Tango Is Ready!

Okay, we had a busy year with family matters over the summer, but now it's time to catch up with the blogging.
At the end of February we declared "Tango" a "fine sea-bird and quite fast, if well-handled" and ready for habitation.  My sister and her husband Ricky did a beautiful and skillful job of remaking the salon cushions.  Over the summer, I rebuilt the bimini and dodger.  The new depth transducer works well, the engine runs cool and well.  There are no leaks.
The only drama was the operation of the dinghy engine.  I never could get that damned black hearted Mercury to run at idle.  Solved the problem with a Brand change to a new Yamaha 20 hp.  That dink is fast!
In fact, the whole boat is fast and gorgeous!  I don't want to imply that we're through, the "to do" list is a forever thing, but the priorities are less pressing, the work less involved.
I did one innovative and noteworthy thing this spring.  Every off-shore boat needs to be able to communicate on the HF bands for weatherfax, information, and email.  I installed my Yaesu FT-897 with the tuner feeding a separate 50-foot Stainless steel wire from the port davit to the masthead and laid out a "KISS-SSB"  tuned counterpoise in the aft Lazarette.  I've had great success with this and good signal reports from Turks and Caicos and the Midwest.
Another winner is the Engel holding plate in the refrigerator.  Over killing the number of plates with a second system has made for a truly useful reefer.  I can make ice!