John and I have a banter that has been going on since he arrived; the amount of light in the boat was an indicator of progress. As work started, it involved removing lots of stuff and as planks came off, the inside of the boat got lighter and lighter. More planks came off and it became even brighter. Then some planks were put on and it got a little darker. but then as the deck came off, the light in the boat rose to amazing levels. One could almost get a sunburn in the bilge. Unfortunately, every time the boat got lighter, I knew that we had that much more to do before Mahdee would be ready to be relaunched.

The last couple of weeks have been dark ones. The deck is on and planking is almost done: no more light streaming up from the gaping holes in the bottom of Mahdee. In fact, Mahdee is now almost as dark as she was when we started on her.