Gangway!

Eddie Dry and I finished the partial decking on the gangway extension float on Saturday and Rich Koch towed the extension over to the courtesy dock. On Sunday, I met with park staff, who brought our old gangway and placed it on top of the extension. That was the easy part. The hard part was getting it back to the marina. No matter which arrangement I tried, the combination of the big long float and the work barge, which has an 8-hp motor mounted on a corner, was completely unwieldy. Finally, I had to tow the extension with the motor in reverse, moving very slowly across the cove. It took a long time, and still had to be accomplished at a bit of an odd crabbing angle. Eventually I made the temporary hookup of the gangways and returned the work barge to an interior dock. At least we did a good job of using up just about all the gas in the external tank and of running the engine dry.

The gangway extension has been connected to the swinging gangway. Some work will be needed to be done to adapt the connections to fit each other properly and a foundation will need to be built under the new gangway to bring it to the proper elevation. Also needed will be some more strengthening of the float and a base for the bottom of the big 64-foot gangway. Topsides, on land, a retaining wall, grading, placement of a temporary skidway, and work on a path and loading zone will need to be completed before equipment can be brought in to place the big gangway in position.