The Grafton Ferry tug "Bluewater" is back in the water after extensive rework at Polestar Marina.

Little John from Little John's Marine Service replaced quite a bit of steel plate on the hull, revamped the fuel tanks and quite a bit of other work while it was in drydock.  Having missed the lifting of the 71 ton boat with a 60 ton travellift I had to be there for the relaunching.  Seems the biggest problem is the fact there is a slight grade from the lift's catwalks over the water to the parking lot and they had to help the lift with a truck to get it up the grade.  Going back down the grade the plan was to have Steve in a bulldozer hooked to the tug with a cable so in case it tried to runaway he could drop the bucket and tines and stop the whole thing.  Yeah, I agree, sounded pretty cool to me too!  Of course I have seen Little John do lots of things like this so I wasn't too worried.  Well, other than having to replace a cracked wheel bearing housing on the lift and a small hydraulic leak, everything went amazingly smooth.  There wasn't even any hootin' an' hollerin', didn't hear a single "MF", didn't even have to go to plan B if there was one.  Pete was even smiling when it all worked out.  Beautiful cool day on the river made it even better.  Check out the pics at:

http://www.captainweil.com/bluewaterlaunching/

to see some pics of it while the work was being done go to:

http://www.captainweil.com/Mississippi20050920/