Anyway, Coleen was in her life jacket and holding on to the boat. She was very calm. Norm and I tried and tried to right the boat, but we just couldn't get it. The centerboard was so far up in the air we couldn't bring it down. It turns out it was so far in the air because the mast was stuck in the sand. The boat was nearly upside down. Finally, I said, "Norm, I'm getting tired I think it's time I had a life jacket." We both donned jackets just as a dinghy came racing up to assist. They asked what they could do, and I replied, "Please, get my daughter out of the water", so they hoisted her on board. With that we tried again, as the mast was now freed, we almost made it, but not quite. Finally, Norm asked them to get me out of the water.
i nearly lost my suit clambering into their dinghy, but was glad to be on board. Meanwhile, Norm managed to get the main sail down and we pulled it aboard the dinghy. With the help of the dinghy, we finally managed to right the boat, Norm somehow managed to get in it, and sailed it back with only a twisted up scrap of a jib, while our rescuers to Coleen and I to shore. We were very happy to be on solid ground.
Lessons learned from this little adventure. While I always carry a handheld VHF radio in my own dinghy, I shouldn't assume that someone else does the same. I should have asked. I probably also should have had a knife on me, as it would have been handy if someone had been tangled in the rigging.
Anyway, Coleen and I both agreed that in spite of it all we would go out again, just being a bit more careful next time. The really bad part is that we lost our new camera, so not only no pictures for awhile, we also lost all the pictures from the past 4 months.... bummer.
We cleaned up a bit and rested on Norm's big sailboat and then he gave us ride across the harbor to town in his go fast dinghy. About the time we landed at the dinghy dock I realized my shoes were still on the beach. Darn it! Norm let me wear his giant shoes as he had a spare pair. I didn't realize until later that his spare pare didn't match. Hey, at least I had shoes. We ran in to some folks later while we were getting a burger who came the place bare foot.
I'm a bit beat up and sore tonight and dreaming of a nice hot bath.