We left the slip in Destin at 4 AM just as planned. Bud had been very worried about finding our way back out through the narrow channel in the harbor. Once we were back in the main channel coming in off the gulf he said he could use the chartplotter and he'd be fine. I asked him if he couldn't just follow the track back out that we came in on, since our chartplotter will make a track of where you go. Mistake one: he hadn't turned that feature back on yet, so we had no track of our entrance.

The channel markers on the far end of the harbor were lit, so we had no trouble there. As we approached the other end of the harbor, where it again gets shallow and narrow, there was enough ambient light from the surroundings to pick out the unlit buoys, and we glided out in the still night without a problem. Now we were approaching the main channel. Suddenly there was a lot of current. The last of the outgoing tide was rushing out of the much larger Choctawhatchee Bay. We were going against it as we approached the main channel, and as we turned into the main channel we were going along with it.

It was much darker out here, away from the lights of town. The buoys were not all lit. I stood up on the foredeck and looked for buoys as Bud watched the chart and steered the boat. There was little wind, but there was enough that I could here the surf out on the beaches. Through the dark I picked up the white of breaking waves ahead. I came back to the cockpit and told Bud I was going to stay back there. There were steep waves from the outgoing current meeting the incoming waves. Mistake two: we had discounted the effect of current against wind, as the wind was light.

Well the wind might have been light, but there were enough waves that the border where they met the current was suddenly very rough. We were going out between two lighted buoys when we were suddenly in very rough water. I could barely stand in the cockpit and couldn't shine a light out to look for buoys. Mistake three: we had our lifejackets in the cockpit, but not on. I had put mine on to walk around the deck, but Bud hadn't and was now much too busy steering the boat to put his on.

We continued crashing out against the waves when there was a sudden thump. I thought something had happened to the engine. "We're aground!" Bud called. Mistake four: Bud had the chartplotter set to a very small area so he could see the detail of the channel, but in the stress of steering with the waves had somehow gotten out of the channel and was now disoriented and could not see where to get back. The boat lurched and thumped. Bud was fighting the wheel and gunning the engine. The boat turned sideways to the waves and was rocking wildly. "Shouldn't we call for help?" I asked. "No," Bud replied, "find those marks on shore". I took our spotlight and shown it out but could find no marks anywhere. "Shouldn't we call for help?" I asked again. "No, we're moving." said Bud. "Put out the jib." I started to move around the cockpit getting lines set to release the jib. It was slow work in the bucking boat. I could feel the boat move a little as each wave came, then thump on the sand again. Now we were turned around and headed somewhat back towards the shore, but we could also see one of the lighted buoys. Bud headed towards that as I fearfully worked on the jib. Just as we were ready to set the sail the lurching grew much less and the forward movement got much greater. "Never mind the jib, we're back at the channel." Bud now wanted me to try to find the channel marks again as he brought the boat around. We were past the worst of the waves, but it was still very rough. I shown the spotlight out and up ahead, not far off our starboard side I saw a green refection. As I continued to shine the spotlight around I was able to see a red reflection not too far off our port side. Wow, the channel was really narrow here. There was a lone white light a ways ahead. It was then that I figured out that the white light was the center of the channel and we should steer towards it. Bud did. Mistake four: we should have known before we set out that there were only two lighted buoys and that the white light was the center of the channel. I should have known to look for the two unlit buoys fairly close together. We should have studied the chart, even though we thought it was going to be a quiet ride out.

It was still very rough but I could finally take a moment to look down into the cabin to where Matey was. He was huddled on the settee, looking very scared. Once we were out in deeper water I went down below. It was hard to see with only the red safety lights on, but I could see that a few things had fallen on the settee near Matey. I picked him up and moved to the other side of the cabin where there was more room. I sat with him and petted and soothed him for about a half hour.

Once it got light I was able to set things more in order. We decided it was really no more bouncy up in the cockpit than it was in the cabin, so we brought Matey up and hooked him into his harness. He was happier then.

It was an uncomfortable ride the whole day. We motor-sailed with the jib out, but the wind was from the stern and it was hard to keep the jib full. We put our lifejackets on and with the autopilot steering the boat, went out on deck and set our pole to hold the jib out. That took a while and was a lot of work. We were both hot and sweaty; Bud decided that we should come into the marina here at Port St. Joe instead of doing the anchorage. He was too tired to launch the dinghy to get Matey ashore and anyway he needed a shower. Besides, the guy at the Marbella Yacht Club had not charged us for that slip since he felt bad that we'd ended up aground. It was a long day (almost twelve hours and over 70 nm) with a harrowing start, but we are now safe and secure in a nice marina in a very nice little town. Bud feels terrible about going aground; he knows I now have another bad experience sailing at night.