If I am counting right, the 28th time Heliotrope has splashed down since we have owned her.

Passing the fish tug as we head into the Clapperton Channel. This tug supplies much of North America's whitefish, and today it was fishing in Mudge Bay.

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So, it’s seven-thirty in the morning and Pax and I are just getting back form our walk, and Sue is making tunafish sandwiches. Not long after, we pick Wolf up at his place, a bit around Mudge Bay, and head to Gore Bay.

Because, today is launch day.

When we arrive at Norm’s boatyard we find Heliotrope already in slings, and even before the first cup of coffee has started to wake anyone, up the boat is in the water.

Together we pull the sails up on deck, and then Sue goes to work putting the cabin back into useable order. Wolf helps me bend on the canvas. By 11 a.m. all below decks is shipshape, the water tanks have been flushed, the sails are flaked, the jib is furled, and the dingy is clipped on astern.

It is worth remembering that the boat has been sitting in Norm’s boatyard since last October, and never once have the batteries had a bit of charge. But, still hoping, I set the controls, and then turn the key. And. contrary to all logic, the magnificent old diesel instantly roars to life.

Sue heads home while Wolf and I head out the bay. Wolf steers while I rig the reefing lines (today it is hard to believe they might ever be necessary). What little wind there is is coming due north into the bay, right on our nose. So we motor. Once past the east point we lay off and cut the motor, but then we find the wind producing only a knot or two of forward motion, so we roll in the jib and fire up the iron jenny. And the iron jenny unfortunately, takes us right up to the Clipperton channel, where we cross the Purvis fish tug.

The Canadian marine forecast has the wind southwest 10 to 12, and when we reach the channel, sure enough there it is 6 to 8, from the northeast. Excited, we get in a good half hour of sailing close hauled, occasionally taking, and making a good three knots.

Then the wind quits. So we motor down the balance of Mudge Bay, down to the marina, where we tie up in Lollipop’s regular spot, because all the other finger docks are not yet anchored because of rotten chain. (And that is a story in itself.)

A great day! A day on the water, even if the wind is fickle, is almost always a great day.

And now Heliotrope is snugly berthed in Kagawong.