From St Augustine we follow the Tolomato River north and with a good wind gusting behind we have up full sail and Alexia is enjoying herself.

Unfortunately, about an hour into our journey a marker buoy has drifted out of position and before we can do anything about it, we are suddenly aground.

Well and truly stuck in the thickest, stickiest of mud on a falling tide and despite using every trick in the book we are going nowhere.

The gusting wind pushes us harder onto the soft shoal as it tugs at the sails which are soon reeled in.

The time is 1.45pm and low tide is at 4pm - oh dear, might as well make the Captain a strong cup of Earl Grey - we could be here for a while. Thank goodness for a gimbaled stove!

A few passing boats VHF to ask us if we are OK. Well, of course we are OK - we're just stuck on this piece of mud with 30k of wind howling over the stern.

A police boat comes alongside with the same query and nods sympathetically, telling us that 'they' (whoever 'they' maybe) had been meaning to reset the marker. We are safe and sit and wait.

With the increasing angle anything that can move, does move. Any minute I think my feet will be through the starboard side windows.

Finally it's slack tide, the water level rises slowly and we creak, creak, creak to an upright position and none the worse for our unexpected adventure.

A bit of keel-wiggling we are finally free and by 7pm we are good to go and move on just a couple of miles to an evening anchorage at Pine Island.