Raya is back on the water, hooray, but not quite time for the champagne. Below she’s still in chaos, she has no mast and there are a million jobs left to do, but we are afloat.

We left Kent early this morning, battled through the traffic on the M25 and drove through a blizzard on the M3. We arrived to find Raya already in the slings of the crane and with the Stella Maris boys re-attaching the rudder.

Once securely attached, the crane drove the short distance to the launching dock and Raya touched down on the water at exactly midday. There was a slightly anxious ten minutes while the new hull fittings and seacocks were checked for leaks, but with the bilges dry she was led to her temporary berth on the working dock.

It will be great not to have to climb up a 15ft ladder to get onboard and to have running water at last to do some cleaning. Lovely to be outside even if it is struggling to get much above freezing and, without her mast, she looks like a rather odd motor boat. Good to be one step closer to our goal.