A bag of rice resuscitates a $300 lifeline
Issue 75 : Nov/Dec 2010
Because we had two children in college in the States as we continued to roam the Caribbean, my husband, Dave, bought me an iPod touch for Valentine’s Day. I soon became a junkie. I would email, Facebook, Skype, transfer money, order gifts, and generally try to stay connected with the rest of the world from our floating home. We were anchored in Panama when the unthinkable (yet inevitable) happened: I got my iPod wet. The screen went haywire: it wouldn’t turn off, it kept flipping through pages on its own, then nothing — a blank screen.
As my tears mingled with the water I had shaken off and out of the iPod, I heard the words of wisdom so often spoken around people living or vacationing near water, “Put it in a bag of rice.”
Putting rice in our salt shaker has become second nature. That’s the only way to ensure we’ll be able to use it for more than a day. The rice, rather than the salt, absorbs the moisture in the air. The same theory suggests that dry rice will also absorb moisture trapped in electronics.
To speed up the evaporation process, I put the bag of rice containing my iPod in the sun, checking frequently to be sure it didn’t get too hot and wiping off condensation that accumulated on the inside of the Ziploc.
Four days later was Valentine’s Day, the iPod’s first anniversary. That seemed like a lucky day to try it. I pushed the button. Nothing.
Dave said the water may have shorted out the battery, draining it completely, so I plugged it in. Nothing.
Only then did I allow myself to mourn. My songs, pictures, videos, ebooks, applications, contacts — the list of what I’d lost grew and grew and, like any junkie, I was wondering how I could live without it.
Then I heard the unmistakable beedle beep. It came to life and, after a few hours of charging, has been as good as new ever since.
That bag of rice saved me so much more than the $300 it would have cost to replace my iPod touch. It restored my quality of life by allowing me to stay in touch with my boys and the rest of the world, even while living in the jungle.
Connie McBride, her husband, Dave, and their three boys have been living and exploring the Caribbean aboard their 34 foot Creekmore, Eurisko for 9 years. Now that Connie is totally connected, she is posting some of her cruising wisdom on her website www.simplysailingonline.com.
Thank you to Sailrite Enterprises, Inc., for providing free access to back issues of Good Old Boat through intellectual property rights. Sailrite.com
