Well we are still shaking Paradox down but have decided to spend the night in a very cool little remote spot.

We have found a hole that places us between two uninhabited islands. One protects us from the chop on the intracoastal waterway and the other protects us from the surf of the Gulf of Mexico. We are sharing it with a couple that came over today to talk to us about our dinghy. They were considering one but had never seen one inflated.

There is about a 3/4 moon coming up over the island on the Gulf side and a light house at the pass to the Gulf over the other island. During the day there were white sand dunes and dolphins to greet us. I caught several catfish just before low tide today.

A collision

Now for the reality part of the blog. As we were coming up to the channel from the bay I realized we were going to have to come about at the mouth of the channel. We were only flying the Genoa and something happened and my dad could not get across the bow. And we were headed directly for the green buoy. I tried to start the diesel and nothing happened. I hit the bow thruster and got us away from the green buoy and now we were headed for the red buoy. There was no avoiding a collision in the wind and tide we were facing. Still no motor.

The bow thruster allowed me to make it a glancing blow but it still looked bad. When we were about to hit Debbie said "Look! Take a picture. I was bracing for damage. As we struck I realized from the sound that the buoy was made out of the same type of plastic coolers are made of not cast iron as they appear. Not a scratch. But a big scare. Then the motor started.