This Saturday (23 October) we successfully set casing to 274.3 meters, advancing HWT size casing with a casing shoe bit so that we would not have to pull the casing to remove the bit. Casing was landed in the center of a massive basalt flow (as determined by wireline logs and core photos). After cementing in place, we had to let cement cure for 24 hours before advancing again. On Sunday afternoon 24 October, the drillers cleared cement from casing and drilled through the cement plugs and down into basalt, officially beginning Stage 3 of operations - coring down below the casing string. We are continuing to core with HQ size rod. On Tuesday 26 October, we passed 274.3 m depth, thus advancing core to depths we have not sampled before. From here on down we are in new terrain. As of Wednesday night at midnight, we have advanced core to 431.9 m below surface. Have we finally passed through the aquifer? Are we finished with boring alteration mineral assemblages? Core from a depth of about 358.1 to 365.7 m, contains abundant zeolites and/or altered clay. These are most commonly green to yellowish brown, with the green zeolites/clay? often exhibiting a tabular form and the yellowish zeolites/clay? Appearing more massive. Core pulled below 365.7 m appears to be relatively unaltered and flow units still contain the usual calcite amygdules.