We slowly motored up to Skip (the owner and solo sailor) on Isolde II. He had probed around his boat with a lead line to figure out the water depths, and he told us from which direction we could approach his boat without risking running aground ourselves. We threw a line to him and, after some maneuvering, managed to tow him off the sandbank. In the middle of all this, some dolphins showed up between our boats just as we were getting the lines hooked up in the dense fog. When we finished pulling Skip off the shoal, the fog was beginning to clear and we were able to see how narrow the channel was - it wasn't too surprising he went aground (single-handing in the fog isn't easy!). As a matter of fact, we realized that we probably came close to running aground ourselves on the opposite side of the channel as we were towing him by going in reverse across the channel.
Later that day we came across the most unexpected wildlife in the water as a deer crossed the ICW right in front of us on the Alligator River (see photos below). To continue an eventful day, we ran into some unexpected construction on a bridge crossing the ICW. We ended up waiting for close to three (!) hours for the bridge to open. We actually anchored in mid-channel in front of the bridge for the last hour or so as we were getting tired of the engine running while drifting and waiting.
Deer Crossing
Deer Crossing
More things you see on the water
String of boats after the bridge finally opened
