So what's the worse thing you have dropped and where did you drop it ?

[Stemar]

Me. A Tom & Jerry manoeuvre getting from the dingy to the boat.
The fuel filler cap, the day before a cross-channel trip. We did the trip with a bit of plastic held on with a cable tie.
My Nokia 3310, I was hurrying up the pontoon when it climbed off my belt and bonk, bonk, splash. They may be indestructible, they aren't that indestructible.
Madame managed to drop her watch over the side. We found it two days later at low tide, sitting on the mud, still working.

 

[TiggerToo]

My phone, in Wiseman's Reach (Fowey R)

 

[Graham_Wright]

Favourite home made boat hook (not me - 'er).
I dived for it. Vis at 1 foot, zero. Depth around 3 metres. I groped around for it but it was thick ooze and it probably went in point first.

 

[Refueler]

Old Hands will relate to this one .....

Barton Reffing Handle .......

Many people like myself have had their Roller Reefing handle 'flipped' overboard by errant sail or halyard ......

 

[Refueler]

Battery drill ..... started work - battery came unclipped and PLOP !!

Adjusting backstay turnbuckle ... screwdriver through TB body .... slipped .... PLOP !!

The last split pin you have spare - fitting to stay .... PLOP !!

But the worst ? After my Mother passed on - I wore her wedding ring on my little finger ... until trip to Roja late last year ... while working a rope - the ring came off and lost overboard ..... I hoped that it had come off on board somewhere, but no luck.

 

[Alicatt]

Dropped an antique silver mounted ram's-horn snuff box in the River Leven at the mill lade for one of the derelict factories near Jamestown, it was not the best of days for this 14 year old lad, the snuff box was recovered but not by me.

 

[Bouba]

I remember in Africa, putting my boat to bed and my phone slipped out of my pocket and fell into the bilge....of course I didn’t realize until later that evening....by then we had the first day of the rainy season....fished it out the next day

 

[wingcommander]

Bronze water strainer gauze. Plop into Vancouver27 bilge . Obviously not magnetic, so several hours fishing blind . Retrieving several stainless jubilee clips a rusty pair of mole grips a large flat bladed screwdriver the curved end of Henry the hover ( my previous loss) and eventually the mesh strainer. This has since been replaced by a cheapo vetus copy ( plastic and larger diameter connectors.
Oh I also lost my two months old tough phone , jumped out of my pocket as I was adjusting a boat fender.

 

[Refueler]

When I bought the 25 ... sailed her from Gosport to Tudor Club Langstone .... put her on the mooring and then with trusty Seagull on back of my inflatable ... went ashore.
Just before slipway - turned off fuel as usual ... engine stopped and we drifted to slipway. As we stepped out of dinghy - Seagull fell off - the Avon metal bracket failed .. as they tended to do ... full corrosion under paint skin ...

Luckily was shallow ... and Seagull retrieved ... started up in Club bin ...

 

[Skysail]

Shepherds pie on the cabin sole, while sailing through the Raz de Seine.

What do you do when it’s 2 in the morning and the food is on the floor? Scrape it up and eat it!

 

[westernman]

My car and house keys fell out of my pocket while land sailing in Normandy.
Those things go a long way in not much time.

Spent a good hour combing the beach. But found them in the end.
It would have been damm inconvenient trying to get back to Paris without the car keys and then get into my appartment.......

 

[westernman]

Shepherds pie on the cabin sole, while sailing through the Raz de Seine.

What do you do when it’s 2 in the morning and the food is on the floor? Scrape it up and eat it!

You must be Viago's brother.

 

[davidej]

I fueled and watered up at the Knobs and Snobs marina in Lowestoft . When ready to leave, I flicked the line off the quayside cleat and caught the bunch of keys for the relevant inlets and they ended up in Davy Jones locker.

 

[LittleSister]

What I have dropped: A clanger.
Where I dropped it: In conversation.
My life might have been very different had I not!

