Rescue on the high seas it's not - but it is a common occurrence. Below is the view outside my home office window. The boat with no sail up has run aground in a marked channel that is often misread/misunderstood. The boat with the sail up has just thrown a line to him and is starting to tow it backward out of the channel.  See bottom of post for the chart and how to read it.  Click to enlarge.

 A little bounce on the line

 Underway

The big fellow to the right stopped to watch. Isn't the wave design on my stack pack lovely - makes my boat look like it's moving huh?

Here's the chart  for the area (click to enlarge)

In the pictures above you can see the #2 (green) and #15 (red) daymarks (poles with signs for the non-boater). They are too the left of the boat with no sail up - he was attempting to go up the middle of them.
Normally, yes - that's what you do.
BUT, the mnemonic is "Red Right Return"
In english instead of sailor garble that means keep the red mark to your right when you are 'returning'. Returning means going to a smaller body of water.
This fellow that ran aground was coming down the Magothy and proceeding past the #15 mark - he's not returning - he's heading for the Chesapeake bay.
That big boat in the last picture has just passed the day mark shown on the chart as MR....
It's a green over red in the middle of the creek - that means "safe to go to either side of me" - when you take that in context with the #2 (red) it means literally keep me to the right and proceed up the creek to the left. if you are going up the right hand side - which is continuing up the Magothy River  it means keep me to you left and proceed to the next mark - which is #15 (green) - and green should be kept on your left.
What it (day mark MR) does not mean is split the next to. Note the numbering. #15 belongs to the Magothy River - it's the 15th mark on the way UP the river. #2 is the second mark on the way DOWN the river.

There was never any danger, the tide was out and he'd have eventually floated off. Heck he was in 2 feet of water (at the bow) he could have jumped over and pushed himself off.
Power boats "anchor" here by putting the bow on the sand bar then swim for hours all summer long.

See, Charts are easy to read - and Oh, By the way - I live at scoop of land in the upper part of the chart - the little black line sticking out is my pier - it points directly at the #2 and #15.