After more then 9 long months Dagny is finally back in the water and ready for more adventures. We flew into Halifax on July 16th and spent two and a half days cleaning and prepping Dagny for our Friday afternoon launch. Luckily we were able to stay with the Konencys as we cleaned Dagny top to bottom prior to moving all our gear back from the storage locker. When I was down in May to remove the winter cover Dagny was fairly clean, but as fate would have it I no sooner removed the cover when our luck changed. Just as I was rolling the tarps our boat neighbour showed up and informed me he would be sanding all the anti fouling paint off his boat but would try and contain the dust, that's like try to contain gyproc dust. All this while the marina was constructing a new access road a mere 100 yards away, needless to say our relatively clean boat was filthy by the time we arrived last week.

In preparation for launching the marina had moved us to the lower yard in a dust free area right beside the harbour. So at least as we cleaned and polished our work was not in vain. We seem to get a fair bit of rain water down our mast which drains into the bilge, unfortunately this keeps the boat damp which leads to mold in poorly ventilated areas. Bev went through lots of vinegar but by launch day Dagny was sparkling, even if she smelled like French fries. Our to do list was fairly extensive but we gradually ticked off the items one by one as the week progressed. One of the many jobs was installing a Spartite kit around the mast collar so we don't have to listen to the wooden wedges creaking any more while sailing.

Launch time finally arrived, the crew at East River Shipyard is very efficient and everything went off without a hitch. Bonus,the engine fired right up and ran perfectly, as always. We have a few gremlins to sort out, somethings are a little sluggish to get working normally, they just don't like sitting idle for so long in damp conditions. After spending 2 nights at the marina we moved over to Chester where we could ease back into life onboard again. Slowly sipping morning coffee in the cockpit while watching the day come alive never gets old.

Our plan is to spend another week or two in Nova Scotia before slowly heading for Chesapeake Bay. We will park the boat at the end of August, and go home until mid October, when we return we will point Dagny's bow south towards the Bahamas for the winter.