A jewelry display, a strong gust of wind and water below

EVERETT — Linda McCune was selling DVDs at the Everett Farmers Market a couple of weekends ago when she heard a clunk come from the booth next to hers.

A strong gust of wind caused a jewelry display belonging to Dawn Bjorn, of Bellingham, to topple onto the Port of Everett Marina boardwalk. McCune, who markets the KOMO TV Exploration Northwest series of her late husband, Don McCune, helped pick up the necklace display.

But it was missing a necklace.

“I told Dawn, ‘Tell me there wasn’t a necklace on that’ and she said, ‘Oh no, it was my best necklace,’” said McCune, 63.

Both women then got on their knees and looked through the wooden slats at the dark water below. It was high tide and the $100 freshwater Baroque pearl necklace was nowhere to be seen.

“This is my biggest, most beautiful pearl, and my most expensive pearl,” said Bjorn, 60. “I was just thinking, ‘I’m not going to get upset, I’m not going to let it ruin my day.’”

McCune, who lives in Woodinville, offered to return the next day during low tide to look for the sterling silver necklace. Bjorn accepted the offer but didn’t hold out much hope.

“I thought the odds were next to nothing that she would ever find it,” she said.

McCune used a black marker to write a small X on the boardwalk where she and Bjorn believed the necklace slipped through the cracks. She went home after the market closed and checked her tide chart for the next morning’s low tide.

McCune arrived before 8 a.m. Monday to begin her search. She brought a 15-foot pole to help her loop the necklace but discovered upon reaching the marina that it didn’t extend properly. In the water, McCune thought she saw something but couldn’t tell for sure it was a necklace. She went home again, screwed a hook on the end of the pole and again consulted her tide table book.

On Tuesday morning, McCune and her neighbor, Donald Wilds, were at the marina to try again.

“In the muck of the salt water I could see a lighter color than the rest of the ground,” she said. “I thought it could be a seashell and hooked a chain.”

It took McCune four tries to successfully hook the necklace that was under about a foot of water. She screamed when she had it in her hand.

“I always try to look at the positive side of things but I was thrilled,” she said. “Even though it was resting in the muck it came out remarkably clean.”

Bjorn was surprised to open an email with McCune’s photo on the marina with the necklace in hand. She offered McCune her choice of any of her jewelry items as a thank you gift. Instead, McCune asked if she could fix a broken clasp on a silver chain that belongs to her neighbor. Bjorn agreed.

“I think she saw a great exploration and went for it and, bless her heart, she found it,” Bjorn said.

Amy Daybert: 425-339-3491; adaybert@heraldnet.com.