Dry Dock 3

The final steps in the process had all of us wondering. How would the heavy equipment pull us out onto the lock platform without getting trapped out there themselves? Well, at least one did pull us forward as close to the entrance as possible. Then it disconnected and joined its partners at the back to work us forward. There must have been some complications, as there was an interval of some time while we were parked halfway onto the lock platform. We are bigger than most of the ships they have in this yard… Anyway, we finally made it, and they lowered the platform, and we are now sitting in the lock, afloat, waiting to test our engines, etc. so we can leave the lock and tie up at the outside of the dry dock.

 

This is the ship’s fifth year of service, so we have many tests we have to pass (five-year surveys). The Spanish take a siesta in the afternoons, so no one will come until tomorrow morning to complete our surveys and release us to sail to Tenerife…

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Dry Dock #2

The rails that the heavy equipment drew us out on had big wheels under them. You may be able to see the wheels underneath in the first photo. The ship was gently drawn straight backward onto these movable rails. Then we needed to slide sideways to line the ship up with the exit lock. So our front-end loaders and tractors lined in pairs at either end of the ship, connected this time to the rails we were sitting on. They pulled those rails across the parallel tracks toward the end of the yard, which meant the ship was moving sideways. (This was a bit nerve-wracking, as the ship began to rock a little. If you saw how narrow the support under the ship is, you would know why we land-lubbers were a tad bit anxious. J) Gradually they pulled us to the end, so that the ship was lined up with the lock, which you can see in the second picture beyond the front end loader. The wooden platform with its rails was elevated above the water, so that we could be slid into place.

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Dry Dock #1

Our ship, the Africa Mercy, is currently in dry dock in Las Palmas, Gran Canaria, an island off Morocco. You may wonder how that works… The ship enters a narrow, water-filled berth, and a platform is raised underneath it until the ship is resting on supports. Gradually it is raised until it is completely out of water, then pulled forward on movable rails by heavy equipment. Here are photos of our exit from dry dock. First you see us resting in dry dock, as our “gangway” scaffolding is being removed. You can see the rails that have been slid over in place behind us so that we can be pulled forward…

 

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