A few nites ago me and Willa were watchin' TV and Willa said she heard some voices from out on the water. Our campsight is on a point of land and there is an island off that point about fifty yards. One side of this island has water a couple of feet deep and is good for trout fishing and the other side of the island has water about 6 inches deep and is good for nothing but getting stuck. There is a mud bottom that is probably two feet deep and has the consistency of Elmers Glue. She said she could hear a boat engine revving up and people talking and went out to investigate. I could hear her out in the yard talking to two men and they asked if she had a boat. She said we had a boat and they yelled ''Help, we are stuck in the bottom''.
Mind you, it was about ten at nite and they had not lights on this boat but they had a big flash light. We later learned that these guys were Mullet fishermen. They used a throw net to catch the Mullet after they spotted them with the flashlite. Willa told me that I needed to ''go help'' so I grabbed my flashlight and got in my trusty 12 foot Porta Bote with my might 6 hp. Suzuki motor and yelled ''Seajay to the rescue''..... (I figured these guys were probably Marines, lost, and stuck in the mud flat)......
Sure enough, here sat two guys in a 20 foot commercial fiberglass boat with a 75 HP engine stuck in 6 inches of water and two feet of mud and there I was in a ''Plastic Dixie cup with an ''egg beater'' for an engine. I said ''Shux''.......
One of the guys asked if I was going to get ''help'' and I said that ''I am your ''help'' and watch your mouth or you will set here all night''..... He then told me that they had about 500 pounds of Mullet in the bow of the boat and that they were stuck in the mud. I tilted my might engine and eased in front of them and tied on to the bow hook and backed back out into the deeper water. I tied the tow rope around the ''leg'' of the motor and told them to ''rock the boat'' and I would tow them off the mud flat. I distinctively heard a chuckle and a low …''..yeah sure''... I put tension on the rope and started easing from side to side while they rocked their boat. Mind you, their engine was not running but was tilted up out of the mud. They rocked and I pulled and eventually my little 6 hp washed enough mud out from under their boat that they started to move out to deeper water. I towed them back to the channel and they got all the mud out of their water pump and got their engine running again. They thanked me profusely and offered money and Mullet for my services and they said they would never again doubt the ability of an old sailor in a ''Plastic Dixie Cup'' boat with an ''Egg Beater'' for an engine. They came back by the next day and thanked me again and took a cell phone picture of the Porta Bote....
So it goes in the adventures of Willa and me spending the winter in Florida while you guys freeze your collective butts off somewhere else.......
HooooRahhhha for our troops......Be safe and come home real soon.....
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