I know this is a weird story, but it's true. I was birding plus fly fishing for
summer-run steelhead on the upper South Fork of the Skykomish River last Sunday
(west of Skykomish, in western WA). I though I'd bring my Swift ultra-lite,
rubber armor-coated binoculars this time because I've been fishing up there for
a few weekends in a row and kept spotting some type of sandpiper (I think it was
a spotted sandpiper) working the shore. I thought I could fish and bird at the
same time, and ID that sandpiper once and for all. There I was standing in the
river up to the tops of my legs when I hooked a big steelhead. It took the line
very fast and ran downstream. All of a sudden the line ran out and went all
the way down to the end of the backing, which was tied on to the spool of the
reel. The fish kept going and since I was out of line and wouldn't let go of my
rod, I was pulled down into the river by the fish (it was actually fun).
Unfortunately, my binoculars went with me. (For those fisherman who are
reading: it broke off after the second run, but I went back and fished through
the river again and landed another one, 29" long, wild male steelhead.)

Once I got back home, I closely examined my binoculars and saw the inside
chambers of glass were saturated with very heavy condensation and large droplets
of water everywhere. I got my hair dryer out and tried to dry them up with no
luck. Then I put them outside for a few days on the deck table and hoped the
hot, 80+ degree sun would evaporate the water. After several days of this
nothing happened and the water droplets looked even larger and everything was
fogged up even worse than before. Not knowing anything about bins, I figured
they were ruined. I got really concerned because I needed them for a trip this
Saturday to Ocean Shores. Finally I got fed up with the hassle, and figured
since they were probably ruined, I might try a more aggressive approach to
getting rid of the water. I ended up turning my oven on. I started out at 100
degrees and put the bins in a glass Pyrex baking dish and baked them, checking
on them every 5 minutes. Since not much was happening, I kept turning up the
heat up every 5 minutes, 25 degrees. Finally, when I reached 200 degrees, the
water in the bins evaporated. I carefully removed them from the oven with oven
mits, and placed them on the counter to cool off. An hour later, after they had
cooled down, I field tested them and they were as good as new, with no
condensation or water. I again tested them a few days later, and they are still
in good shape.

So, in short, I baked my binoculars to get rid of the water and it worked. Does
anyone know if per chance I have somehow permanently ruined them in other ways?
For example, that they'll probably disintegrate within 6 months because of this?

Franny Drobny
Seattle, Washington
fdrobny at cairncross.com