Tale of woe: Capsized my kayak, thousands of dollars swiming in the river ... TIME FOR NEW GEAR!

Paddling up Blind River in St. James Parish, Louisiana. I wanted to get a shot up a hollow trunk bald cypress. I've paddled here for years and my Native Slayer 12' kayak has never given me any problem. It's usually very stable. With my Pelican case OPEN, I reached further and further out holding my 7D upwards with a 17-40 mounted to it and then it all happened so damned quickly. I capsized. All my gear went into the muddy water.

Here's a list of everything that sunk to the bottom:
5D (original)
70-200 lens
2x extender
7D
70-40 lens
Small hand-held camcorder
Zoom H4n recorder
Sony Action Cam (somehow popped out of it's waterproof case)
Moto Z2 Force phone

Next to the hollow tree, the river is four to 5 feet of muddy water. I must have dove down 7-8 times trying to retrieve all of my gear. I even found the lens cap, of all things. The only thing I lost was my cheap reading glasses. I'm just glad my sidearm was still on my hip.

I pulled the batteries as I pulled things out of the water. We'll have to wait and see what happens to the camera bodies. The lenses all have water droplets deep in the build, so they're shot. The phone and the camcorder as well as all batteries are in a bucket of rice.

I used a vacuum cleaner to suck on any opening on all the equipment. I'm trying to get all the water out that I can. There were a few drops of water on the mirrors. It didn't appear that the chambers behind the lenses filled with water. Tonight I'll get out my sensor cleaning kit and look behind the mirrors.

I'm thinking of dropping the lenses into a bucket of denatured alcohol. Rinse and repeat a few times. Unless someone has a miracle up their sleeves.

*sigh*

Well, off to BH, I guess. Most of my gear was purchased back in 2006. I got the 7D whenever that was released. Time to upgrade anyway.

I had another Sony ActionCam mounted to the front of the kayak. I'll have to see if the footage captures anything funny/sad/really sad.

Never take anything in the swamp you're not ready to drop INTO the swamp. That, and I need to improve my equipment handling procedures. As a rule, if I'm getting in or out of my kayak, everything is stored and sealed. It never mattered as I never capsized before. [Insert cursing rant here]

And if you're wondering, yes, I did see alligators out there. Luckily, none were present where I went overboard.

BillsBayou wrote in post #18901653
And if you're wondering, yes, I did see alligators out there. Luckily, none were present where I went overboard.

Good thing none were present, else we would have never known the story....

Good luck in gear replacement, perhaps it's time to consider the RP as it would do much better than the 5D original and it doesn't cost a bunch. The lens replacement is where things are going to hurt a bit, but actually if you stay with used EF gear and use the R to EF adapter, used EF prices are pretty compressed right now.

Sad, and you had it all in a waterproof case -- unfortunately open!

Sorry about the gear, mate. I too had to learn the hard way that open zippers are a photographers worst enemy. Hopefully there is a silver lining! Good luck.

I've done pretty good drying out things using the floor register return for our central A/C system. Set wet stuff on top and leave it there. We've got a stand-alone dehumidfier that we use in the bathroom, I've been tempted to use it but haven't yet (and thankfully haven't had need in quiet a while.

Cool, dry air seems best unless you know you can get the moisture out while using hot air. Heat could promote mold if the environment stays damp. Whatever you salvage will be "gravy" to this incident being as it seems most camera dunkings do not end well for the equipment. You did good getting the batteries out.

Best wishes on your re-gearing!!!
Ed

Sucks, but one thing I do that might help you is to store each piece of equipment in a Ziplok in the bag/case. That way everything is individually protected. I use to do it only when out on the water out in inclement weather, but it's become a habit and I do it all the time now. Takes a bit longer to switch lenses, but at least all but the one at hand are protected.

BTW, nice side effect of the Ziplok bag thing is that the float. I have never dumped anything in the water, but know know someone who has. He forgot to clip his bag shut at a swim meet and had a lens fall out into the pool.

Nice great idea on the individual Ziploc, and the freezer variety seem to be the most robust.