Harold said later he was amazed how fast you could start a fire with half a pint of white gas. Sitting by a fire sounded good but when it was ready, we opted to stay right where we were. My shirt was wet again and I had nothing else to put on. It seemed like it was getting colder outside. My next concern was that we were going to freeze the next morning when we had to get out of the tent. By 6AM the rain had pretty much stopped and we were ready to get out of that tent. When we emerged from the tent and looked out over the bayou, we just stood there and sort of blinked a few times. The place looked like a yard sale. All of the camping gear had been washed up into the mangroves. I could see my half-submerged tent about 75 yards down the creek that ran to the left of the bayou. The tide had gone out so far, there was very little water remaining. Dry bags and coolers were hanging from the trees everywhere.

Everyone was concerned primarily with finding their keys and wallets. A couple of us grabbed kayaks and started ferrying stuff back over to the campsite. Each time we stepped on the sand, we'd sink up to our knees in the muck. The no-see-ums were so bad, I could hardly stand it. They were all in my eyes and ears and were biting the hell out of me. I dragged my tent onto a sandbar. It was too heavy to manage so I unzipped the door and started hauling the stuff out of it. Everything was there, even my earrings that I had laid on the floor of the tent. If I had known that my tent was only going that far, I wouldn't have risked drowning trying to save it. Next time, I'll remember that.
Katie had found her tent and was trying to locate the essentials. She even found the socks that Aunt Pearl had made for her. Everything that had been in the tents was still there. It was just all wet and a big mess. Everyone would just call out when they found something of great importance.