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00:00She's called a megaship, a giant vacuum cleaner, the mightiest dredger on Earth.
00:08How do you feel if Superman was next to you?
00:11Very big.
00:12Cristobal Colón, a super-sized superstar able to build ports, harbours, canals, even islands.
00:21Some projects become feasible which in the past could not have been done.
00:26In the frigid waters of the North Sea, she will face her inaugural test, building her first megaproject.
00:35Cristobal Colón is the world's first super-dredger.
00:39At 223 metres and 78,000 tonnes, she's a giant.
00:46I have a lot of power, a lot of big muscles, a lot of strength, a lot of energy.
00:54At 223 metres and 78,000 tonnes, she's a giant.
01:00I have a lot of power, a lot of big muscles, a lot of strength, a lot of energy.
01:08And today, unbelievable is in big demand.
01:13New port construction projects are now super-sized,
01:17and Cristobal was built to take on the monster jobs no other dredger could handle.
01:25She's on her way to her very first job in Cuxhaven, Germany, at the mouth of the Elbe River.
01:33The Elbe is one of Europe's busiest commercial waterways,
01:37and Cuxhaven wants to expand to become a superport.
01:42Cristobal's job is to create the land the new port will be built on
01:46by dumping two and a half million cubic metres of sand on the coast,
01:51enough to build the Great Pyramid of Cheops.
01:56The deadline is brutal, and so is the weather.
02:01Port construction starts in just eight weeks,
02:04and Cristobal is sailing into one of Germany's worst winters in a hundred years.
02:14But before she gets to Cuxhaven, she has to pick up her first load.
02:21Cristobal will suck up sand from the seabed in a dredging zone ten kilometres offshore,
02:26and then deliver it to Cuxhaven.
02:31To get the job done, she'll have to dredge and deliver 85 loads.
02:37Her weapons? Two long suction pipes and two giant drag heads.
02:44Weighing in at 80 tonnes apiece, each head can vacuum up 20,000 tonnes of sand an hour
02:50and feed it up to the hopper that can hold 46,000 cubic metres,
02:55enough to bury a football field nine metres deep.
03:04For Captain Jean Bleu, Cristobal Colon's size and strength are made to measure for Cuxhaven.
03:11The deal to use this vessel on this project is that we can bring much more than one vessel in one trip.
03:20But bigger isn't always better.
03:23First Officer Patrick Struve is navigating giant Cristobal in one of the busiest shipping lanes in Europe.
03:30Every year, 6,000 vessels head in and out of the Elbe River.
03:42It's like steering an aircraft carrier through rush-hour traffic.
03:46I have to look in the radar now how far the ships are and how quickly they come in.
03:52Seven ships are on his radar right now, some just a few hundred metres away.
03:58One of them, a tanker, cuts across Cristobal's bow with almost no warning.
04:03Patrick adjusts his speed, but stays on course.
04:07You're not allowed to make a mistake, that's it.
04:10If I make a mistake now, we have a collision.
04:13But Cristobal Colon is more than just big. She's clever.
04:26Despite her massive size, Captain Bleu runs his super-dredger with just 17 crew.
04:33He needs only two men on the bridge, which is crammed with enough electronics to keep an astronaut happy.
04:40I have good access to all the information from the engine rooms, from the dredging equipment.
04:495,000 sensors control 6,000 valves and feed a steady stream of information to help navigate, dredge, even run the engines.
04:59Cristobal is the most technically advanced dredger ever built.
05:03This is the big deal.
05:09Six floors below the bridge, in the engine room's high-tech control centre,
05:14Chief Engineer Danny Hjuskens runs his entire engine room with just three crew.
05:20That means the behaviour of the engines, temperatures, pressures, all the alarms.
05:28We can start and stop the engines from here, we can open valves from here.
05:33For example, we get...
05:34We get...
05:38The alarm warns the engineers to check one of Cristobal's two huge diesel engines, the biggest ever installed on a dredger.
05:47Together they pump out 56,000 horsepower, enough energy to light a city.
