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Date: 23 August 2024. Phone Saga, lesson 2.

© janice142
 

The articles Phone Saga, lesson 1 and Phone Saga, lesson 2 detail the cell phone problems I experienced plus the solutions I implemented to prevent a repeat.

For those that prefer all the information on one page, this is the combination of those two links:

Phone Saga, Lessons Learned

For those that prefer smaller posts or who have a spotty internet connection, here are the two articles from the series.
 

  1. Phone Saga, lesson 1

  2. Phone Saga, lesson 2 ←you are here

 


As written about in
Phone Saga, lesson 1, I have a history of phone problems. So far all of the issues I have experienced are a direct result of my own mistakes. At least two flip phones ended up falling overboard. Recently, I broke the screen on my phone. Many of my friends' phone numbers had not been uploaded to the cloud so I totally lost a way to contact said mariners. When you live aboard your own boat, maintaining nautical friendships are critical. The latest event, aka Lesson 2, thankfully had a better outcome than the last teaching moment.
 

The trouble with using experience as a teacher is
often the final exam comes first, followed by the lesson.
 

For me, keeping in touch includes a rather extensive Christmas card list. I send a lot of cards to my boat buddies.

Receiving snail mail makes me happy. That's a hint folks!

My address is: 15019 Madeira Way, Unit 8284, Madeira Beach, FL  33708
 

Having the new (used) phone has been wonderful. It is an iPhone11 and takes beautiful pictures. In the meantime, I have made a significant change in how I manage phone numbers. I had only uploaded (I do not know what it is called when you save stuff to the cloud) just a portion of the people I contact semi-regularly.
 

My new iPhone is much larger than the iPhone7 I dropped. In my defense, I did believe the glass on it was shatterproof. It was not..

Whenever I save a number to the phone I also add it to my hand-written address book.

 

The new phone does take nice pictures. The quality seems better. Now all I have to do is improve my photography skills. It would be nice to have level horizons. My friend Cheryl does that while under sail. I struggle with horizons on dry land without a breeze.


This is Cheryl

 

While sitting at my desk on the phone with a friend I spotted another friend. Buddy is peeking at me through the window.

The iPhone11 does take large format pictures with lots of pixels.
 

New readers may not realize that when you click on the photos I post the "real" (read: larger) original is displayed. If you want to see more detail, simply click the picture for the full-sized version. The back arrow will return you to the original page.


The phone is used for taking pictures of my wild friends...
 


Ella Fitzgerald is a great blue heron.
Ella Fitzgerald sang the blues...
A beautiful mama and baby
manatee swam by my Seaweed.

This is Carl. He is a snowy egret.

Snowy egrets are sometimes called golden slipper egrets because of their yellow feet. Carl has a black spot on his foot. 


I also utilize my phone when grocery shopping. If I happen to spot a bargain I will text a photo to someone who might like that particular item. One of my neighbors loves lasagna. I know that takes pasta sauce, so when I saw a decent brand of jarred sauce I sent him a picture.


Yes I did pick up a couple of jars of Classico Marinara Sauce... later I made the lasagna.


But I digress...

One fateful night I was crossing the boats. I heard a splash and thought "that's unusual" but continued on my way. Later however I realized my phone was missing. Then it dawned on me that the splash had to have been my cell phone falling into the water.
 

I really did not want to have to call Baby and admit my phone was at the bottom of the canal. But it was. Of that I was certain.



Everything might be fine, however not having a cell phone definitely was not fun.
 

So I did what anyone would do. I called my diver ↓ Craig. He is amazing.

I mentioned Craig's work in the To the Boatyard article. He is a resident of Gulfport, Florida.

Craig's phone number is 727-394-9043. As of last week he had a couple
of openings to add new boats, so if you are in the area give him a call.


Craig has been my diver for a few years now. He does good work. Another thing I appreciate is that he comes when he says he will. For me, that is monthly except in the winter when we space things out to about every six weeks.


With my phone in the water I immediately called Craig. Unfortunately for me, he was busy for the next two days but did fit me in on day three. I knew where the phone had splashed and in about 15 minutes he retrieved it. Whew! When I clicked the edge of the phone it powered up then back off. The battery had died while submersed on an oyster bed under the mangrove trees.
 

With the phone case being a light purple, I hoped it would be more visible and easier for Craig to locate.


After paying Craig I took the phone inside, then stripped off the soggy purple phone case. Next I rinsed the phone in fresh water. I did not know if I could save the phone however I did know that salt water would definitely not help the situation! Finally I dried it out with a fan blowing up into the bottom (where the holes are) for several hours.
 

When I first tried to plug in the charging cable, the phone displayed an error message about water or moisture. I dried it longer with the fan blowing on low speed into the speakers and charging port.


Finally, the error message was not present and charging began. Eventually the iPhone did power up. Everything worked. The process of drying took several hours. From the time I dropped it into the salt water until rescued, rinsed in fresh water, dried, charged up and working properly was almost four days.


Then, last week my friend Shelley ↓ dropped her phone into the water. We knew exactly what to do.

We called Craig (
727-394-9043) who was able to come by in just a couple of hours.


Almost as fast as I can type "he found it" Craig brought up her iPhone14. It was working. She then asked if he could check for her sunglasses that she had dropped overboard a while back. Voila: ask and Shelley shall receive!



Craig save the day, plus Shelley's iPhone14, and her sunglasses too!


In chatting with Craig after the retrievals, he did say that he had found several android phones and a few iPhones too. Only the iPhones successfully restarted. Although these are standard phones and not fancy waterproof versions, I will admit that I am impressed.
 

 

Lessons Learned, Phone edition

 

#1)  Make a hard copy of the phone numbers stored on the phone. I do have an address book for my Christmas card list, and now have added phone numbers to those pages.

I did not save my numbers to the cloud, which exacerbated the situation.

#2) Empirically, iPhones do sometimes survive a trip under water if recovered quickly enough. My iPhone was on an oyster bed for three days and is still working.
 

SIDE NOTE: I did thoroughly rinse my phone (including in the holes) with fresh water before drying it out. Salt is corrosive. I placed the phone in a mesh net with the holes down. Also, I aimed a small fan at the bottom of the phone on low. After drying for several hours when I plugged in the charging cable the moisture error was gone. Once fully charged, the phone worked. It actually functions just as before!!!

 

Suggestions:
 

#1) write down important numbers or save the data to a different device, (or back up as per Cap'n Keith on S/V Grace)

and

#2) consider buying an iPhone.

 

 

The lilac (light purple) phone case has cardboard inside the front part. That case did not survive the three days underwater.

I need to buy another case. I miss having a place to store my credit card.


It is busy here. A lot has been going on. I am still catching up after a week long trip to Universal Studios, Harry Potter's Diagon Alley, Sea World, and more. Yes, my family came for a visit. Life is good. That is it from this side of the world. Thank you for being a part of my world. Thanks too for reading.  


Do you use one particular diver, or a company with lots of different divers?
And, have you ever recovered a phone from the water?
 

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© 2024

Categories:  Characters, Locations, Wild Things,

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