Dropping It into the Drink
We recently told you about New Zealand’s friendly divers who pop up from time to time to check on the status of your boat’s bottom. (That is not a metaphor or innuendo, by the way.)
In the spirit of being kind Kiwis, those divers occasionally retrieve items from the drink. Case in point:
It is admittedly a bit strange when your belongings find their way back to the surface. After that fateful splash and a difficult conversation with your partner, you might have journeyed through the five stages of grief, accepted the loss of the item in question, and moved on with your life. Having something suddenly appear on deck again can be a bit jarring, and an item’s reentry into life might take some time. There’s a part of you that may even lament the loss of what became an artificial reef and home to sea life.
Not all items are able to reenter society, though. Case in point:
All of this got us thinking: What have you dropped into the drink over the years? What’s the weirdest thing that you’ve sacrificed to Neptune? By weird, we mean everything from most expensive to most irreplaceable. And in the spirit of this post, what have you lost that was ultimately found again?
Please comment below, or write us here.
My WindPilot self steering vane went in the drink. Knowing my ability to donate almost anything to Davey J. had tied the T-900 main halyard to the vane to keep it safe. Hung the vane over the stern suspended by the Halyard and turned to get some tools when I heard a splash. Somehow the stiff T-900 halyard untied itself allowing the vane to go for a swim. Fortunately a local diver was working in the neighborhood and tied another line to the vane so I could pull it back up.
This is an intriguing question. I raced sailboats out of Marina Del Rey (MDR) and Long Beach CA for several decades and 1985 Transpac class B winner. In addition to off shore races to and in Mexico (MEXORC). Then out of Seattle for 10+ years. Actually won Big Boat in 2003 on a J-120. Two long distance cruises, Kauai to Sitka Alaska 1982 and then south to WA; and a four month trek south from LA to the Panama Canal 1979. In all that time, incredibly, the only thing I lost (that I can remember) was a watch. We were on the Olympic course (buoy race) out of MDR and I set it for the start of the race. The alarm went off and the Shock 35 I was on had to do a crash tack. I went forward to solve some problem, my wrist hit a lifeline or something, it un-clipped and went overboard, just out of my reach, the alarm still going. Wonder how many curious fish were swimming around it, on the bottom, wondering what was making that annoying noise.
The worst and most important thing I’ve ever lost is a winch handle over the side during the Transpac race last year we did not carry a whole lot of spares on board, most other items were in the boat loading process from the dock including a 12 pack of beer that sunk before I could grab it.
Back in the eighties a local dive company organized a clean up of the waters around the small pier in Kailua-Kona. We all turned out and collected the expected tires, batteries and junk. The prize for the most unusual object was awarded for a coral crusted Seiko Micky Mouse watch that was still running!
That laptop looks lite succumbed to a phishing attack!
After a week or so at Catalina, we were docking our family’s 32′ double ender at the guest dock in the marina in Alamitos Bay, in the dark. Mom had let us take the boat alone for the first time. My sister was midship, my cousin on the bow, I was at the helm. I eased it into reverse, tiller over, gave it some throttle, back to neutral and idle, for a textbook landing. Mark and Mary stepped off onto the dock, I grabbed the stern line and ducked under the boom. Almost.
I hit my head, my glasses dropped off my face into the water between the dock and the boat. There was plenty of water there to see my glasses in the phosphorescence, gently rocking their way toward the center of the earth. Without a thought, I followed, feet first, plunging straight down to them, and past. As they descended, I grabbed them, and put them back on my face and swam back to the surface.
Mary said, “Are you alright?” “What happened?”
I told her “I hit my head and my glasses fell off!”
She said, “They’re on your face!” “I know, “I said, I put them on under water! Now, will you guys help me out?”
I was wearing jeans, a t-shirt, and a sweatshirt.
We were all of 15 and 16 years old on a Southern California summer night.
My first cell phone fell out of its case which was attached to my belt into Alamitos Bay . I had insurance and Verizon replaced it.
In 1973, as mere kids of 18 and 19, my husband and I were sailing our 24′ plywood sloop, Moondance, in Mexico. On the trip from Cabo to La Paz, we got into a typical rough Norther and put into Frailes for rest. When we left, gusts were rolling off the hills and heeled us over, and splash went the fishing pole, gone. Weeks later, in La Paz, we visited a powerboat and got to talking. Turned out the owner was a professor of my brother from home, so that was strange, but wait, there’s more. The crew started talking about diving in Frailes and mentioned they even found a fishing pole. We asked if we could see it and sure enough it was the very one we lost overboard. What luck, fun times.
a friend whose father owned the Boston Globe newspaper years ago, had been given a sized Red Socks (7 3/4 with no adjustment) baseball cap that was a gift from Roger Clemens. It was too big for my friend, it fit me perfectly, and so he gave it to me. I wore my ‘Roger’ everywhere for years, quietly knowing it had come from one of the great players of all time. It is now somewhere on the bottom near Maui, a sad moment in what was probably otherwise a fine day of sailing.