What Have You Dropped Overboard?

Just dropped my Casio dive watch overboard a couple of days ago. Clasp just came undone as I was walking from the bow. Raised my hand and watched it fly off into the drink!

I just recalled...

Standing next to boat, amidships, on finger dock:

2009 I reached into right front pants pocket for fastener I'd purchased to secure railing stanchion that my big son had racked loose while boarding a few days ago. As hand pulled out of pocket... so did sterling silver money clip [that son had given me as gift - from Thailand]; having 300 + bucks in it. I watched as it fluttered down and quickly disappeared. Only 6" deep at low tide... so I figured I'd jump in and get it. Well, that did not work, many times going under blind and simply being able to feel around.

Soooo... next day I formed a cool 12"L x 9"W x 4"D close tolerance expanded metal galvanized scoop with long handle attachment. Spent hours scooping up mud/silt; went through each load with finger tips. Transferred about a few wheelbarrows silt to forward slip area.

Never found the clip or cash. "Diver John" [did boat bottoms in the area - mine included] lived on boat near mine. I told him the circumstance and the cash would be a 50/50 split. I was there when he looked for some time. He never found it either.

At my next birthday my son sent me identical sterling silver money clip. Turns out he's bought two and had the duplicate in his sock draw. I happily and proudly carry that clip in my pocket today. And, I do not any longer put other items in that pocket - just in case. Also, I still have the galvanized scoop in my tool assortment.

This past Saturday, was fishing for vermilion snapper when something bigger hit, yanked the rod out of my hand, bye bye!

A few months ago was walking the boarding board with a heat gun in hand, board shifted and heat gun and I go into the drink. Heat gun still works.

Most items around the dock are recoverable with my dive gear. Lost count of lost and recovered tools.

Countless things have breen donated to the "water gods" over my many years of boating. The one that made me the most frustrated was dropping the brand new replacement battery for my Makita portable drill. Didn't have it snapped in properly and away it went.

My friends cat. She was walking the rail of the boat (bowrider tri hull) as I was untying the lines. Because of the room around their dock, I shove off the bow and let it swing toward open water. Usually, the cat jumps back on the dock. She hates boat rides. Instead, I heard, sploosh! Looked over the side and there was a wet pi$$ed off cat dog paddling toward the boat. I grabbed her and bumped reverse at idle to get us closer to the dock. I set a wet kitty on the dock and apologized for knocking her off. She sat there looking at me as if she wanted to say," Is that all you gotta say? Well up yours buddy." That cat still will not come around me if I'm down at the dock. :lol:

My sailboat had a 4' Bowsprit on it and it was a nice place to stand while giving the skipper(me) instructions while docking, but no railing...... One hand on the forestay and the other to signal me where I wanted to put the tiller. Lots of leverage between the tiller and the bowsprit means a sudden movement of the tiller makes a sudden movement of the bowsprit.

As I entered the slip my crewman indicated I needed to quickly put the helm to starboard. I did...quickly.... The bowsprit moved out from under him just as quickly and I looked up to see him standing in mid air three feet to starboard of the bowsprit. No support. and then he shot straight down into the drink!

Greetings,
Poor memory but the most recent item that went over the side was a brand spanking new (NEVER fired in anger) hose nozzle. I use quick connect fittings exclusively aboard and I had just assembled and connected a new hose nozzle. Went to turn the water on and the nozzle slipped off the rail where I had it hooked, fell down onto the cap rail and launched itself in a very graceful arc to port. Not a great loss but got me thinking about those quick connects...

I count myself lucky, compared to many of the posts above. Second weekend on the new (to us) boat, dropped a socket in the drink while installing a new grill. Next edition was losing one of the parts to the davit system - it was sticking, so I put a good coat of WD40 on it. The stuff works great - the $200 part went through my fingers and off to Poseidon. Not sure it counts in this category, but had the boat out of the water and noted I needed to replace the screws that hold the Vetus stern thruster extensions because they were rusting out (maybe previous owner didn't use stainless steel - who knows?). No time today, so I'll do it when I have the boat pulled again. Pulled the boat out a few weeks later, one of the extensions was gone. Of course, you can't just buy one extension - have to buy the kit. Spouse was not amused...

