(Text from May 10, photos from May 12, 2008)

"Saturday was a very busy day. We gave Roy and Billy the weekend off but the rest of the crew, plus 5 other guys that have worked with us in the past, were hard at work.

"Tom Dale (mechanic,) Greg Hibbs (electrician,) and a helper were busy hooking up two of the gear boxes to the outboard mains and will go in the boat. The center gear box and center engine is already in the boat and will be hooked up also. Gear boxes were painted white to match the new engines.

"Big D and four other men completed sanding on hull, then sandblasted where necessary, cleaned bare aluminum with Alodyne and Aluma-prep and then applied two coats of Strontium. That crew did not finish until midnight.

"Jesus, Anthony, Cole, Eddie and Aaron spent the entire day cleaning in the engine room. First scraping and scrubbing with solvent and then cleaning with big O. The same five guys will repeat the whole procedure on Sunday so that everything will be spotless.

"So far, this crew in the engine room has used: 15 gallons of solvent, 140 pounds of rags, lots of gloves and stainless steel scrubbers. It is a nasty job. We are slightly ahead of schedule."