05:53Instead, it drives the ship and powers every gauge, valve and sensor on board.
06:00This time there's nothing wrong, but Danny can't afford to ignore any one of the hundreds of alarms that go off every day.
06:09I think this is the heart of the ship.
06:12When we are not there, you have no power, you have nothing.
06:22It's the ship's computer-controlled, dynamic positioning system that maintains their course and heading.
06:27Right now it confirms that Cristobal has entered the dredging zone.
06:32The site is three kilometres long, barely a hundred metres wide and right in the middle of the shipping lanes.
06:43As Patrick navigates into the zone, two more tankers pass within metres of Cristobal.
06:57You have to be always on tension on it, always thinking and keep your mind on it.
07:05On the other side of the massive bridge, pipe operator Sebastian Scholten brings Cristobal's two dragheads to life.
07:17From his command console, he can operate these giant vacuum cleaners by remote control.
07:28His shipmates call him Bars, and the dragheads are his babies.
07:33Each one weighs as much as a house, but he treats them like fine china.
07:38One mistake could send them crashing to the deck or into the side of the ship.
07:44I have to take care that I damage nothing at the back, so just make sure everything will go OK and smoothly.
07:52Everything is in place for their first dredge.
07:56But as Bars starts to lower the dragheads, Captain Blur watches the weather.
08:02There's a winter storm building in the North Sea that could shut Cristobal down.
08:12Mega-dredger Cristobal Colon is offshore in the North Sea, 10 kilometres from Cuxhaven, Germany.
08:19And First Officer Patrick Struff is preparing the ship to dredge up her first load of sand.
08:31If all goes well, in just three hours she will have 60,000 tonnes in her belly.
08:39But there's a winter storm building, and pipe operator Bars Scholten has no time to waste.
08:45To dredge up sand from the seabed, Bars uses Cristobal's two huge 80-tonne dragheads.
08:52He has to move them slowly and carefully as he lowers them over the side.
09:05Patrick's job is to navigate Cristobal, and he must carefully steer the ship over the dredge site.
09:15As Cristobal hits her first mark, Bars manoeuvres the dragheads into position.
09:24Slowly, he lowers them to the bottom, just 15 metres below the keel.
09:35The dragheads' 50 teeth rip into the seabed, loosening the sand.
09:41At the top of each arm, a powerful 400-tonne pump inhales the sand up and into the hopper at 18 kilometres an hour.
09:53With every cubic metre of sand, Cristobal also vacuums up a cubic metre of water.
09:59It's the only way to suck up so much sand quickly.
10:04But as soon as he uses the water, Bars needs to lose it.
10:11If all the water goes out, he takes the water.
10:15As the sand enters the hopper, it sinks to the bottom.
10:18A giant funnel is then lowered, skimming off the excess water and draining it back into the sea.
10:33Filling the hopper is a delicate operation.
10:37A carefully choreographed dance between navigator and pipe operator.
10:42Together, Patrick and Bars have just one job – keeping the dragheads on the seabed.
10:49Using real-time data from sensors right on the dragheads, Bars raises and lowers the heads constantly as he follows the contours of the bottom.
10:58While Patrick battles swells and currents to maintain the ship's position inside the dredging zone.
11:0713.5 metres, Bars.
11:1013.5 metres?
11:11Yes.
11:13You have to communicate very good for long distances.
11:17When it's quiet, we can hear each other.
11:20Speed is critical.
11:22Dredge sand up too fast or too slow and the pipes could clog, shutting Cristobal down.
11:30We have to take care that we don't block any pipes and keep the speed going.
11:36This is the main thing that we do.
11:40But midway through the dredge, Patrick has a problem.
11:44If you look to the buoy now, you see how much current there is.
11:47There is now between four and five knots of current ahead of me.
11:52The fast sea current could knock Cristobal off course and any sudden movement could smash the dragheads against the ship.
12:00Yes, especially now when the current, the pipe will go constantly under the ship.
12:04So I keep it very close to the bottom, but not too much, otherwise it will go.
