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