Irredeemable, irresponsible, boneheaded. I was told those things when I showed my drowned Zoom F3. While I had everything to protect it from the disaster in waiting, the setup phase was what brought me down.
It turns out that one out of 27 waves is a “big one”. I started setting up my gear at wave 24. I guess you can see the following minutes in your mind.
Wave number 27 hit the perfectly dry spot I had chosen and drenched me, my mics and my Zoom F3. The F3 started blinking its recording light even though I hadn’t started recording yet. Then it refused to switch off. I removed the batteries at that point. The damage was done. Game over.
At home, I dried off myself, got out of my wet clothes and looked at the recorder. I dunked it in a bath of distilled water, trying to dissolve any salt that might be inside. Then a bath of isopropyl alcohol to remove the water. All to no avail. Once dried and powered up, the unit complained about finding no firmware. I tried to provide it on a card, but no way.
So I purchased a new Zoom F3. There was no use in trying to get this fixed under warranty; that’s not my style. I may open it later on to see if anything can still be salvaged, but I have my doubts.
The new unit arrived a few days ago, and its first recording session was at the exact same spot where its predecessor met its demise.
Here is the result:
The only difference was that it was low tide instead of the incoming high tide. Lesson learned: check the tides before getting knocked off the rocks by the water…
Until next time…