12:10As Patrick nears the end of the dredging zone, his sensors warn him that Cristobal is drifting.
12:16Keep it a bit lighter.
12:19A bit lighter?
12:20Yes.
12:21You even pull the jet pump down?
12:23Yes, of course.
12:24I'm at maximum power. I can't do it anymore.
12:28Bas struggles to keep the dragheads away from the ship, while Patrick fights the fast currents with his thrusters.
12:33Propellers mounted on the hull that can manoeuvre the ship sideways.
12:40He has to apply power carefully.
12:42Too much, and he'll push Cristobal out of the narrow dredging zone and into the busy shipping lanes.
12:52So what I go doing, I go a little bit more to the centre, and then I go swing them around at one time, both thrusters.
13:01And it works. Cristobal comes back on course and stays there.
13:05So far, so good. But as tons of sand pour into the hopper, suddenly there's another problem.
13:17Cold winter weather has knocked out a key source of the problem.
13:22The ship is not moving.
13:25The ship is not moving.
13:28The ship is not moving.
13:31Cold winter weather has knocked out a key sensor.
13:34This one measures how much sand is in the hopper.
13:37It's also frozen, I think.
13:41So Bas and Patrick continue filling Cristobal the old-fashioned way, by eye.
13:50What you see on the beach, when you see the waves coming up, goes more slowly.
13:56And I want to see the same in the hopper.
14:00Then I know he's almost full.
14:03Getting it right is critical. Fill Cristobal too full and she could run aground.
14:09You touch the bottom and then it's finished.
14:11With sand pouring into the hopper at 18 km an hour, Cristobal dredges her first load right on schedule.
14:2230,000 cubic metres of sand.
14:25Enough to fill 1,630 dump trucks.
14:29Despite the frozen sensor, it goes off without a hitch.
14:34Phase one is complete and Bas hauls in the dragheads.
14:46Good afternoon, sir. About 45 minutes to 50 minutes we are on the connection.
14:52Now Cristobal is in a race against the weather.
14:56A winter storm is right in her face and high winds are pushing a large ice flow towards her.
15:05It won't take long for it to sweep down the Elbe river and block their path.
15:10It's Captain Blur's worst nightmare.
15:13He has to beat the ice to Cuxhaven and orders Patrick to get there fast.
15:21As soon as Cristobal arrives at the new port site, a fleet of tugs rush out to meet her.
15:27They've got a tricky job.
15:29Guide the dredger into shallow water just offshore so she can discharge her load.
15:35On shore, Project Manager Kobe Pairs watches Cristobal arrive.
15:40He's worried. There's less than three metres of ice left to fill.
15:44But he's got a plan.
15:46He's got a plan.
15:48He's got a plan.
15:50He's got a plan.
15:52He's got a plan.
15:54He's got a plan.
15:56He's got a plan.
15:58He's got a plan.
16:00He's got a plan.
16:01He's worried. There's less than three metres of water under her keel.
16:06One small error and she could run aground.
16:11This vessel is 223 metres long.
16:14So if something happens, it's only seconds before the dredger is washed ashore.
16:21So Kobe waits and watches Cristobal and the tugs get to work.
16:25To help fight the powerful six-knot river current,
16:28one tug connects to Cristobal's stern, the other to her bow.
16:43With a delicate touch on his thrusters, Patrick carefully spins the ship
16:48while the tugs struggle to hold her in position.
16:56Now, Cristobal must stay exactly where she is.
17:00Captain Blur orders the anchor to be dropped.
17:07Like everything else on Cristobal, it's huge.
17:1116 tonnes.
17:15Captain Blur orders out enough chain to keep the tugs in the water.
17:19But the tugs are too heavy.
17:22Captain Blur orders out enough chain to lock his ship in position.
17:39But anchoring is the easy part.
17:43They've now got to discharge 60,000 tonnes of sand.
17:47And they've got to do it fast. The ice is coming.
17:51If they don't unload it before it hits, poor construction could shut down.
