We were looking at a possible crossing Friday to Saturday, so thinking of leaving here tomorrow and making our way to Carrabelle by Thursday. This morning the captain of one of three power boats that came in together Saturday asked Bud if we wanted to join them for Thanksgiving dinner on Thursday. These boaters are “loopers”, folks cruising the great loop that takes them from Lake Michigan, down the Mississippi, up the Ohio, through a canal system to Mobile Bay, across the gulf and down the Florida coast to the canal that crosses Florida at Lake Okeechobee and up the East Coast ICW, the Hudson River and the Erie and Oswego Canals and back into the Great Lakes, usually then through the Trent Canal from Lake Ontario to the Georgian Bay in Lake Huron and back into Lake Michigan. We’re meeting a lot of loopers here, as they also have to go offshore from here until the GCICW starts again in Tarpon Springs. Although if they are shallow draft boats they can choose to duck in at a number of ports along the shore where we won’t fit.

Anyway, Bud asked me if I wanted to join them. “I thought we were going to be in Carrabelle on Thursday,” I replied. So we checked the forecasts, and overnight the prediction that had been there for two days for mild winds and waves for Friday noon to Sunday morning had changed. Now there were 21-knot winds predicted for Friday night and no break at all in the winds and seas through Sunday. Bud went out and told the captain we’d join them. Meanwhile, in the hour or so since we’d seen him, their plans had changed. A retired looper couple who now live in Port St. Joe was inviting all the loopers to Thanksgiving dinner at their house. Jim, the captain, said he’d ask about us, maybe he could get us an AGLCA (American Great Loop Cruising Association) flag so we’d be honorary loopers.

Bud and I decided if we could join this group we would, otherwise we’d go ahead and start moving to Carrabelle to be ready if a weather window developed. Well Jim didn’t have to ask. The woman had gone to the marina and had a list of all the transient boats in the marina and invited all of us. At last count they were having 25 people for dinner and they were providing all the food. What wonderful people! I spoke to her near the office to see if she had talked to Bud, she had, and had us on her list. I thanked her and she said they remembered what it was like to try and do a big dinner on a boat. Cruisers are great people.

I told one of the other cruisers that our weather window was like the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. There’s now a tantalizing looking mild spell on Sunday and Monday, going into Tuesday, again at the very end of the forecast period. We’ll see if this, too, evaporates as we get closer. We intend to move on Friday in any case, just to be ready.

And lest we get bored, the boat continues to give us little problems to solve. This time it was our propane system. We have a switch with a little light that we turn on to use our stove. The switch opens a valve (with a solenoid) from our propane tank, so we don’t have to go out and open our propane locker and turn the valve on the tank every time we use the stove. The little light blew out. Then we thought we’d run out of propane because the stove wouldn’t light. When Bud checked, we had propane in the tank. The little bulb isn’t readily available and the control panel it is on, that includes the switch, the bulb and a fuse, is made by a company no longer in business. So after a couple of trips to the car parts store right up the street, I managed to install a lighted switch and in-line fuse holder and still use the face plate of the old panel. It looks good and works well.

Only problem was the gas still wouldn’t come on. So out to the propane locker we went. We pulled first one, and then both tanks out. I thought the wiring looked suspect going into the solenoid. Bud tried to find a place to get at bare wire but couldn’t, so started messing with the solenoid itself. Of course he’s doing this work lying on his belly on the deck with his head and shoulders in the tank locker as in the photo I snapped. He eventually got the solenoid disassembled and it seemed that it moved and should work. He put it back together and now scraped a bit of insulation off the wires close to the solenoid. No power. Then he scraped a bit of insulation off the wires before the point where the solenoid wires were spliced into the circuit. 13 plus volts. Bud cut the old spice out and twisted the wires together. I flipped the new switch. The solenoid clicked.

Now it was my turn in the locker as I re-spliced the wires, put on new shrink-wrap and a new covering to protect them from abrasion. Bud put the tank we’re using back in; we opened the valve and tested for leaks. Then we switched the solenoid open and checked it for leaks. All seemed well. Then Bud lit the stove. It worked! About 5 hours or so after we started we had a working stove again, but we consider it a victory as the 31 year old system is operating and we only had to buy a few inexpensive parts from an auto parts store.