We had four runs of the course today.  Sam did the first run and made it through the timing gates.  We seemed to still be having a bit of buoyancy and trim issues, so for the next run where Karl was piloting, we carefully adjusted buoyancy and trim with Karl in the sub.  He propelled Il Calamaro through the course beautifully!  Everyone cheered for us.  The Navy divers, stationed at Indian Head and rooting for the hometown team, gave us a dollar.  It felt great.  Then Katie was able to do two runs in the sub.  Run number one was aborted when she hit bottom and couldn't get any lift.  For her final run, we again re-set buoyancy and trim and she made it just shy of the finish line!  Our newly installed rudder doesn't help steer the sub once it's breached the surface, so Katie was struggling to steer. The Navy divers pushed her across.

At 3 o'clock the racing was over.  One swimmer from each team was able to compete in swimming the length of the race course.  Then, over 100 rubber duckies were thrown into the basin and all divers were let loose to go fetch one.  Cash prizes were awarded for the fastest swimmer and for the person who retrieved a particular duck.

Then it was time to pack up in the rain.  It was wet, need I say more?

A pizza dinner was served in the cafeteria with an awards presentation afterward.  It was our chance to thank all the volunteers and to say goodbye to all the friends we'd made during the week.  And guess what else?  Our team won a couple of awards:  FIRST PLACE in the independent (as opposed to academic), one-person, non-propeller category and SPIRIT OF THE RACE award which was a great honor since the other teams voted to pick the winner.  We will miss all the wonderful people we've met this week, but we plan on seeing quite a few of them in two years....

It's 10:30PM and this author is ready to go to bed.  Look for photos tomorrow, if I can find the camera

Today was a positive day!  We successfully made it through the timing gates at 40 and 50 meters.  Our speed registered as 1.32 knots!  The photo at left shows our pilot being loaded into the sub. The photo below shows the scoreboard with our name on it.

The media were in full force today.  Our sub made it on WTOP (local radio), NPR and other news outlets.

So many companies, organizations and people helped us along the way.  We would like to shout out,  "THANK YOU!"  to all of them.
Here is a partial listing of those who gave us monetary or in-kind sponsorship:

The Knights of Columbus, JFK Council #5482
St. Mary's Sodality
Charles County Parks & Recreation
Moyaone Community Pool
Lowe's of Waldorf
Dr. James Hagberg and staff at the University of Maryland Kinesiology Department
Jimmy Walls & Mid-Atlantic Foam
The Walker Family
The Ingram-Carts Family
Marianne Retrum
Quality Printers, LLC
Bike Doctor of Waldorf
John Balazek and his Steamfitter's Union
EuroMarine
Ferris Apiaries
Anne-Marie Ramsey
Josh Urban & the Revolution to Overthrow Bad Music
Ocean Equipment
John Hollyfield
Grandpa Stump and Linda
Grandpa Carts
Deborah Stanley and the Studio Cooperative
Joe Blue
Mike Campola
Hans Haucke
Chris Satterwhite

Another wonderful day at ISR 12.  All our divers had to pass a basic skills inspection.  Once that was done, we were able to put the submarine in the water for a safety inspection.  All the emergency systems were put through their paces.  Our light batteries failed once we were under water, but we had lots of fresh batteries and 2 backup lights.  The pilot emergency exit worked, too.  Our buoy didn't deploy on command, but did deploy about a minute later.  So, Il Calamaro came out of the water for a little rework.

Mrs. G and crew did a SUPER job of providing a delicious lunch.  The ground crew were on the ball, helping to get the sub in and out of the water.

Then it was time for our oral presentation.  We were caught a little offguard as we  understood our time slot was later in the day, but not too worry: our team was ready!  Sarah had driven up that morning with props.  Mrs. G had spruced up the PowerPoint slides, all the students had rehearsed their speeches.  Well done, Team Calamaro!

Once the oral presentation was over, we were told a severe storm was about to hit the area.  It was time to pack up!  Mrs. S and Mrs. G got organization underway, and the RV bays were soon loaded up with all the loose gear.  It was time to head home for the day.

A few photos of teams setting up and such..

The Moyaone Pool has a rule:  to be allowed in the deep end, you have to swim two lengths of the shallow end.  This weekend Il Calamaro passed the swim test at both Lackey and Moyaone pools!  It was so exciting to see the sub moving through the water, and the dive planes working to guide the sub up and down.  See our video under the "Video Progress" tab.

We've been getting excellent service from our dive support team at Splash Dive Center.  Thank you, Janet and crew!

Here we are at Lackey High School pool reviewing our underwater communication signals.  The pool staff was just wonderful and access to the pool is really easy...drive up to the double doors and roll the sub out onto the deck.  Ah, so now you want to see the transportation system.  The photo below shows Sam loading the sub onto our trailer.   When we drove to Lackey, we passed scores of bicyclists participating in an organized ride, and they all did a double-take as we drove past.  The sub gets painted next week.

On Sunday we managed to make it to church after a long day (6 hours!) at the Moyaone Community Pool.  We live in a great community and everyone is really trying to help the sub project.  Mr. Hollyfield is supervising the construction of a covered pavilion down at the pool.  He wants to hang the sub up in the pavilion once the race is over.