PREPARATION FOR SUNDAY'S LIFT

On Sunday, November 22, 2009 the anchors will be lifted on to shore at the Varadero Marina which is just at the end of the airport runway.

For those of you who are not familiar with the Varadero Marina this is a shot of the dock with the bar and restaurant in the background, left.

This photo is taken near the beginning of the runway for the airport.  The runway is behind the chain link fence, airplanes can be seen getting ready to take off.

Here you can see the Moonbay as she begins to tow the anchors into the Varadero Marina.

Same shot as above only cropped so the boat and airbag can be seen in more detail.

Same shot as above only cropped further to show more detail.

As all this is going on airplanes are landing overhead.

This is the Moonbay, Captained by owner Mr. Paulino (Plons) Richardson, arriving at Varadero with the anchor to tow.  You can see one of the airbags behind the boat.

The Moonray brings the airbag (hidden behind the boat) with the anchor suspended below as close as possible to the dock, note the line held by the man on the other boat.  He is holding the airbag and anchor in position while the Moonray backs out of the space.  Because of the length of the airbag it can not be used to move the anchor to shallow water and the dive team must replace the airbag with nine drums, thus lifting the anchor closer to the surface.

Toine is brought ashore to ready the drums to replace the air bag.

When the anchors get close to marina these are the nine drums that will be used to float the anchors closer to the surface so they can be moved into the very shallow water between the docks.

After replacing the airbag with the drums Toine comes ashore to get a new tank of air for himself and other tanks to fill the submerged drums with air.

Dick signals "ALL OK" as he too comes ashore to replace his empty air tank and pick up tanks to fill the drums.

The airbag has been replaced with the drums and the rig ready for the final tow into position.  Note the Moonray is no longer towing the anchors and a rope is now run to shore to pull the anchors the final distance.

The drums supporting the anchor are brought into position between the docks.

Progress at this point is slow but the anchor is almost in position for tomorrows lift.

This is the final position from which the anchor will be lifted.

The sun begins to set and only one anchor has been put into position for the lift tomorrow.  The other anchor is located just past the boat seen in the photo above.  It has taken the dive team longer to move the anchor this short distance than it did to bring it to the location in the bay.  The transfer from airbag to drums took longer and it was exhausting work, but one anchor is ready for the big day tomorrow.  The other anchor will have to wait for another day unless they can move it in the morning.

RETURN TO THE ANCHOR DIRECTORY