Editor, Gazette-Journal:

Fourth of July weekend found my 13-year-old son, Baynham, and I ready for an adventure. My wife Jani was away visiting her family in N.C. and we decided we would go for a Boy’s Weekend cruise on our 26-foot sailboat, Lily P. We surveyed our options and decided we would sail from our marina on the Piankatank River through Milford Haven, south to Mobjack Bay and the East River, and as far up Put-In Creek as we could go.

We had heard that on a high tide we might be able to dinghy right up behind the firehouse in downtown Mathews. As a back-up plan, our good friends, Kristen and Jon Ober, said their neighbors would let us tie up the dinghy to their dock.

Our trip from Deltaville was uneventful and we were excited as we putted up Put-In Creek toward Mathews. We were close to low tide approaching the head of the creek and unfortunately ran out of water well before the firehouse, but very close to our friends’ dock. We anchored in four-and-a-half f...