If you’ve been around boats for any length of time, you may be familiar with the slow motion panic that sets in whenever you drop a tool, fitting or part, only to see it go tumbling in slow motion into the ocean. It’s a very different thing than losing a screw in the carpet or grass; in a split second you go through all five stages of grief:

1. Denial: (that did NOT just happen!)
2. Anger (at anyone or anything) animate or inanimate.
3. Bargaining – making promises to Poseidon involving one’s firstborn, if only that washer turns up in the cockpit, and not over the side where you know it really went
4. Depression – and a recollection of everything you’ve ever lost in the ocean.  It’s the difference between something being misplaced or gone forever.
5. Acceptance – by way of acceptance, here is a short list this of offerings I’ve made to Poseidon in the past crew years in roughly chronological order:

• Stainless screwdriver. I lost this one while stripping deck hardware off my Catalina 27 in preparation for painting. It spun over the stern pulpit gracefully and disappeared. Sadly it was not one of those nifty floating types.   Those never fall in the water!
• Favorite Straw Hat. I lost this one while applying the new registration stickers to the side of the boat. My straw hat fell off and floated slowly away. I had time to go down and fetch a boat hook and cross over to the neighboring slip, where I made frantic rowing motions as rhe wind blew the hat away to the opposite end of the marina, under sone wood pilings by the sea wall  made
• A bronze bushing from a Barient winch. I was being very careful not to lise any parts from the underside of the winch, when i turned it over just in time to see a small bronze sleeve fall out of the top. Yep, it had to be a custom part, a bronze bushing from a discontinued manufacturer. I saw this one tumble,  in slow motion, bouncing off the gunwale and going “plop” on the ocean.  Thankfully I worked at a company that had one of the finest machine shops in the SF Bay, and I also had a second winch from which one of the machinists created an exact duplicate.
• A brand new group 27 deep discharge lead acid battery I had just bought, set on the level gunwale and then stepped off the boat, which dipped slightly under my weight.  I turned in time to see the battery slowly sliding off and, “plop!” this one fizzed for a good ten seconds.  My diver hauled that out for me a couple weeks later.  By that time it had zero charge and white terminal posts.  I hope Walmart takes returns!

I like the think my stuff is hanging out with a bunch of other things people have dropped in the ocean, and maybe, one day, a future civilization will uncover them and come to some deeper understanding.  Maybe not.  No doubt there are a lot of other losses I’ve forgotten to note, but I am sure you get the idea. If not, your time will come!