baby steps (while we wait...)

No news on the status of the testing of the fuel injection pump, which is supposedly the last hurdle before the re-built diesel main engine can be run and tested. However, while we are "patiently" waiting, we have installed two new pieces of our new electronics package. Namely, we have installed a new Garmin VHF marine radio. It has stations at the upper and lower helm stations and a two-way intercom adjacent to the galley. We could still add another remote microphone and several remote speakers in the future if we felt the need. As part of this we also have a loud hailer that also listens and includes a programmable fog horn. The final (?) "gadget" is an AIS (Automatic Identification System) that both sends and receives information. Commercial ships as well as some pleasure craft transmit a VHF signal that contains their name, location, speed, course, size as well as a lot of other information. Our unit transmits similar information, but it also computes important information like closest point of approach of the other vessels and plots the other vessels on our chartplotter. Whew! Just when we were starting to get our learning curve down to a reasonable size, we go and add some more complicated (but very powerful) new electronics. The AIS transceiver required its own GPS antenna, and it is also networked into the GPS and the VHF radio. Bottom line: lots of wiring, power, network connections, remote microphones, etc. Also, we added an extension to the crossbar on the radar mast to make room for the additional GPS antenna for the AIS transceiver (see photo). Phew! We sure know how to have fun and enjoy our retirement...