Salvaging Gcc when IMAP fails

[Joseph Barillari <jbarilla@research.bell-labs.com>]

Occasionally, my at-work Gnus installation (5.9.0/GNU Emacs 21.2.1 for
Windows) drops its IMAP connection[0] during a session. This isn't a
big deal when I'm checking mail; I just hit `g' again when I receive
the error message, and Gnus merrily reconnects.

But when I'm sending a message, it's more of an irritation. My
installation Gcc's messages into an IMAP folder. If the connection
drops before I send a message, I get the following error:

Sending... 

error in process filter: imap-parse-response: Internal
error, tag 284 status BAD code nil text 
Server in unknown state for SELECT command error in process filter:
Internal error, tag 284 status BAD code nil text Server in unknown
state for SELECT command

imap-send-command-1: Process imap not running

The message is sent via SMTP, but it isn't Gcc'd. 

Is there any way to force the Gcc code to retry if the IMAP connection
is broken on the first attempt? Failing that, is there a command to
save the buffer of a just-sent message in a given mailbox?

Thanks in advance.

--Joe

[0] The IMAP server could be breaking the connection due to my
    inactivity, I haven't traced the initiator of the break. I'm
    running IMAP over SSL, if that makes a difference.