Welp, we are still in Florida, but we do have some encouraging news from the marina.

As of December 4th the strut manufacturer notified the marina that the strut will be shipped on or around the 18th. But with the upcoming holidays with marina closure during some of that time, we could be waiting until the second week in January before we can restart our journey down the rivers; which I have heard from other Loopers, are a whole different set of stresses and problems…great.

Today, we got notice from the marina that the props and shaft have been shipped and will be there in a day or two. But, can’t do anything with them until we get the strut, which holds all those parts to the boat.

We have beat the decision to death whether or not to continue and finish the journey vs. leaving the boat in St. Louis and go back in March, and have decided that we just want to get back onboard and keep going. We have spoken to several experienced Loopers as well as marinas along the way and have decided to stay in Florida over Christmas and head back to the boat when the strut is received and installed, then proceed straight down the rivers back to Florida, giving up our side trips to Chattanooga Nashville and Louisville. That should take, weather and any other issues we run into…literally, 14-16 days. It will be very cold and uncomfortable but should not be dangerous.

At least this time we can stock up on cold weather gear from the house and be more prepared for cold and wet than we were the first part of this season. Michael has also picked up another electric heater to use while at dock as well as a propane heater that can be used in the upper helm while driving and in the salon area when we are at anchor to keep warm; us and the boat…she’s definitely a Florida girl and does not like the cold at all. We also have other heaters that we will have to run in the engine room to keep that (pumps, water, oil, and fuel lines) warm enough to function properly. And before anyone asks, yes we do have carbon monoxide sensors all throughout the boat.

We have locked in a marina across Tampa Bay straight from St. Petersburg starting in February, so we do have a home for the boat when we get here. I really like this marina. It has great weather protection, really high pilings in the slips, which was the main cause for all the boat damage during hurricane Ian. Those pilings were pretty short so when the storm serge water levels raised, so did the boats and the docks that they were attached to causing them to raise above the pilings, detach and float free and crash into every and anything during the storm. This marina also is a lot closer and more convenient to the marina we were in before we left for the loop trip, and it has 2 pools and 2 restaurants in the marina which is in a town that seems to have a lot of other amenities. The other nice thing is that we can do our own work on the boat, which is not allowed in a lot of marinas where you have to use their list of contractors and pay the marinas additional fees, jeez.

Since we have been here we have met up with some of our boat friends, in fact yesterday we met with Joe and Beth from Lightening (previous posts) who have made it this far along their loop journey, Since they don’t have a car we took them to gather some supplies and had a great time swapping stories and hearing about their river experiences, as well as a lovely dinner with them. In fact, Michael is currently on his way to pick up Joe to go into Tampa to gather parts from the local John Deere dealer for his boat engine.

We also had our friends, Tom and Julie from what we call “Little Sister”, up to our house for dinner last week. Their boat is a Mainship 400, the next size smaller than ours, hence “Little Sister”. They are in our old marina and survived (barely) hurricane Ian last year.

Well, that’s about it for now. Keep looking in to see where we are in the next few week. Very Happy Holidays to everyone. Love to all, Gina and Mike