Jean Schempp lost a chair during the recent King Tide and took to social media in hopes of finding the missing chair. She posted the following in a community group on Facebook.
“I know this is a long shot, but has the Intracoastal recently gifted you a chair that looks a lot like this one?
During the last King Tide when the big boats were cruising through and creating large waves, one of our blue and white chairs was washed off of our dock. We are on the Intracoastal in Grand Haven.
We were positive that something this heavy would sink to the bottom. But it turns out, IT FLOATS! We just discovered this after day after day of searching around our dock.
We would sure appreciate help locating it. It looks just like the one pictured here, except it doesn’t have the round base. It is a glider, but doesn’t swivel, so it has two long cross beams in place of the round base.
Keeping our fingers crossed that someone has found it and might return it to us. Any help locating it is very much appreciated!”
Thanks to the wonderful community that is Flagler County and the power of social media, the chair was found!
“The case of the missing chair has been solved thanks to the good people of Flagler County!
It is just a chair (albeit a really nice one.) But the fact that it was just a chair didn’t stop the good people of this community from trying to help us find it.
Our chair went missing off our Intracoastal dock in Grand Haven a couple of weeks ago when that massive King Tide visited us. We usually tie our furniture down during inclement weather. But this was just a high tide. No wind. We didn’t anticipate that some REALLY big boats would come by going way too fast for the conditions, creating waves big enough to wash over our dock that would crash into our 50 plus pound chair, knocking it off the dock like a cat swipes a bowl of popcorn off the kitchen counter.
It was there, next to its partner. And then, at some point, it wasn’t.
The other rocking chair, foot rest, and table were still there. But the glider chair was gone.
These suckers are HEAVY. We were absolutely certain it had sunk. I can barely drag the thing around the dock it’s so bulky and cumbersome. We poked around all over that murky water with an 8 foot pole every other day or so, hoping to run into it. When that turned up nothing, my husband ordered waders and set out to find it. They finally came a few days ago, so he suited up and went in. He trudged EVERYWHERE around that dock …..and nuthin.’
It was then that I thought, “Maybe this boat anchor floats?”
So, we tested the footrest and table made of the same material, and….sure enough….that dang chair floated away!!!
So we turned to the power of social media and good people to try and find our long gone chair. We knew it was probably a hopeless cause, but we had to try.
And, wouldn’t you know, it worked!!
Turns out our chair bounced along in the current until it got about 6 or 7 houses south (I was sure it would have gone north, flowing out with the tide) and settled in a bit off-shore between two docks. Some kind soul eventually fished it out and put it on the nearest dock, where it stayed for several days.
And we HAD TO HAVE WALKED RIGHT BY IT on multiple occasions since we walk that path every day. But we weren’t even looking. It was at the bottom of the Intracoastal, right?
When we were too stupid to spot it, that neighbor eventually brought the chair in for safe keeping until the owner could be located.
People in that area knew about the mysterious chair in the water and tried to figure out where it came from but had nothing to go on until my post a couple of days ago. So once my post showed up, a kind and determined neighbor named Pam (who knew where the chair was last seen) walked down the Intracoastal until she found our dock and my other lonely chair. And she came to tell me she knew where our chair was!
An hour later our runaway chair was back home, safe and sound!
Thanks so much to the kind and determined people of this community. I really didn’t think we’d find it. But we did thanks to you!
We really appreciate you.”
