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Captain´s Diary #5, 8/27/02, by Paul Harmon

What a great day! The team from La Isla del Sol started working around 7:15 am and moved the stone close to the end of the ramp. My team of volunteers then brought the boat around to the ramp. There was a little concern that the ramp was to low for the boat. Fortunately it is almost perfect in terms of height. We pulled the boat to the end of the ramp in order to provide additional space for people to pull from. We had to squeeze into a very tight area in order to do so. There is not much room to spare. But it worked beautifully.

When we got the stone to the end of the ramp, we moved the boat from the end to the side to put it in the position that we need for loading the stone. It fits, but with no room to spare. There is a very large stone in the water next to the ramp that makes it a little shallower than we wanted. It was not there originally, but fell during the construction of the ramp. As I said, we have no room to spare. We have calculated what the draft of the boat will be with the stone. But our calculations have no good precedents to base upon. If we are right, all will be perfect...too perfect. If we are wrong... well, we will have to see what the consequences are.

As an additional note, the stone really looks much larger next to the boat. There have been many observers during this entire process. Today was the first time that any of them have seen the boat and stone together. The comments have been interesting. I have watched them motion that the boat was going to flip. I have heard them talk about it sinking under the weight. I have heard them say that the stone will fall through the totora. Come to think of it, I have not heard many say that they thought it would work. I love it when that happens! We have been the underdog all along, and our team has pulled through every time. Bring it on!

As we were just about ready to try and load the stone on the boat, there were a lot of concerned faces. We stopped and talked one more time about exactly how we were going to do it. It became obvious that most thought we needed a few more materials to do the job right. So we made the decision to wait. We would secure the materials we needed tonight, start again tomorrow early, and have the stone on the boat by lunch time. We have come too far. We are too close not to take every precaution necessary to get it right. For the last two days we have received valuable help from a handful of the Bolivian Navy under the direction of Captain Fuentes. Tomorrow, there will be close to 30 of them to help us. This is the absolute most critical part of the project. Everything made sense to wait.

Tomorrow by lunch time we will know. Check in to see!