Dropping stuff overboard - and subsequently recovering it.

My Dad had a Rolex that went swimming in deep water during a tack while sailing...... and no chance of ever finding it again :(

My Mum lost her hearing aid over the side in the Grenadines in about 12' of water; my Dad put on his scuba tank and after about 20 minutes of carefully sifting through the sand in the area where it had dropped, he found it (it had already buried itself). Even better, they managed to dry it out and get it working again. :)

Some years ago I was in Bermuda, crewing on a friend's boat; we had gone around to the fuel dock on another boat (a big Oyster) with just a couple of jerry cans to top up (the Oyster needed more than jerry cans).
Anyways, the Oyster owner managed to inadvertently lob the diesel tank filler cap over the side, and was resigning himself to sailing to the Azores with a plug in the filler hole, when I offered to go and have a look for it. The water was rather murky (and quite chilly!), but only about 10' deep, and we hung a weight on a rope as a marker over the side.
Got to the bottom, and found it immediately. Owner very happy. :)
 
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Lost an 8 year old off the back of the bathing platform in Dives Sur Mer many years ago

Luckily, his life jacket inflated and we were able to haul him out complete with specs still perched on his nose:)

Dropped in and recovered brand new Rupes polisher which still works 14 years later

Dropped in and lost husbands all singing, all dancing varifocals (brand new) first day of holiday - he was grumpy for a week:( -

May
Xx
 
So Far,
A water filler cap, it was not magnetic so had to wait to low water and go fishing with a kids fishing net.

a friend dropped an iphone , again waited for low water and spend an hour clearing weed until I could see it, and retrieved, that was with a large fishing net, grey taped to a boat hook.

an anchor and 20 meters of chain, linking shackle gave way, rusted though, hit MOB button and had track running so knew where it was, used a grappling anchor to trawl across area until we found chain and retrieved.

Sure other but those are the ones I remember.
 
As a teenager on holiday in Greece, I snorkelled down 13 metres (by the depth sounder) to retrieve a watch that a lady on another boat had dropped. No way I could do that now!

Pete
 
Best (only) one I've done is baseball hat yesterday as it blew off my head. We circled around and SWMBO retrieved it 1st go with boat hook. An easy recovery but it was our first 'HOB' so still quite chuffed! My son lost a hat in the Dart a couple of years back, but combination of strong current and it landing in shallow water persuaded us not to go after it - a mangled prop would have been a high price to pay!
 
Mobile phone-recovered, washed with fresh water and worked fine when dried out.
Threw aluminium dinghy seat into inflatable at mooring but it bounced straight out and never managed to find it despite it being in only 4 ft of water but it was very silty warter.
Fitting two halves of a wind generator pole together by the side of the boat. Spent 5 hours fishing for it (aluminium) with a loop of coathanger tied to a boathook.
Lost my glasses a few times but always managed to catch them!
 
carlton said:
Back in the marina on Sunday, I decided to scrub the shi-itehawk guano off the coachroof. Hands full, and a wasp started buzzing round me face, so I shook my head to flick it away with my hair, as you do. Imagine my delight as I watched my specs whizz off my face and plop into the briney...

Not to be beaten, I stuck another pair of specs on and came up with a cunning plan to fish 'em out blind (- water was too deep to see 'em -) using the fishing rod and mackerel lures. Wasted half an hour with this until I realised we were approaching low water. Hmm.. neaps, though...

Anyways, sure enough I could just make out a regular shaped thing lying atop the silt in about 2.5 metres depth, so I extended the boat hook fully and carefully hooked and lifted me specs up from Davy Jones' locker and gently dropped 'em into the landing net held by SWMBO. Result. :D

So, what have you dropped into - and subsequently recovered from - the sea, and how did you do it?
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I assume that you are not berthed on the East Coast :p
 
On week 3 of my honeymoon in september 2007 I dropped a winch handle into 7m of water while moored in Stromboli. Anyhow I attempted to fish it out with a net and various poles joined together but no joy. Then I tried diving for it, but like quite a few people, I enjoy being on water not underneath it. Finally my wife of 15 days got fed up and asked a neighbouring boat if they could help. So a 6ft3" blond haired, tanned German chap in speedos appeared, think Aryan build. Anyhow, after a quick reccy underwater, equipped with his googles and speedos only, he asked what colour it was. I confirmed it was black and 5 secs later he had retrieved it. We thanked him and bought him a bottle for his trouble.

So having been pleasantly humiliated, if there is such a thing, we continued with the rest of our charter with no further issues and I hasten to add we are still married!!
 
"Anyhow, after a quick reccy underwater, equipped with his googles and speedos only, he asked what colour it was. I confirmed it was black and 5 secs later he had retrieved it. We thanked him and bought him a bottle for his trouble."

I am confused, was there a selection down there and he wanted to ensure he only got yours?
 
Poecheng said:
"Anyhow, after a quick reccy underwater, equipped with his googles and speedos only, he asked what colour it was. I confirmed it was black and 5 secs later he had retrieved it. We thanked him and bought him a bottle for his trouble."

I am confused, was there a selection down there and he wanted to ensure he only got yours?
Click to expand...

I think he dived down partially, saw something that looked like a handle and wanted to confirm the colour before driving down 7 metres. But you are right, I would have thought if it looked like a handle in the first place just dive for it, but perhaps he was as demonstrating he's eyesight skills as well.
 
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