Other examples:
A hat, purchased only hours before for an outrageous sum from a Burnham on Crouch chandlery, 1980s. Went over the side maybe half a mile downriver from there, at the start of a trip to the Netherlands in blazing sunshine. I had to wear a teacloth on my head for the rest of the trip to protect my bald pate!

Reefing handle, Loch Ness. We had rented a small yacht from Dochgarroch, Inverness end of the Great Glen/Caledonian Canal for a fortnight at the very beginning of the season. Lovely sunny evening of our arrival as we sat on the dock with a few others being briefed by the owner. Lost the reefing handle on our first day out, so returned to Doggaroch to get a replacement. Gales then set in for days. On the plus side we were then moored only a couple of minutes walk from our car. Over the next days we drove hundreds of miles around northern Scotland, and walked dozens of miles, all in torrential rain. Gales eventually subsided and we set off again. Still bloody windy, though, VERY cold, lots of rain, plus occasional snow. Were were unable to use some of the potential moorings because of the weather. Even on the usable ones the boat was leaping about all over the places and forever straining the warps. The inside of the boat (no heating!) was continually dripping with condensation. The wind finally abated on our last night, and up early in the morning to get back to Doggarroch, it was sunny and Loch Ness was flat calm - you could see our wake trailing behind far, far behind us. Owner claimed that in 20 years he had never known such consistently bad weather for a fortnight, and offered us use of another boat for the weekend free as some recompense, which sadly we were unable to avail ourselves of, as we had arranged to visit friends. The next morning, in Glasgow, we sat in the sunshine in our friends' garden for breakfast. We drove back to Bristol in blazing sunshine all way - we saw only one small cloud all day. We stopped at Pooley Bridge in the Lake District for a meal and break, where people were wearing shorts and T-shirts as they frolicked in their boats and on the shore, and we had to demist our windscreen before departing - windows steamed up from all the sodden clothing and gear inside.

 

[Humblebee]

Wallet and phone fell out of an unzipped pocket when I bent down to release a mooring line. Grabbed the wallet but not the phone. With hindsight I should have grabbed the phone first as the wallet sank much more slowly giving me time to grasp it also.

 

[Refueler]

OK its non boaty but .....

Filling in a form - I needed one of my 2 passports I carry in back pocket ... (I had 2 UK PP's - its to avoid having a stamp in and visiting another country that doesn't like first !) ... but when I put hand in back pocket .. NOTHING !! I had both PP's in a single holder.

I looked everywhere but could not find.

Online - started application for replacement .... skipped past the bit that says - once sent - even if you find 'lost PP' - the old PP is now cancelled and cannot be re-instated.

Clicked send ....

Next day found both PP's under the BBQ table .....

 

[superheat6k]

Have your Sabres not got the handy, built in oil draining suction pumps? They make life so easy.

Indeed, but I was feeling very lazy !!!

 

[Baddox]

When we rerigged our boat I climbed to the top of the mast to measure the length of the stays. Hand-over-hand while my wife belayed the slack line was hard work and took a while. Upon reaching the top and recovering as I leant sideways to check something the tape measure I’d brought dropped out of my pocket, bounced once on the deck on its way to the water where it sunk. Measuring was postponed and I was lowered disconsolately back down.

 

[mrming]

I dropped our Rocna anchor, no chain or rode attached (don’t ask), in our mud berth at high tide. Then had to rush off to work. Came back at low tide and it was sitting on the pontoon next to the boat. A kindly neighbour had fished it out for me. I had visions of it being 2 feet down in the soft East coast gloop.

 

[gregcope]

winch drum. Lost Solent
Two winch handles (lost)
Single shoe (lost, mid channel)
Spinicker + halyard and sheets. Got it all back bar halyard
VHF three times. The last two were the same floating model so still have it
stainless steel adjustable spanner.
Outboard (rinsed. Works)
Two boat hooks. One boat hook twice (still have that one).
Me. Slipped dropping a spinacker on a folk boat. Went for a swim

I seem to be good at this.