We knew there would be storms last night, but we were safely anchored well off the Intracoastal on a river and the anchor alarm didn’t go off all night.  There was no rain overnight, but the winds were very strong.  At about 6 am, we awoke and felt awfully still.  We had been close to the shore, but we were now ON the shore.  The wind was 30+ kts gusting to over 40, sometimes 50, according to reports on the VHF radio from barges going by.  We were still anchored, so hoped if we raised the anchor that would be enough pull to get us out.   We were parallel to the shore at that point.  The anchor came up while we throttled the engines but we stayed aground.  Finally, we came loose and were out in the Intracoastal again.  Winds were still around 30 kts, from the southeast, so we were able to raise the sails and be on our way before 7 am.  There was no fog this morning, and the storms went north of us, so the skies were blue and it was very warm.  One thing we’ve learned on this trip is that if we go aground in the mud, we can get ourselves out.  Maybe that won’t always happen, but luckily it has so far. 

It was a short trip to our next stop, Matagorda Harbor, just 35 miles away.  We had strong winds all morning so we were there by noon.  We are docked at a nice little marina walking distance to a grocery store, library, post office and restaurant.  There is also a restaurant at the marina.  Since we stopped so early, and there was water available, Mark gave the boat’s deck a good cleaning.  Daisy was happy because she could get outside.  We didn’t take her ashore at our anchorage this morning as once we weren’t aground, we had to get out of the river back on the Intracoastal.  Daisy always seems to know when we are going to stop at a marina and she waits, as she did today.

Tomorrow, we should make it back to the Gulf, and then we are one day away from Corpus Christi.