17:59Cristobal Colón is in a race against time.
18:04Ice from upriver is approaching fast and Captain Blur doesn't have a moment to lose.
18:11He and his first officer, Patrick Struff,
18:14have to unload 60,000 tonnes of sand before the ice shuts them down.
18:19To do that, they have to connect to a discharge pipe
18:23that runs from the new port site down to the shoreline.
18:29From there, it disappears underwater.
18:32140 metres offshore, it surfaces, attached to a float
18:37that has to be hauled over and connected to a discharge valve on Cristobal's bow.
18:42And that's the job of the tug, Bremerhaven.
18:48Captain, this is Cristobal Colón. You can bring the line.
18:52OK, Cristobal Colón. Thank you. I'm on the way with the line.
18:58Klaus Tümmler is Bremerhaven's captain.
19:01He's been driving tugs for over 40 years.
19:04Using his powerful twin diesel engines,
19:07he slowly tows the 180-tonne pipe towards the ship.
19:12OK, slip in.
19:14Slip in!
19:19Cristobal's deck crew lowers Klaus' line
19:22so the tug's crew can connect it to the discharge pipe.
19:37But just as Cristobal starts hauling it up, the ice arrives.
19:42The current is moving so fast,
19:45in seconds it pushes the discharge pipe away from the ship.
19:53Patrick watches from the bridge and orders Klaus to drive it back.
19:58OK, Bremerhaven, go push the pipeline.
20:01You can stay also on standby,
20:03because there is a lot of ice coming on the tiger.
20:06But Bremerhaven's big twin diesel engines
20:08powerful enough to push an aircraft carrier around,
20:11can't beat the ice.
20:20Normally the current alone is OK,
20:23and ice alone is also OK,
20:26but ice and current together, it is too hard.
20:30With the current pushing the ice faster than he ever thought possible,
20:34Patrick calls in reinforcements.
20:36Yarder, Yarder, Cristobal, come on.
20:40Yarder, can you let go of your line, please,
20:43and help to push the pipeline?
20:48I have to push the pipeline.
20:51In a desperate bid to get the discharge pipe connected,
20:54Patrick orders all three tugs to drive it toward the ship.
20:57On Bremerhaven, Klaus kicks his 2,000-horsepower diesels into high gear.
21:04It's now a battle between the tugs and an ice flow a kilometre long.
21:14Slowly they push the discharge pipe forward,
21:17but the tugs combined much of the ice.
21:20The tugs can't keep up,
21:22and the tugs can't keep up.
21:24They push the discharge pipe forward,
21:27but the tugs' combined might still can't get it close to Cristobal.
21:36By nightfall, it's still not connected.
21:39A job that usually takes 20 minutes is now into its fourth hour.
21:54At Cristobal's bridge, the night shift takes over.
22:00First officer Leon Edema replaces Patrick,
22:04but all he can do is watch the tugs continue to fight the ice.
22:09Finally, after eight hours of non-stop heaving,
22:13Klaus and the other tugs beat the ice.
22:19It's just before dawn when they position the discharge pipe,
22:22right under Cristobal's bow.
22:35On board, the deck crew slowly haul it up.
22:40The discharge pipe is in place,
22:47and Cristobal is ready to deliver.
23:10To discharge the sand,
23:12high-pressure jets blast 30,000 cubic meters of water back into the hopper.
23:17When the mixture turns to liquid mud,
23:20pipes on the bottom of the hopper open up,
23:23and it's pumped into the discharge pipe
23:25with enough force to send it seven kilometers.
23:40It's 6 a.m. when Cristobal starts to deliver her first load.
23:45Just two hours later,
23:47she's pumped over 80,000 tons of sand and water onto the new port site.
23:55In 17 years, project manager Kobe Peers has never seen anything like it.
24:10A fleet of dozers and excavators swing into action.
24:14The pressure is on.
24:16Cristobal is spewing out enough sand to bury Wembley Stadium nine meters deep.
24:29Kevin Temmerman is Kobe's site foreman.
