More tense moments

So we wake up Sat. morning and head out of Ingram Bay.(mile marker 164)  We are heading in the Intracoastal Waterway near Orange Beach, when Bob says that he can't see the channel markers, but then he says, "Oh, I see.  We go up to the north shore and then back down."  So when I see both channel markers to our left up ahead, I assume he has figured it out because they were to the north.  Big "assume" as in ass u and me.  He got out of the channel and we were once again stuck.  So this time, Bob got in the dinghy and pulled on a line which is attached to the top of the mast.  That heeled us over, which kept the keel shallower than normal.  As he did that, I steered, but we didn't come free.  After trying to pull us out with the dinghy, Bob decided to dinghy over to a fairly close marina to see if someone would come & pull us out.  As he is speeding away in the dinghy, the line for the dinghy gets caught in the dinghy motor's prop.  What a morning.

So while he is gone & Wicket & I are left to wait on the boat, I try my own tricks.  Running from left to right and front to back to redistribute my weight and going in reverse and low and behold I could tell that the boat was moving ever so slightly.  Then the depth finder started reading 3.5 and 4.2 and then 6.5 and I knew it was free.  I was still quite a ways from being in the main channel, so I crossed my fingers in hopes that I wouldn't run aground again before getting in the channel.  Yahoo!!!!  I made it to the main channel and then motored about .5 miles back to the marina. 

Bob was on the phone talking to the Boat US tow captain for this area when the marina employee says to Bob, "Is that your sailboat?"  Bob looks out and says, "Yes".  He tells Boat US to "never mind".  Tells the marina employee, "Leave it to the Misses to get it free".  He jumps in the dinghy and meets up with me.  We proceed on our merry way.

Boat US to the rescue - not our rescue this time

At the end of the video below, you will see the Boat US guy going past our boat.  He yelled over at us but neither of us could hear what he said.  I think he said, "Nice job, lady".

We saw dolphins and jelly fish today and crossed into Florida.  We are anchored in Little Sabina Bay for the night, which is way out near Pensacola Beach.(mile marker 189.0)  Tomorrow we will try to make it to Fort Walton Beach (mile marker 223)  We will see what kind of trouble we can get into tomorrow.