Final Jeopardy

[wallville]

This last weekend, AT&T failed to inform me that my Blackberry bold was unable to swim, much less tread water or even float. Even with all the options...shame on them. I was impressed with the option it has to jump off my belt, taking the holder along with it. Already on a new phone, used online backup of all my data, phone, and calendar. So once the new sims was associated with my phone number...I got all my stuff back. Lesson learned,so I plan to take this phone to the docks and teach it how to swim properly.

[Boblee]

Fortunately haven't managed to drop anything overboard yet but don't carry phones etc anywhere.

One of the mates who came with me this year had a phobia with the camera on board and everytime they or the binoculars etc were bought up on deck he would loudly remind me that things like that don't work unless the neck strap is on, pretty helpful really as I normally am very SLACK.

[c130king]

I am normally very aware of keeping wallets, cell phones, keys out of my pockets when on the boat. Before I step off the pier...normally before I even get on the pier...I put wallets/phones/keys in my backpack which gets stored down below. But got "slack" as was mentioned with my $600 video camera and in my excitement of sailing and then getting rigged for motoring up the river to DC I forgot about it...KERPLUNK!

But it's those expensive lessons that we tend not to forget in the future.

But thanks for all those other examples...I don't feel quite so alone in my stupidity.

Cheers,
Jim
Sailing on König

[Russ]

I have a friend who has dropped his cell phone overboard so many times his carrier refuses to offer the insurance.


Jim, how did you pay for your camera? Some credit cards like American Express offer buyer protection against such accidents and will pay to replace it. Just a thought.


--Russ

[DaveB]

Beached my boat on a Sand Spit in Cayo Costa , Fl. and useing the stern ladder I plumped to a depth of 5 ft. Bank drop off was that much. Cell phone no longer worked.Cost was nothing as I was due for a free replacement.
Dave

[c130king]

Dave,

Ah memories....been there done that. My first experience "anchoring" or maybe "beaching". Was with a couple of other guys back in 2007 and we backed into the beach but due to the amount of rocks we stopped in about 3 feet of water and dropped a bow anchor and took the stern anchor up on the beach. Stepped off the stern in about 3' of water. But was wearing cargo shorts and the bottoms got wet and then siphoned water up all the way to my pocket...where my cell phone was located.

This is not me in the picture. I am the one taking the picture of my great looking boat


That was my first lesson. The second was sitting in the cockpit and my wallet got pushed out of the back pocket of my jeans. Fortunately it didn't fall overboard. So now I am always aware of taking keys/wallet/phones out of my pockets.

Cheers,
Jim
Sailing on König

[hoaglandr]

So far I've dropped a number of tools overboard. Most of the time I can recover them easily because I keep the grass mowed!
Hopefully I will take all the stories told above to heart when we put the boat in the water in the spring!

Russell

[Rafael]

I dropped my mast with sails... twice

Bought a '76 sailing dinghy and took to the local lake. On out 4th time out the port shroud exploded and the mast went "kerplunk" taking a big chunk of fiberglass from its the base. Off course we were downwind from the launch. I have a little oar that the PO left in the boat but the only thing that it did was make me look stupid to the people on the beach. We ended up being towed by Lake Patrol.

After I made what I would qualify as the "most rudimentary and ugly repair in the world" we went out again.

The brand new shroud (obviously rigged by me) gave in on the bottom loop (is it called splicing???). Well, my fiber repairs held good, the mast base support stayed in place... but the mast broke on the very bottom (about 2") and went swimming again... I took out my little oar again but it didn't work... again.

We ended up being rescued by the same Park Ranger that towed us 2 weeks before. This time was even worse... We were only about 100 yds from the beach so he just got in his paddle board and pulled us to shore.

Now I wonder why my wife is somewhat reluctant to this whole sailing thing and letting me get a new boat.

Rafael

[tchariya]

After having a nice dinner on the boat in Friday Harbor marina, I was rinsing out a pan off the dock and my prescription sun glasses slipped out of my shirt pocket into the water and gently fluttered like a butterfly down to the depths. I really liked them and had the frames for several years.
I briefly thought about diving for them, but the water was about 35' deep and kinda cold.

These replaced the ones that fell into the Pirates of the Caribean ride at Disneyland.

You have to wonder about what else is down there.

for glasses/sun-glasses, tie it off with a piece of yarn/string to your body or piece of clothing.
I hate not having sun-glasses when out on the water when the sun is beating down on ya.

[tchariya]

Beached my boat on a Sand Spit in Cayo Costa , Fl. and useing the stern ladder I plumped to a depth of 5 ft. Bank drop off was that much. Cell phone no longer worked.Cost was nothing as I was due for a free replacement.
Dave

You can recover from submerging small electronics in water.
Remove all batteries and cards and throw in a small jar of
uncooked rice for a few hours. Rice will dry it out quick!

[tchariya]

Interesting stories you all are providing.

One of the things I first learned in a basic sailing class is to always make use of an emergency
box. This is a waterproof, submersible, floating enclosure the size of a lunch box that you
could throw flares, emergency hand radio, car keys, phone, cameras, extra winch handle,
first-aid kit etc..into.

Get yourself a otterbox in a bright color so it will contrast with the water or just stick out
like a sore thumb when thrown with the stuff you bring on board.

[Russ]

Beached my boat on a Sand Spit in Cayo Costa , Fl. and useing the stern ladder I plumped to a depth of 5 ft. Bank drop off was that much. Cell phone no longer worked.Cost was nothing as I was due for a free replacement.
Dave

You can recover from submerging small electronics in water.
Remove all batteries and cards and throw in a small jar of
uncooked rice for a few hours. Rice will dry it out quick!

That works well for most electronics except cameras where the lens gets sea water on the inside and can't be cleaned or dried. But for cell phones and such it works well.

In fact, if your keyboard is really dirty, run it through the dish washer and let it dry out for a week. Nice clean keys.


--Russ

[seahouse]

Hi Russ!

Sometimes you can learn valuable things when you have nothing to lose. I assemble lower-volume circuit boards for the electronics industry as part of my business. I heard of a manufacturer of electronics who, as a matter of course, placed returned malfunctioning circuit boards into a plain ordinary dishwasher and ran them through a wash cycle. The procedure turned out to be a life-saver for them as they were at their wits end for a solution to the problem and happened upon the procedure as a last-ditch effort. I assume that in use the boards were in a dirty environment.

If small electronics are dropped into salt water they can sometimes be saved by immediately rinsing them in fresh water and then alcohol. (Some disassembly required)! The water is miscible in the alcohol which replaces it, then evaporates, so the time of exposure to corrosive conditions is minimized.

If you have kitchen oven/stove with a pilot light you can dry out a watch where the crystal has been condensed on by placing it in the oven (and not turned “on” of course). The mild heat and dryness from the pilot light will dry it out in a day or two. Speed the drying of your alcohol-rinsed items this way with caution! Also, turn the oven light on, or something, so your wife doesn’t accidentally “preheat” the oven with your watch in there!

You might have success drying a small camera lens this way if you are not dealing with salt water (skipping the alcohol of course). Nothing ventured, nothing gained.

- Brian.

[tchariya]

In fact, if your keyboard is really dirty, run it through the dish washer and let it dry out for a week. Nice clean keys.


--Russ

Awesome....going to give this a whirl with my keyboards!

[Rafael]

Just make sure you don't try this with the laptop keyboard...