The wonders of the Internet age. Here’s a little story how – with a little help from Sail in Finland – a camera lost in Thailand was returned to its owner in Finland.
The lost camera that started this story.
You might have noticed that you can send Sail in Finland questions via the banner “Have a question? Ask Sail in Finland“. And mostly I’m able to find an answer to your questions. Like last week when I was approached by person from Denmark to help him locate the owner of a boat.
A camera menu set to Finnish gives clues about the owner.
This story began on January 23 when a diver from Finland got caught up in some rough weather on his way back from a dive in Thailand. His camera, which was attached with a string to the his wrist, was somehow torn off and the camera was lost. The next day, Krzysztof Torzynski, a Polish surgeon and diver living in Denmark dove in those same waters and found the camera. But how was he to return the camera to its owner?
A Finnish yacht club flag uniquely identifies the yacht club of a friend to the camera owner.
Krzysztof recovered the camera in perfect working condition and started a detective effort to locate the owner by checking the photos in the camera. The main clues were a couple of pictures of a flybridge motorboat from Finland.
The registration number helps identify the boat and the owner
One of the pictures showed a person that the finder assumed to be the owner of the boat as well as an other person that was assumed to be the owner the camera. Hence locating the boat might lead to the owner of the camera.
Boat owner and camera owner in same photo
Krzysztof first tried to track down the boat on the ‘net but didn’t have any success. As a last recourse, he sent a question to Sail in Finland and asked for help with locating the boat. I was of course most happy to help.
The initial request for help to identify the boat.
The boat in the pictures carried a yacht club flag. In Finland, each yacht club has a unique flag and therefore the flag allowed me to quickly identify the yacht club. I contacted the chairman of the yacht club who in turn easily identified the owner of the boat based on the registration number. Via the owner of the boat, I was finally put in contact with the camera owner. I close the loop I connected the owner of the camera with the finder the camera is now on its way back to Finland.
Krzysztof Torzynski who found the camera looks satisfied and for a very good reason. Thank you for being such a helpful person!
It’s great to see how honest people are. One has to admire the trouble Krzysztof went through in order to return in to its owner. And it is very nice tobe able to help in these kinds of cases. So next time you need help with a boating related topic in Finland, don’t hesitate to send a message to Sail in Finland, Sail in Finland is here to help you!