24:32The ice has put Cristobal and construction behind schedule.
24:36He can't afford another setback.
24:40I don't want any delay.
24:42I don't want to delay the ship.
24:44If I delay, we have big problems.
24:48Kevin's not the only one feeling the heat.
24:51Dozer operator Wolfgang Frenz is rushing to keep up with Cristobal.
24:56In 30 years, he's never seen so much sand.
24:59It's also dangerous work.
25:01The discharged mud is like quicksand.
25:04Without water, it's easy to work with a good dozer.
25:07With water, it's very difficult.
25:09They don't see anything, huh?
25:11No.
25:14They can't see anything.
25:24What is Cristobal doing?
25:26He's swimming down the sand.
25:28It's easy to work with glue, but with water it's very difficult.
25:31They don't see anything. They have to work on feeling.
25:40But they're not keeping up.
25:42Christobal is discharging five tons of sand a second.
25:45It's piling up so fast around the end of the pipe, it could clog it.
25:49So, Kobi orders Kevin to add another section of pipe
25:53and divert the mud to a new part of the site.
25:57It's a challenge, because you cannot distribute the sand
26:00600 metres away without extending the pipelines during the pumping.
26:05The flow of water which comes out of the pipeline should never, ever stop.
26:09Up, up, up, up, up, up, up!
26:12Kevin directs the aid team to a new section of the pipe,
26:15up, up, up, up, up, up, up!
26:18Kevin directs the excavator into position.
26:21With sand blasting out at the speed of a tube train,
26:25he guides the ten-ton pipe in.
26:34With another section in place,
26:36the discharge continues without losing a beat.
26:39Ah, the little stress we have, huh? The little stress.
26:43Back on Christabal, the crew keeps a close eye
26:46on the two huge discharge pumps
26:48as they finish disgorging their first load.
26:51Two storeys tall and able to empty an Olympic-sized pool in two minutes,
26:56they've disgorged 60,000 tonnes of sand in three hours.
27:02With the hopper close to empty,
27:04Tug's manoeuvre into position to recover the discharge pipe.
27:08On the bridge, Patrick gives the order to disconnect.
27:13You can't use it, man, or I'll have to move the cable.
27:16Keep the cane in the mouth.
27:18Christabal's first discharge is complete.
27:38But there's still no time to waste.
27:41Captain Bleur immediately heads back to the dredge site.
27:44He should have discharged three loads by now,
27:47but he's delivered just one, and he's feeling the pressure.
27:51Because this is, in fact, my deal on board,
27:53keeping running seven days a week and all the years long.
27:58That's it. That's what I am paid for.
28:01However, when the ship gets under way,
28:03an alarm goes off in the control room.
28:07A valve has ruptured in the pump room.
28:12It's a huge problem.
28:13This is a big valve, with a very big job.
28:17It controls the flow of sand from the hopper.
28:19No valve means that Christabal's ability to discharge sand is crippled.
28:26It costs nearly $10,000 for every hour Christabal is out of action.
28:31Captain Bleur comes down to inspect the damage himself
28:34and then orders all hands on deck.
28:37Even Baars is drafted from the bridge.
28:41Take off the hose.
28:43A pistol, stay.
28:45Now, a pistol, hose.
28:54The repair crew quickly lower the damaged five-tonne valve.
29:01On the pump room floor,
29:03Technical Superintendent Francisco Perez-Idiego assesses the damage.
29:08Like Captain Bleur, he's worried by what he sees.
29:14We are now looking for damage on the broken valve gate.
29:19It looks quite bad, actually.
29:22The hopper's monster pumps are to blame.
29:31During the discharge of so much sand,
29:33the pressure ripped the valve open like a wet paper bag.
29:39The damage is so bad, the valve can't be repaired.
29:42It must be replaced.
29:44We replace the broken valve casing by the new one,
29:48which we have on board.
29:51It's a massive job, and no-one knows how long it will take.
29:55And that's another big problem for Captain Bleur.
