January 15th - A stressful trip to Naples

We had now officially ran out of ICW to follow and the ocean was pretty choppy 2-3 footers but nothing we couldnt handle. It was another beautiful day weather wise and we were excited about getting to Naples.  About an hour out Tom went below to take a shower.  Soon afterwards I hear sirans, yes sirans! I turned to find a sheriffs boat coming at us with lights and sirans going.  I put the boat in neutral and started yelling for Tom.  Of course he couldn't hear me from the shower, Ugh!  When the sheriffs boat pulled along side I politely greeted him and asked if there was a problem. His response was very official. You did not pay last nights mooring field fee of $13.00.  The city wants to prosecute!!!!!  Now I am really yelling for Tom, still no answer!  Of course with the 2-3 foot waves we are now sideways and rocking badly! You would have thought Tom would have come out to check on what the %#@&;* was going on!!  I apologized profusely and indicated that my husband was supposed to call in and have an extra night put on our credit card.  His response was, well he didn't. I asked if I could pay now. His answer, if you have cash.  I ran below still screaming at Tom. He yells a few not nice words and adds :What is going on?"  I yelled back that the sheriff is after us!  I with my $20.00 bill run back up with Tom behind rapped in a towel! Now Tom is going to get involved, giving me direction on how to get the money to the sheriff as both of our boats are rocking horribly! In an attempt to pull up beside us for the %&#@ $20.00 bill he hit our boat head on!  His response, I didn't mean to do that!  So he has his money but I am really unhappy, as I had asked Tom to call in and have them put another day on our credit card. Yes, they had our credit card information and choose not to just add another day.  Angrily I put the boat in gear to get out of the sideways waves and avoid to crab pots that were directly ahead of us. The problem? We were towing our dingy!  The waves had pushed the dingy up to the boat and the line underneath it. When I put it in gear the rutters cut the line and the dingy was no longer attached and the line it was tied to is under the boat. Soooo, Tom puts on a pair of jocky underwear, not sure why not a bathing suit, and a life jacket. He has a knife in his teeth and goes down to the swim platform. He is kneeling on the swim platform holding on to the boat with one hand and trying to cut the line from underneath the boat with the other as waves are crashing over him.  I really should have gotten a photo of that!  He then re-ties the dingy and I keep my fingers crossed that we can move forward!  All because of $13.00 dollars. We kept a close eye on our gages for quite a while but all seemed to be fine, thankfully.  I went back to driving and Tom went below to wash the soap off.