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Super Servant and her milling loadees
A sunken Super Servant surrounded by boats waiting their turn to load. Loading was co-ordinated over the VHF radio. I took one of my little portables so I could hear all the directions.Super Servant comes to La Paz
On May 14, 2011, the Dockwise yacht transport Super Servant loaded 16 boats in La Paz. If you're not familiar with this service, the basic idea is that the Dockwise vessel has a large open hold with a big door on the back end. The transport is flooded and sunk and the back doors are opened. The boats to be transported are driven in one at a time under the supervision of a loadmaster where they are secured to Super Servant and each other with lines. When all the boats are aboard, divers assemble cradles under each boat and weld the cradles to the bottom of the hold. The back doors are closed and all the water in the hold is pumped out. Super Servant rises up in the water and takes off for Nainamo in British Columbia, Canada where the whole process is reversed and the boats unloaded by their owners. Takes about 10 or 12 days for the trip. Some owners take advantage of the fact that the boat is out of the water (the hold is completely dry and one can walk around under the boats being transported) by hiring maintenance
Closer View of Super Servant
The bow of the boat is away from you in this photo. The entrance to the hold is between the two towers closest to you. I was suprised at how small the transport looks. services like bottom painting and zinc replacement done while Super Servant is underway. In general, the owners don't travel with their boats, however if your boat is over 90 feet, you or your representative can live aboard and have access to the crew's mess and lounge.
Brian and I knew in advance that this was going to happen and were planning to take Ansa out in the Bay to drive around and watch the process. But about a week before the loading, I happened to hear on the morning net a boat in another marina requesting crew as line handlers for the loading. I also knew about a boat, Pegasus (a 51 foot ketch), in our marina that was also loading. I quickly scurried over to Pegasus and told Captain Bob that if he needed some line handlers, Brian and I would happily volunteer. Now, I hadn't yet talked about this with Brian, but I knew he would jump at the chance. Captain Bob accepted us. Way cooler to be on a loading boat than just driving around in Ansa and trying to stay out of the way.
Brian was the camera man on this adventure, so he
Pegasus tied up to Super Servant
A view of Pegasus's side deck up against the starboard side of Super Servant's hull. We get to walk about 100 yards on that catwalk littered with lines and gear to get up to bow section of the transport. gets all the credit for the pictures and videos in this blog.
On the morning of the 14th, we went aboard Pegasus at 6:45am and and motored up the La Paz channel, out into the Bay of La Paz, and on up to a bay near Pitchelingue, where the dockwise boat had already sunk itself. On the way, we got a little escort of seven dolphins and Brian made a short video of them cavorting in Pegasus's bow wave. We arrive in the loading area about 8am and just float around watching other boats being loaded and waiting for our turn. When our turn came, Captain Bob just drove in slowly, we line handlers threw docking lines to Super Servants crew ( the guys in the orange jumpsuits in the photos) and they tied us up. It was a piece of cake. Having really good weather for the loading helped a lot. I'd guess it would be much more difficult if the sea was bumpy and the wind was up. An interesting and unanticipated aspect of Super Servant was that most (maybe all) of her crew are Ukrainian - lots of Russian flying around
After we were secure,
Everyone is taking pictures
Carol, Pegasus crew person, perched on the bow of Pegasus looking for a good picture. we stayed on Pegasus to watch some of the boats behind us in the loading queue come in and to take pictures. Rather than try to describe the photos here, I have put that text in the "description" for each photo. By about 10, all the boats had been loaded, and we waited in a sweltering sun for the single launch to take us ashore. The launch could only take 12 at a time and there were about 70 of us, so it took awhile. The launch deposited us in Marina Costa Baja, which is about 5 miles from La Paz, so Captain Bob taxied us all back to La Paz to a restaurant near our marina where he graciously bought us all a nice breakfast.
A really fun day.
By the way, Ansa with David and Michael on board will be leaving La Paz on May 28, heading for San Francisco Bay.
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Char
non-member comment
hey,interesting pics........hope you have a good trip up. See you in the fall Brian/Mike:)