29:58In just five hours, Christabal will be back in Cuxhaven,
30:01ready to discharge her next load.
30:08Francisco has to move fast.
30:10If he can't replace the valve in time,
30:12Christabal will fall even further behind schedule.
30:17Up on the bridge, Captain Bleur sets a course for the dredge site,
30:20and the countdown begins.
30:30Francisco and his team are pulling a double shift
30:32in a desperate bid to replace the damaged valve.
30:39A repair crew is busy connecting the hydraulics
30:42that open and close the new valve.
30:44But it's slow work.
30:49The valve is the size of a car, and the parts are huge.
30:57Meanwhile, Christabal has arrived back at the dredge site,
31:00just as winter sea conditions start to turn nasty.
31:09As Christabal's second dredge begins,
31:11Captain Bleur isn't worried about the weather.
31:14He's worried about his valve, and heads below for an update.
31:19Francisco and his team are still struggling to connect the hydraulics.
31:28They're still hours away from replacing the valve.
31:32On the bridge, First Officer Leon Idemer
31:34carefully navigates Christabal over the dredge site.
31:38Even at night, the Elbe River is still as busy as a motorway,
31:42and it's now almost impossible to see another ship coming.
31:46Leon has to keep a close eye on his radar,
31:49as the hopper fills up with sand.
31:53Francisco is running out of time.
31:55It will be like a challenge, so let's see that.
32:02The next day, the Elbe River is still as busy as ever.
32:06It's still a long way to go,
32:08but it's not as bad as it used to be.
32:11It's still a long way to go,
32:13but it's not as bad as it used to be.
32:16It's still a long way to go,
32:18but it's not as bad as it used to be.
32:22The hopper is filling quickly.
32:24In less than three hours,
32:26Christabal gobbles up 35,000 cubic metres of sand.
32:44As morning arrives, the dragheads are hauled in,
32:47and Christabal sets course for Cuxhaven.
32:51CUXHAVEN
33:01In just 45 minutes, the ship will be back at the discharge site.
33:05But Captain Blur still has no word that the new valve is ready to go.
33:10And no idea if Christabal will be ready to unload.
33:15Christabal Callon is back at the new port site in Cuxhaven,
33:19but she can't unload.
33:29In the pump room, Francisco Perez-Idiego and his team
33:33are rushing to replace the five-tonne valve.
33:36And they're running out of time.
33:45Beside Christabal, the tugs take a line from the dredger.
34:03This time, the ice is holding off.
34:06As the tugs push the discharge pipe toward the ship,
34:09the connection begins.
34:15Down in the pump room. They've done it.
34:18The new valve is installed.
34:20With just minutes to spare,
34:22Francisco and his team have made the deadline.
34:25Christabal is now ready to discharge her next load.
34:29But now there's a new problem.
34:36The valve is leaking out.
34:38They're trying to change the valve.
34:41But it's not working.
34:43It's not working!
34:45It's not working.
34:47It's not working.
34:49It's not working.
34:51It's not working.
34:53The valve is leaking!
34:55It's not working!
34:57It's not working!
34:59Christobal's pumps are running at full power, but on shore, nothing is being discharged.
35:05No water, and worse, no sand.
35:08Back on Christobal, Chief Engineer Danny Huskins quickly tests his systems.
35:13Everything checks out.
35:15Up on the bridge, Baars checks his sensors too, looking for a blockage in the hopper
35:20or pumps.
35:21Nothing.
35:22The problem is not on Christobal.
35:31On shore, the pipe is checked for clogs.
35:33Again, nothing.
35:41Christobal is out of action.
35:43It's now up to Operations Superintendent Joris Santamans to troubleshoot the problem
35:48on land.
35:55But Joris suspects it's more than that.
35:57He wants to know if there's a break in the submerged section of the discharge pipe, and
36:01has come up with an ingenious plan to use Christobal's big pumps.
36:05We're going to start pumping water from the ship side, and to see if we can notice a
36:13leak somewhere.
36:15Joris thinks ice flows and strong currents have caused the problem.