Art said:

Dropped a 3 hp Johnson OB in 20' water, back when. Retrieved with small anchor. Immediately took it to shop. Ran fine thereafter.

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Heh. When I was a kid I had one of those on a tinnie. Had it hop off the transom when running and watched it spiral down . Fetched it back with a grappling hook, hosed it out and started it up.

When I was much younger I delivered a new 25 foot sailboat (by truck) to the middle of nowhere about a two hour drive from our yard. We hired a mobile crane to launch the boat and raise the mast at a commercial pier on a deep fast moving river.

We were getting ready to raise the mast and I dropped a shroud overboard. Watched it slither away over the toe rail.

I had to send the crane away and reschedule for the next morning then drive four hours return plus an hour making a replacement. Long day.

ben2go said:

My friends cat. She was walking the rail of the boat (bowrider tri hull) as I was untying the lines. Because of the room around their dock, I shove off the bow and let it swing toward open water. Usually, the cat jumps back on the dock. She hates boat rides. Instead, I heard, sploosh! Looked over the side and there was a wet pi$$ed off cat dog paddling toward the boat. I grabbed her and bumped reverse at idle to get us closer to the dock. I set a wet kitty on the dock and apologized for knocking her off. She sat there looking at me as if she wanted to say," Is that all you gotta say? Well up yours buddy." That cat still will not come around me if I'm down at the dock. :lol:

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Thanks... for the tip on cats!


I'm allergic to em... I mean sniffles, runny nose, sneezing type allergy. And, they seem to gravitate toward me. Knowing "Cat-Nature"... they probably like seeing me suffer. Ya know; sorta like they'd do to a big mouse!

One of the marina neighbours has a big magnet on a line,I`ve seen it used to retrieve a set of vicegrips. I don`t think it would pick up a cat, but you never know. A surgical pin in one leg, a magnet, and there`s your cat, dripping wet and seriously malevolent!

Art said:

Thanks... for the tip on cats!


I'm allergic to em... I mean sniffles, runny nose, sneezing type allergy. And, they seem to gravitate toward me. Knowing "Cat-Nature"... they probably like seeing me suffer. Ya know; sorta like they'd do to a big mouse!

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I am too, plus I break out in hives. Did I mention my youngest son is at home still and has a cat? Doc gives me allergy shots every so often.

Watch until the end!

That is my worry about my drone and the reason why I added it to my homeowners policy.

Myself, glasses, binoculars, and tools. No phones or keys yet. Only thing recovered was I.

I dropped a couple of screws and bolts, my wife glasses in Rideau Canal (guess who had to dive to get them back), a stainless steel vent cover in a Rideau Canal lock (the dock line went in and chopped it),and my wife twice, one at the dock at the marina (she was a bit too quick to jump aboard) and once on a Rideau lock dock (she was a bit too fast to jump out)

Yes my wife is a stunt woman lol

L

L

Dropped a few things I can recall.

An expansion bit which exploded out of my pocket. Yes, I periodically use a brace and the bits. Actually I have several braces.

THe last was the grill from the barbeque. Next day at Low tide and I could see it and a bit of fishing got it.

Recently was a custom modified chisel I use as a scraper. Lucky it was not an expensive unit. One bounce on deck and it waved good bye.

Never dropped our cat although our dog took a couple swims.

Bought a pair of black Ray ban wayfahrer, when i was 20 y,o. I dropped a bottle in the water 25 years later, so i took of my glasses and put them on deck, cause I didn't want to drop them to, when I pick up the bootle. As soon as I looked down the wind took my glasses and sent them owner board. It was proppably meant to be.

