... and John did a dive for the moonstone ring

This is a continuation of the "Mary fell in ....." post, and I am unlikely to ever have a more delightful living-on-the-river story.

After Mary put her sopping wet clothes in the dryer, she realized that while her glasses had not fallen off, her beautiful gold ring with a moonstone had!

It occurred to her that maybe John Glenn could dive down and try and find the ring. John Glenn is a profesionnal diver and houseboat expert. I'd hired him to do a dive inspection of my houseboat before I agreed to buy it, and he has done underwater work on many of my neighbors' floating homes.

Mary called John and left him a message and he called right back and arranged to meet her at 4:30 p.m. -- so he would be diving when it was dark above the river as well. He estimated that the river in the backwater there was about 25 to 30 feet deep.

John marked the spot with a long, heavy, pointed metal pole, then put on his wetsuit. Other neighbors gathered to watch. He dropped down underwater, and as he described later, was careful not to put his feet down, which would have stirred up the silt and covered everything. He hung onto the pole and shone a very bright light all around. About 7 feet upstream from where Mary fell in, he spotted the white stone glinting back. Within just 3 to 4 minutes, he came up holding Mary's ring!

Mary said, " I truly felt like I had called Superman and he came and conquered! And he wouldn't take a penny - said he hadn't done it for money, he wanted to help, and enjoyed it.'

Since John wouldn't take any money, Mary told him that she likes to cook for friends and could she cook him a dinner and if so, what would he want. John agreed to a dinner and asked for pot roast and lemon meringue pie. So last week, Mary invited John and another neighbor over to dinner, for thanks and a celebration.

(Photo of John in his wetsuit to come from Mary)

Later, John told me about someone at another moorage who lost a very expensive ring to the river. These folks tried to use a metal detector, which stirred up all the silt so the ring may be impossible to find. He suggested that what they might try now is to use a dredge to suck up the silt and then shake it through a screen.