April 29, 2006: Retrieving Grace from the Cooper River
Sparky was out today catching the action at both the blast site and at the
Navy yard. I put together a video from his still shots just to illustrate
the retrieval trio for Crane (Richard), Shear (Jackie) and Grapple (Michael)
The worksite
Now for some serious fishing - attaching the cables - to retrieve this
piece. Here, Speedy is on top while
Scotty and ? are providing some assistance.
and Michael's grapple supporting the fishing line that Speedy is working with. I
would call this 50 ton test line. Scotty and ? are adjusting the cables to catch
the big one.
Michael taking a bite while Richard stabilizes the section
and a bit of lifting action from Richard and Michael
Now Michael retreats, but with his jaws in the open configuration.
Now that Michael is finished,
watch Richard lift this section from the Cooper River (2 Mb mpg video)
and more lift
and more lifting
Now with the Grace section resting on the barge,
it is time for some initial surgical removal of key sections.
Here are some demonstrations of Jackie's surgical skills
involved in dissassembly of the Grace truss (all done while Michael stabilizes
the setion with his shiney new grapple).
.
Jackie demonstrates the biting procedure
Then the pull procedure
Another bite
A push
Another bite
Another bite
Now it is time to rotate the truss section into the
proper surgical position for high speed disassembly.
Watch Michael
rotate this section of Grace
with his grapple
The formation (Duet for Jackie and Michael)
The Jackie and Michael duet - in their high speed disassembly positions. This
high speed disassembly is a bit frustrating to Richie, back in the Navy yard.
He can't seem to get ahead of the arrival of new material. But then there is only
one Richie while the dynamic duo of Jackie and Michael are maybe more than 2.
On the way back -
a check on the status of P-3. Who is doing the finish work on P-3?