Overboard

Wasn't on my boat but on a friends center console,we were striper fishing and
my friend dropped a 400 dollar rod over,and was panicking freaking out,as we were
drifting away,he though to anchor so he had a fighting chance to retrieve rod,then tossed
anchor and the chain was never connected to rope,as I watched the last foot fly over
rail holding in laughter omg he was so pissed

1) Bicycle key
2) A guest once dropped (one of his three) smart phones in Flensburg (DK) harbor. Bottom was about 1 meter of silt, which made the phone impossible to find and retrieve. No back up, of course.
3) On a number of occasions, we considered dropping the cat overboard on a nice, calm, day in the harbor in order to train it how to climb back on board (burlap-like netting would be hanging over the side of the low, aft cockpit). This is standard advice from pets&boating publications. We couldn't bring ourselves to do it. We then considered having a friend do it so the cat wouldn't associate us with the "dirty deed", but we still couldn't bring ourselves to do it. The cat DOES like water, but I don't think he likes it well enough to go on a surprise swim ;-)

Sunglasses and my Apple Watch.

At the end of the season I was removing the frame for the sun awning. Dropped one of the legs into the drink. I now remove this when on the hard.

The worse one was my wedding ring and it was unintentional, really. We were anchored in about 12’ of water and I was doing food prep. I had some scraps that I threw over the side and my ring went along with them as it slid off my finger. I grabbed a handful of ss washers and tossed those to mark the spot. After 3 days of diving myself and by others in the anchorage, Neptune didn’t give it back.

Of course the numerous tools and nuts and bolts everyone seems to loose. Got to the point that I always buy a couple of extra nuts and bolts so they can be sacrificed to the Water God. Worst loss was a brand new battery for my Makita portable drill. Didn't have it clipped in place properly.

a neighbor at my dock has lost a generator, dink motor twice, anchor twice. never recovered the generator, diver recovered the motor and anchor each time. Some people are slow learners!

Prescription progressive bifocal Ray Bans with anti-scratch coating and some kind of space age u/v filtering coating. $400. Fell right off my face kneeling on the swim step. I bought a fine mesh fishing net and mounted it on a long pole but never did recover them. 16 feet deep at the slip - I thought about trying to dive for them but it's soft mud down there, unlikely.

My prescription sunglasses and usually anything else I forget to take out of my t-shirt pocket.

Since I began this thread some 5 years ago... stating a loss I had of silver money clip with $400 in it... here's a couple of water-drop losses since.

Couple years ago I dropped my cell phone into the drink. Had 100's of photos I'd not yet down loaded I would like to have kept. Did so at dock where the finest of silty mud is the bottom. Even though I immediately marked the spot and rigged up a fishing net extended by taping it onto a boat hook for reaching the bottom - never found it!

Soon after [during that year] I was under the boat while at anchor cleaning the bottom, checking all mechanics and scrubbing clean the surface of anodes [such as I often do]. Had a great little flash light [I'd had it for years] strapped onto left wrist. Upon completion I always throw my scrapper/scrubber tool [strapped to right wrist], face mask, flippers and flashlight onto swim step. Well... all was going as usual until, for some reason I'd unstrapped the flashlight and simply opened the hand holding it. Without mask or fins, but opened eyes I immediately dove to follow it down. However the current was stiff and water murky... I'd lost site of it before reaching bottom. In about 20' depth and black soft mud I could not locate the black flashlight. And, yes - it's beam was off. Next one I purchased is bright yellow! Hopefully I never need to look for it on the bottom,

It's funny, I used to be a commercial diver in college (mostly shallow/coastal stuff, not glamorous deep-sea) and the company made a lot of money on recovery jobs. Lots of vehicles rolling down boat launching ramps but that was usually shallow enough they didn't need to hire divers and it was just a tow-truck recovery. No, I was always surprised by the number of vehicles that drove or tipped off elevated docks or piers, straight down off the edge, ka-splash. Had a standard routine for those -- two big nylon slings, front bumper, back bumper, open the doors to drain, hand signals to the crane operator, take 'er up!. Pretty quick and easy if they landed on the wheels, took much longer if they were on the side or upside down. Those usually took one or two flips, re-rigging each time. (We never did body recovery, left that to the police divers -- have to admire the steady nerves of those guys.)