are towel losses, not water losses.

Playa Blanca and Playa Dorada — calm water, families, sand churned all day. If it came off swimming, the circle is short: it is where you could still stand up.

Papagayo and the protected ground

The Papagayo beaches sit inside the Los Ajaches natural monument. No detector goes in there, and none goes into dunes or any site catalogued by the Cabildo — that needs an authorisation a private person is not given.

On an ordinary beach, recovering your own property is a different thing from archaeological prospecting, which is what the law regulates. Knowing where that line falls is the job of whoever searches.

If you are already home

That is fine. You do not have to be on the island. The beach, the stretch of it and the day is enough for somebody to go and look.

Where Retrievly comes in

Retrievly does not search. It puts the person who lost something in touch with the people who own detectors.

We are new on Lanzarote. If nobody is signed up nearby yet, we go and look for them in the island's groups and forums, and send them your request.

Your exact spot stays yours

In public only a rough circle is visible. The exact point goes to the one person you pick.

For now, it costs you nothing

No money goes through Retrievly. A thank-you is arranged directly with the searcher.

Sooner, and a smaller circle, is better — and on an island with this much wind that counts double. Retrievly vets nobody: meet in daylight, somewhere public.

Post a request

Browsing needs no account. You only sign in to post.

Common questions
Can you search the Papagayo beaches?
Not with a detector. They are inside the Los Ajaches natural monument and that needs an authorisation a private person does not have.
It has been four windy days. Is that it?
No. It will be deeper, not somewhere else. Gold goes straight down. The search is slower, that is all.
I lost it diving at Playa Chica.
Say exactly that when you post. That needs somebody with water gear, which is a different person from a dry-sand searcher.
What does it cost?
Nothing at the moment, and no money goes through Retrievly.
Is anyone searching on Lanzarote?
There may not be yet. We are new. When a request comes in we go and find someone near that beach.
Who writes this

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.

Lost a ring on a beach in Lanzarote? | Retrievly