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The week to follow the splashing of the boat we took to finish the engine room in the water. We had a few leaks on the motors and needed to make sure the boat was running right before we closed it all up. It is a job to put it back together. The maze of parts needed to close her up get put back together like a puzzle. A dock full of parts fits together in the cabin and it is a surprise it all goes in there. Of course there are lost screws etc to replace but all in all it looks finished when all the parts are back in and all the cushions and hardware is back on.

What a great feeling to be floating. When the boats are in  the boat yard I don’t get any sleep knowing that everyday we sit up there it is costing money. The hard work and planning keeps us up at night. There is always the worry about the budget and what new broken thing we are going to find. It was a smooth dry dock this time. The boat was in great shape when she got here it just needed our touches put on her and a bunch of TLC. The maintenance of all the systems cost some money to get all tuned in and 10 years of varnish needed to be stripped and redone. We had a great team this time and she really came out great. All of the long hard dry docks we have had on the 37 Merritt really helped us going into this job. The team of guys that have helped me with the 37 over the last 11 years  were here to help get this one done on time. Mike Akazawa of Akazawa Painting and his partner Roberto Martinez were a big help with keeping on schedule. Paint can hold jobs up and we stayed right on track.Dan Issacson and his guys Greg and Doyle of Honokohau diesel service got the engines all ready to go. Scott Davidson got the electronic shifters back in shape. They really needed work and he got them all straight and calibrated. Rob Ellen got the get set in and fixed the plumbing to the air con which will really helped the systems. Tracy and his dad Steve did a great job on the varnish, not to mention helping with getting the boat back together.  Tracy was our utility guy from varnish, to refitting, to polish, to fishing he was there. We had a great swell at the end of the job and we really missed him in the mornings for dawn patrol surf action a couple days.Wayne Knight and Jonny got the tower back together like new. The welds came out great. Charley at Honokohau Machine helped put that all together and was a big help the whole job with our machine work. The boys at the yard Dave and Dennis really  helped with the lifts and yard details.The crew and Kona Marine were great getting us our paint and supplies many times special ordering things to keep us on track. Tracy Melton of Melton Tackle was a big help as always getting us parts and helping me with leg work with his friends in the biz. I really want to thank Rob McCarthy for sponsoring the whole project. Without his sponsorship of the project we would have not been able to get the work done the boat needed. From everyone on this dry dock team that I mentioned we thank you for the work and wish you all the best of luck with your new boat. Thanks everyone for all the help- Time to go fishing- Aloha Kev

Here we all wait for the boat to be picked up so we can put the last touch of bottom paint on  her and set her in the water. Here Juliana gets to be carried by Rob and Judy as we wait.

We are in crunch time on the boat. We go in the water tomorrow so Tracy and his dad ran the 37 today.They went south looking for the south dolphin pod and caught a nice 50 plus pound spearfish. They got in the dolphins and with a ton of pressure from other boats and caught a 155pound ahi. As we merge in a 2 boat program Tracy is going to begin to run one of the boats. He has developed into a great captain in his own right proving it today with a great day.

Rick Walker shot this nice billy this morning at Delico Ranch. There were a good number of big billys on the ridge and we chose this nice one. I have stayed up so late working on the boat that Rick had to drive us the hour and a half down to the ranch. I though I was going to fall asleep at the wheel. They are from the east so with them being ahead on time of day it worked out great to have some help with the driving. It has been a long dry dock and today the hours caught up with me.

We put the outriggers together today and got a bunch of polish on them. Tracy put all the pads on the boat that got taken off to paint.

We had a rare sperm whale encounter and they let us get fairly close. We have to stay far away from the whales during the whale season by law so we trolled within the safe distance to check them out. You can tell the difference between our common humpbacks and the sperm whales by the spout of air that shoots forward instead of straight up.

Kevin And Kurt of Canada fished and hunted with us this week. We went out looking for the dolphins to find a tuna or 2 and got a nice sized spearfish. It looked like it was over 40 pounds. We fished the dolphins but didn’t have any luck on the tuna.