Preparations have been completed for the retrieved Sewol ferry to be delivered to a port in Mokpo, where its insides will be searched for the nine passengers still missing, authorities said Sunday.

“It looks like there will be no significant risk in transporting the ferry to shore from now on, since it is safely placed on the balanced deck of the semisubmersible vessel,” Yoon Hak-bae, the Oceans and Fisheries vice minister, told reporters Sunday.

After draining sea water and oil from the ship over the next few days, the engineers will securely fix the ferry onto the transport vessel for the trip to Mokpo, some 87 kilometers from the wreckage site, Yoon said.

The voyage is expected to take 9-10 hours and the official estimated it could reach Mokpo Port as early as Tuesday.

As of Sunday afternoon, Sewol, a 6,800-ton ferry which capsized and sank in waters off Jindo on April 16, 2014, sits on the semisubmersible carrier for preparations for the delivery.

The corroded ship emerged fully from the water at around midnight Saturday, after the carrier buoyed up to lift it.

The ministry said it plans to let water drain naturally through windows and doors, but the salvage operators may also have to drill holes in sealed areas.

It also installed three debris nets within a radius of 3 kilometers around the ferry, in order to prevent the loss of anythng inside during the transportation.

Once the ship reaches the port, authorities will try to search for the remains of the missing passengers and inspect the ship to find out why it sank.

Prior to the inspection, the ship will go through technical and off-load preparations which may take 3-4 days. Another one full day will be needed to move the ship to the quay located inside the port, by placing rail-like transporters underneath the ferry.

“Moving the ship into the quay area is another tricky part not only due to its massive weight, but since it must be transported carefully without getting damaged,” said Lee Cheol-jo, a ministry official who is in charge of the salvage operation.

Sewol alone would weigh 8,300 metric tons, but, with water, stones and sand inside, the wreckage would be a lot heavier, weighing up to 20,000 metric tons.

Ministry officials said the Sewol ferry will be ready for inspection by April 1.

In case the missing nine bodies are not found inside the ship, the rest of the workers will continue to search underwater. 

Forty 40-by-20-meter nets have been installed around the area where it was lying before the recovery. Divers will walk underwater on the seabed and use sonar radar to detect the bodies.

Authorities said that they made the nets as tight as possible so even small bones would not go missing.

On Thursday, the ministry decided to halt the lifting procedure temporarily, as one of the Sewol’s boarding ramps was found to be open, hampering the procedure for raising the ship.

The salvaging process resumed Friday morning after cutting the ramp overnight, and sped up the lifting of the ship to 13 meters above the surface and transport it onto a semisubmersible ship.

The ministry officials said that the removed ramp was not directly related to the reasons behind the ferry sinking.

The 145-meter-long ferry had been lying at a depth of 44 meters after it sank three years ago. Among its 476 passengers, 304, mostly high school students, lost their lives. Nine are still unaccounted for.

By Kim Da-sol (ddd@herladcorp.com)