36:22The ice pushing hard against the discharge pipe might have caused it to bend and crack.
36:27If he's right, water pumped from Christobal will bubble out of the leak and mark the spot.
36:33I've got the water right in front of the anechoe on the starboard side, you can see the water
36:40coming up.
36:42It's confirmed.
36:43The discharge pipe is broken.
36:45And until it's repaired, Christobal is down for the count again.
36:50Captain Blur fears the worst.
36:54To fix the pipe, Joris first has to haul it out of the river.
37:12He commandeers the workboat MCS Anika for the job.
37:20MCS captain Francis Matthews hooks a sling to the boat's powerful working crane, and
37:26straps it around the discharge pipe.
37:35But he can't budge the damaged pipe.
37:39The crane's good for 28 ton, it's not lifting it.
37:47The repair mission is getting dangerous.
37:53Francis is stretching his cables to breaking point.
37:59No one knows how much the discharge pipe weighs.
38:02If it's more than 50 tons, the winch cable could snap.
38:11Finally, they wrestle the pipe onto the deck.
38:25Sure enough, the rest of the discharge pipe slides in.
38:40Twelve hours after they began, Joris gets a look at the damage.
38:43The rupture was on a weld, so there might have been a defect somewhere in the weld that
38:54caused it to break off.
38:59It's a clean break, but a dirty job to fix it.
39:03The ice snapped the pipe in half.
39:06They'll have to haul all 140 meters onto land and re-weld it.
39:13Like everything connected with Cristobal, it's a massive undertaking.
39:24Cristobal Colón is shut down, while a shore crew races to repair the discharge pipe.
39:30It takes five long days and nights, but it's almost fixed.
39:35I feel relieved.
39:38It was hard work.
39:40I'm very happy that everything is ready for the dredger to come back and pump some sand.
39:48There's just one more step to go.
39:50Reconnect the discharge pipe to the ship.
39:56It cost almost a million dollars to keep Cristobal on site during the repairs.
40:01Project manager Kobe Pears is desperate to get the ship back to work.
40:05Fighting day after day, and every day is a new challenge to keep this side running.
40:15Finally, the discharge pipe is connected.
40:24And Cristobal immediately revs up her discharge pumps.
40:33Thank you very much.
40:46Port construction roars back to life.
40:58As Cristobal spews out 35,000 tons of sand.
41:07The land for the new port begins to rise again.
41:17Her schedule is in tatters, but Cristobal Colón is back in action.
41:26To get back on track, Captain Jean Bleu will have to push his crew and his ship as hard
41:31as he can.
41:32It takes two or three or four voyages a day.
41:36It's just the calculation, the production, and to be competitive.
41:40We must work together.
41:41If you don't work together, you don't have results.
41:44You have to keep on pumping, just keep on pumping.
41:47As soon as Cristobal arrives back at the dredge site, the drag heads are lowered, the race
41:52is on.
41:53It's a little bit of adrenaline, it's going to be fun.
42:04With the winter weather cooperating, Cristobal makes a dozen perfect runs and delivers 600,000
42:10tons of sand.
42:13For the first time since the job began, both Captain Bleu and Cobby Peers believe the deadline
42:19is within reach.
42:20Thanks to Cristobal Colón, her size and her capacities, we can still finish this project
42:29on time.
42:30It's a good chance that we will make it.
42:36Over the next few weeks, Cristobal makes more than 70 runs and delivers 2 million cubic
42:42meters of sand.
42:44It's more than enough to finish the project right on schedule.
42:48And I must say, I'm absolutely amazed about the capacities and I'm absolutely surprised
43:00about what this vessel is capable of doing.
43:04But to Cobby, Cristobal's success is more than just hitting a deadline.
43:09It's a new beginning.
43:11And I think that Cristobal Colón will mark the start of a new era in the dredging industry.
43:23During one of the worst winters in a century, Cristobal Colón battled time and the elements
43:30and won.
43:31And along the way, she proved that bigger is better.