Well our dear friend had spent the winter bobbing up and down in the harbour but not really going anywhere.  We had taken apart the engine and pocked around in the wiring, everything seemed to be working and with some beautiful spring weather we decided that we should slip our moorings again and head out to sea. 

DT was terribly impatient and it was as if we could almost sense the opportunity to head out again as we crossed our fingers and started the engine.  After the final checks had been done we cast off the final lines and made a very steady back and forth maneuver to get out of our dock and got pointed out to the open ocean (all that practice at slow speed steering had paid off from last year - for the first time ever we didn't come close to hitting anyone else!)

As we powered down the harbour DT showed a clean pair of heels to the harbour taxis and even caught up with the yacht in front; the engine purring beautifully.  Before we even passed the breakwater the mainsail was up and in no time, we had the engine off and were on a stately broad reach heading across in the direction of  Port Angeles. 

The weather was sunny, if a bit chill and with the wind off our stern the sailing was sweet.  We cruised south for an hour or so and then, with cloud blowing in from the east, decided it was time to turn for home.  I quick practice jybe got us in a bit of a pickle as the jibsheets got all caught up on the baby stay and under the dinghy.  And of course, as all that happened the wind picked up and the sun hid behind a cloud.  It is amazing how quickly in sailing you can go from all sweetness and light to something out of a disaster movie!  After going through almost 360 degrees we managed to get the head to wind and refurl the Genoa which then allowed us to untangle the jib sheet and set out heading back to port.  This time close hauled and with the wind picking up we were soon dipping the rail in the water and remembering how to dump the main!

As we got closer to land the wind starting getting very fluky and Heidi had me chasing around the cockpit as we tacked time and again trying to eeck the last sail out of the day as we approached the harbour.  All too soon we put away the sails and DT happily chugged back onto her berth with Heidi performing a neat pirouette to leave her bow facing out, ready for her next adventure

Our plans are now set for the summer with Heidi taking three months off starting on May 29th and me joining her on 28th June.  The tentative plan is for Heidi to move onto the boat in Early June and spend the first couple of weeks getting her all spruced up and stocked for the upcoming adventure.  We want to haul her out the second weekend in June to have her bottom scraped, get new anodes fixed and potentially replace one of the stop cocks.  After that Heidi is going to work her way slowly up the coast to potentially Nanaimo prior to me joining her.  Then for the next two months - Desolation sound, the Broughton's and ... The west coast! Can't wait