Some Days it Just All Goes Wrong!

[bdahunter]

I had an appointment in the east end (downcountry) of the island this morning from my home in the west end (upcountry) and then I would have 3 hours on my hands until I could return home so I took the Excal along for a spin.
It started out poorly when I was rushed to get out the door and forgot my underwater camera. Then it was bumper to bumper traffic which turned the half hour trip into an hour and a half. I made it to my appointment a half hour late (by Bermuda standards right on time) and afterwards I went for a little jaunt to Shelley Bay. Shelley Bay is a nice park with playground, cricket pitch, swim club and a sheltered beach; it's mostly frequented by locals so I wasn't expecting great quality but I was expecting gold. The park was deserted when I got there so I changed into my wet suit in the jeep and headed down to the beach and went through my usual set up of my gear. Gloves on, dive boots on, straight shaft adjusted, headphones on, adjust my settings and set threshold. Except there was NO THRESHOLD! What the heck? I double checked the Excal which has served me faultlessly for almost 2 years and everything looked good to go. Readjusted the Volume, Sensitivity, Threshold and even switched it back and forth between Pinpoint and Discriminate. Checked the coil connection and coil in general - all good. Checked the battery connection and Presto Chango the Threshold reappeared but I couldn't get it to quiet down. Into the water I went to kill three hours and hopefully find some loot but I quickly discovered that the tones were all wrong - more adjusting but to no avail. Now I was really getting worried but I thought I should keep going and see if I could gain more information about what was wrong with my Excal or better yet, just hope it would get better. I found 2 .925 rings (1 celtic weave and 1 small ring that said baby) and just shy of $3 in clad and two Bermuda Railway spikes. The railway was disassembled and moved to British Guyana in the 1950's so these are actually quite rare finds; the Bermuda Railway Museum has 1 spike and I now have '3'! None of my finds were very deep (less than 1') which was very disturbing and the tones continued to be all wrong. I bailed out of the water in time to get to my 1:30 appointment but the person I need to see had just left until 2:30 (don't ask, it's Bermuda) so I had another hour to kill. I did a little shopping dressed in my wet suit and then grabbed a quick bite at a lunch truck that has the best chili and fries. I ran into some mates from a job I did 2 years ago and we got to talking about treasure hunting (I was wearing a wetsuit). They told me about a ship that ran aground in the 1950's near Shelley Bay and two guys rowed out in the storm and salvaged (pirated) a box full of 24k gold wire used to make reading glasses. They didn't declare this loot to the salvage agent (Bermuda Customs) so they had to stash the box which weighed 100 lbs. until the coast was clear. They dumped the box in 30' of water off of a solitary rock with the intention of retrieving it later. Three weeks later they return for the box but they couldn't find it, look and search as they would. The box was never found! At todays gold prices that box of wire would be worth almost $3M!!
Anyway I finally picked up my package and headed home where I proceeded to start cleaning my finds and the baby ring shattered in my hands. The other ring cleaned up okay and the partial ring seams to be a junker. It was then that it occurred to me that I might have been hunting in pinpoint mode the whole time so I checked my Excal and sure enough I hadn't fully reset it to the Discrimination detent.

Some Days that's just how it goes,

BDA

[Buster]

Still a good hunt, BDA..Congrats, maybe you can find that gold net time...Buster....

[RingDancer]

Still good finds amongst all that!!!

I have to laugh forgive me!!! But at least you didn't set the alarm off of a nearby building and have the swat team down on ya!!! I was so shook up I had to cut my digging day short...No ring for me!!! lol

I went out this morning for what I thought might spend 2 or 3 hrs and when I came to the front of a building... not sure where the alarm was coming from, the one I was near or the one next door, could have sworn it was next door, I had a lady that was passing by to call the police, thinking at the time, what do I do, stay or leave, thought the best thing to do was stay, as I was not sure if I had set it off or if there was someone else around, did take precaution and waited, they did there job after checking me and I had to explain...I was the one who had them call...He was a nice police officer and told me it was ok for me to get back to my detecting and thanks for staying!!!!!! I was like....so shook up!!! I started thinking I was having a bad day, and better just rap it up!!!!

The thing is...I have permission to detect...and have detected this place over a year now!!! Hadn't been any closer to the building than normal.
Don't think it was me that set it off...Just one of those Monday ordeals!!!

It was certainly a Monday!!!! Looks like everywhere!!!

RingDancer

[EPC Guy]

...like I said in an earlier post...some days you're the windshield and some days you're the bug!

I hate to hear that y'all had a tough Monday - but glad you could get out...find a few goodies...and make it home safe and sound...and glad that nothing was seriously wrong with your machine, BDA!

[JCWhite]

Even with the problems sounded like a good hunt to me. JC

['E']

I've done the same thing BDA only not as long as you did, I set it to pinpoint then forgot to take it off but only went a few feet before I noticed it, still not a bad day for you, hope you find that loot down there!!

[KellycoChick]

Thanks for typin all that out BDA and RingDancer! If for no other reason - it made me feel okay to be sitting at a desk for a little while - lol!!! BDA that sounds like a crazy-busy day, and while I'm sure it could have been a little more fruitful, I think you did just fine. Soooo.... when ya going out to look for that gold wire...?

Again, thanks for such an awesome post! Keep it up! I love 'em!!

[Captain]

Them Waters and thoes finds are alsome.

[MinelabMan]

Still a nice hunt, glad the Excal is ok!

BTW, my Monday was great .

[pris]

Good bad luck. Thank goodness nothing was wrong with your machine. It can always be worse. Plus you found some really cool digs! Congrats