Mukusu, rare birds and cobra
More patching

We are not rushing, Philemon hurt his eye some weeks ago, and though it is still recovering he already sees better again than I ever did. The shore side is a beautiful eucalyptus forest ending in a shallow bay with trees standing in the water. We can walk around the dhow, and see the most fantastic and rare birds. This is not a job you'd like to finish as soon as possible.

Canoe patched [see how it was]! Now caulking, starting by hitting blanket fiber in the joints, then fresh epoxy paint smoke grey

Caulking the dhow hull patch [see the hole before patching]. Left: hitting blanket fiber in the joints, middle: impregnating the fiber with a sawdust-epoxy porridge, Right: canoe back in service, dhow patch repair finished with two layers of epoxy, diagonal stiffener back on. That finished our remainder of mninga hardwood (not available in Uganda). We now buy mukusu, another hardwood with even more red in its colour than mninga (see canoe).

No time to fetch camera: 2.5 m cobra feared Philemon and took threatening stand while swimming.
Philemon, at stern of dhow just outside range of cobra attack jump, improvised counterthreat
posture by spreading his shirt. Cobra judged this convincing, backed down and retreated.

Last hull challenge: replacing a plank below waterline. Old folmali, new folmali, and canoe suspended above water port side to tilt while floating

Here we go (left: headquarters moved to truck). This mninga plank cracked, hit by rock in gale 12 storm at Jinja 4 years ago, ^{[more about Lake Victoria storms]} only to start leaking recently.