It has been an extremely busy week for all working on the RP. We have to be thankful for the team we put together because although there were times when tempers got short, everyone kept their cool, put their head down and kept working. Tom Dale our hard-working-never-stop-working mechanic was sensational in doing whatever had to be done. Greg Hibbs and Woody Peeples put in a ton of hours and overtime. Billy Santiago and Aaron were super heroes in the engine room. Dean Adams, as always, did his share and then some.

The RP left this morning at 9:30am for a 7-day trip and the boat looks sensational. However most of the work that was done is not very visible. If you're aboard this year, and would like to see the engine room please ask myself, Roy or Billy and when we are not running we will be glad to let you check it our. Almost everything in the engine room is new. It will take us about 6 to 8 weeks to really give you accurate data on how efficient the engines are performing.

By the end of this month I will give you accurate details on how much money was spent. I am reasonably sure it was in excess of half a million dollars.

The bright side is we hope to recoup a large part of that in fuel economy and also pass part of that savings on to our passengers.