On the eighth day of Christmas….
17 Dec…two raccoons gave to us…a munched upon gingerbread house.
Who knew!? We have never seen raccoons on the dock, let alone inside our enclosure. We leave stuff in our enclosure all the time, and never (until now) has a creature been stirring. Somehow the delicious scent of Madi’s gummybear gingerbread house was too much to resist.
Abby woke us all at 4am with her clarion barks to warn us of visitors. Pa in his kerchief and ma in her cap peaked out the window and saw two raccoons sneaking the gingerbread house out through our enclosure rain flap.
This morning, we present the evidence. They left the cookie bits, and all but one lone gummybear are gone.
Carnage on the deck
Carnage on the dock
Lost gummybear in the cockpit
The empty cardboard foundation
The oven!!
17 SepEver since we bought Tango we’ve talked about installing an oven. We have dreamed and thought about it since 2011. We have a 1994 Tobago, and the 1995 version has a top shelf and an oven, so it never seemed that crazy. In Maryland, we had a cabinet maker mock up a design for the top shelf in cardboard, but after hounding him for a quote, he gave us a price so high we knew he didn’t want the job.
This world can be such an odd world when it comes to contractors…many times we have wanted to hire someone who didn’t care about the work. Guess it’s a good thing, as we’ve learned to do things ourselves, making us more self-sufficient.
Once we sorted the design, building it wasn’t as difficult as we thought. It’s taken all summer, but we finally have everything installed. The worst part was cutting through all the fiberglass to make an opening big enough. We also had a bit of a tricky time with the propane lines. We ended up running all new lines, which is a good thing anyway, as our existing lines were probably original to Tango.
We have baked a few things, and are quite happy to have an oven. Looking forward to more baked goods on these crisp, late summer evenings! Peyton has promised us cream puffs and dark chocolate croissants…
After…we even have a large opening left for all the pots and pans!
The galley before
Congratulations, Madi
9 JunMadi graduated from high school! Congratulations, we are so proud of you!
Best quote ever (by Bob Bitchin) “the difference between an adventure and an ordeal is attitude”
Four2tango.COM!
16 AprWhen we first published this blog over seven years ago (has it been that long?) we were surprised to find that four2tango.com was being used by a company. No worries, we snagged up four2tango.net. Not as popular as the .coms but it would do in a pinch.
Well, lo and behold, on a whim, Andy decided to check to see if it was available and, indeed it was! So, now we have our very own .com site. We will keep the four2tango.net domain for at least another year or so. Apart from that, there are no other changes to the way you might access our page.
We are slowly fixing up the boat and taking care of some personal family things while we are here in Portland. However, we have started talking about our plans for the future. The current thinking is that we need to get back down south to where the weather is warmer.
Andy received a really nice camera for Christmas (Thanks Annie and Sharon!) and we will make a more concerted effort to keep everyone abreast of what is going on in our lives via the blog as well as YouTube. (Oh God, not another sailing channel!) To be honest, we have just been doing the daily grind while we are at dock in Portland. It’s really not that exciting. Once we start making more concrete plans on where Tango will travel to next, we will be sharing those details with you. Thank you to all who have visited our site and commented over the years. We really didn’t drop off the face of the earth, we’re just kind of coming out of hibernation right now. Stay tuned!
I finished the enclosure!
1 OctSort of…
The bimini, dodger, and side enclosure pieces are great. I also (this is Robin) finished the back piece and this port side bit that can zip open and roll up. It was a bit tricky, as I used a bunch of scraps, but it doesn’t look too strange.I still haven’t figured out a side flap for the starboard side. I want to have something that’s easy to open and close multiple times a day, since our Portland dock rat tie-up is on the starboard side. For now we are using a shower curtain with snaps installed.
Stay out winter!
Newly installed port side flap made from scraps
Patterning…trying to make it all fit
Sewing in the storage unit…LOVE my sailrite machine!!
Hey, it works! When it pours down rain, the cockpit is dry and we can hang out in it. Also acts as a bit of a greenhouse on sunny days, and we all agree it’s nice to have the added winter space!Robin is very happy to be done for now, and move on to another boat project.
S/V Tango 