January 28, 2009: haida rises

For someone who has only been working with Haida for three weeks, Thursday was surprisingly emotional for me. Docking a vessel, even one that has not moved under its own power for more than 10 years, is like putting a person in a medically induced coma for an operation. The graving dock is the admitting room. As Haida slowly rose out of the water, she painfully parted with the water that held her, gave life to her engines, and let her glide freely around the world. As her weight transferred to the steel railway carriage and chock blocks, the soft plea to stop the lift could faintly be heard. And as the last drops of water ran down the keel and fell to the lift's deck, Haida knew that she wouldn't likely feel the Dubai Creek for many months.

Haida glides into the synchrolift with the assistance of the towing ropes.

The synchrolift gradually brings Haida out of the water.

It was done; she was ready to be transferred to her operating room, a berth just meters away from the synchrolift that admitted her to Al Jadaf. The nurses, men in blue coveralls emblazoned with a Goltens "G," quickly moved in to prep for surgery. They immediately attended to her underwater plating that was in dire need of scraping. In some places the marine growth was almost three inches thick. Tiny microcosms of barnacles, coral, and crabs had taken refuge everywhere on the hull. Scrape by scrape the growth fell to the ground. Scott rescued three tiny crabs from a giant chunk that fell intact. "You three are the chosen ones," he said as he picked up another crab. "Well, you four are the chosen ones. You (might) live to see another day in the Creek."

The men from the Goltens Ship Repair quickly tackle scraping and washing the underwater portion of the hull.

After scraping the bow stem, this chunk of coral fell onto the steel railway carriage. It is larger than my hand.

When the nurses finished a section of scraping, more men would come behind to pressure wash the hull to remove the remaining debris. Everyone worked very quickly to scrape and bathe Haida before the growth dried out.

The sun set on Haida ending her first day out of the water in 10 years. The shipyard noise softened to a dull roar. Over the next 60 days and beyond, Haida will undergo countless procedures: steel renewal, sea chest installations, the addition of underwater lighting, and others. The most involved operation will be the removal of the existing stabilizing fins and the installation of four new fins. Time will tell what other tasks might be added to her schedule.

For now, it seems the work day grows longer as doctors and nurses scurry to put Haida back into her prime condition.

The Cayman ensign flies stiffly in Thursday's strong winds.

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