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
[attachment 77687 P1060001.JPG]
[attachment 77688 P1060004.JPG]
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
[attachment 77687 P1060001.JPG]
[attachment 77688 P1060004.JPG]
