Airborne

On Monday evening, October 10th, Charlie Murphy arrived from Bridgewater, Massachusetts. He's the mechanic who will take everything apart, repair the pods and reassemble it all, back into working order. He meets us at Brio early the next morning and begins to remove all of the electronics and hardware from Brio's roof. Anything that sticks up will add to the height of Brio when she is on the truck trailer going under highway bridges. He will also remove the remaining pod so she can sit lower on the trailer.

Around 1:30 p.m. the crane arrives from Montreal and by 2:00 p.m. Dave Kopriva arrives with his truck and trailer to haul Brio to Massachusetts. Dave comes in from western Ontario, near Detroit. The crane guys, Roger and Proto, are busy assembling their equipment. Dave needs paperwork completed so Brio can enter the U.S. at Houlton, Maine, where I-95 starts.

Here are the "actors":

First, Charlie Murphy, the mechanic:

Then, the Montrealers on the crane, Proto and Roger. Roger is the young guy who operates the crane. You'll see the block that hangs between them in later pictures.

Then there's Dave Kopriva and his "rig" from Ontario. Without exception, these guys were a great team.

Charlie Murphy had taken the starboard pod off of the bottom of the boat. Here it sits, waiting to be put in the back of his pickup truck for the ride back to his shop in Bridgewater.

The crane operators had to build the frame that will hold the slings out from the sides of Brio and will keep the forward sling and the aft sling centered on the boat.

Next, the assembled frame of girders is hung above Brio so the straps can be adjusted and tightened to hug Brio. Once done, the crane will begin to go up and tighten the straps.

Notice that all of the electronics and hardware have been removed from the roof, courtesy of Charlie. The starboard pod will be loaded onto Charlie's pickup. (The port pod is resting on the bottom of the River.) The tender, the 11-foot Whaler, and the lift arms have been removed from the back of Brio.

Roger, the crane operator, is key in lifting the boat.

Brio's positioning and her "swing" once airborne will be controlled by those of us on the ropes.

The slings are tightened as the crane goes up and it takes the slack out of the slings.

We now have "lift-off!"

Proto is in radio contact with Roger at the crane controls.

Up she goes.

And higher still. She begins to spin so she's lined up for Dave's trailer.

Steve's working to control the spin. In a moment, Brio starts to spin too much and Proto has to jump in and help Steve control her.

Dave begins to back his truck into place to give Brio her resting place.

Proto positions himself to tell Roger if Brio needs to go left or right so she's centered on the trailer.

Dave is adjusting his pads to take Brio's weight.

Plywood shims brace Brio's skeg.

Now she's loaded and secure. Dave will strap her down.

Next comes the Whaler tender, nicknamed "Burrito."

The Whaler will ride on the gooseneck fittig of the trailer, ahead of Brio.

Here's the team, releasing the Whaler from her slings.

And that's it! Dave will finish securing his loads. Charlie will pack up the starboard pod and make sure all of the hardware and electronics are securely placed in Brio's salon. The crane will need to be taken down and the equipment all stored on the crane truck.

In a couple of hours it will be sunset. Brio's crew will have started driving south, back to the States. Everyone else will bed down for the night and get an early start back to Montreal for the crane folks and down to Massachusetts for Dave and Charlie.

The view from south of Rimouski:

Cheers,

Brio