December 7, 2010 4:10 AM PST
Here are some pics from the last few days.
We used a somtum (papaya salad) mortar and pestle to grind up the dry ice.
Our volunteers then placed a teaspoon of dry ice in over 2,000 bottles and then bundled them together.
The bow of the boat is made of sheet metal and, in some areas, is 2-3 layers thick. ...Just in case we hit some icebergs. :-)
Each section of the boat had a specific amount of bottles/liters, which we monitored. For the launch we used more than two thousand 1.5 liter bottles.
The bow of the boat was filled with over 1,200 small (.6 liter) plastic bottles for extra buoyancy.
Jan hard at work, the morning of the launch.
Alec and May, from Nong Khai Design, oversee their crew preparing for the launch.
One last shot before the big move.
PUSH!
NO, WAIT! .....PULL!!!!!
Almost there!
A large crowd gathered to watch.
How did Tom get in the water? :-)
Ok. Tom is safe.
And, just like THAT, the boat was resting gently on the Mekong River. :-)
There's also two welders working on the metal cross-supports for the two hulls. (Notice how his safety glasses are on top of his head?)
Yesterday, Jan and Jeremy dug two trenches that lead from the boat down to the Mekong. If all goes as planned (which never happens) we will be attempting to "push" the boat into the river this weekend. :-) 
A big thank you to all the volunteers who have helped us make this campaign possible.
