Unfortunately, after our informative tour of Fort Matanzas, we had a little dinghy accident. As we were dragging the dinghy off the sand and into the water we suddenly heard a loud hissing sound coming from underneath one of the pontoons. A sharp shell embedded in the sand had sliced a six inch gash on one side of the dinghy. OPPS!!!

After an initial moment of panic, we were wondering how we would get across the cold water, which had quite a swift current, back to Kismet. Time was also running out since we had taken the next to last ferry over to the island and if we were to solicit help we would have to do it in a hurry as the park staff would soon be leaving.

We walked up to the park office and asked if they could help us out. You would think that these guys were just waiting for an opportunity to help a stranded boater the way they swiftly acted to rescue us and our dinghy. We talked to Thomas first and he radioed the ferry, which was sitting at the fort dock. Linda drove the boat over to shore where our sad, limp dinghy sat grounded. They tied the dinghy up to the ferry and Jim and I climbed aboard and within minutes of our accident we were back on Kismet, safe and sound.Even though we were upset about the accident with the dinghy we felt happy and warm inside that people we had never met before today would go out of their way to help us when they really didn’t have to.

A BIG THANK YOU to all involved.