First thing in the afternoon on Monday, Titan Salvage crews removed an angular piece of the wreck. A couple hours later, Big Red crane operator Jesse Harris took away a rectangularish piece of metal, leaving one big, somewhat empty piece in the ocean.

But it hasn’t been easy. Crews were racing to beat some harsh weather headed this way in the form of 10-foot waves and winds to 25 mph. The shipwreck is so light now, compared to what it once was, that even small waves push it around like a leaf in the wind.

Salvors worked a late night Friday, another one on Saturday and past 10 p.m. Sunday. On Saturday afternoon, as Titan engineer Andy Butts made phone calls on his cell phone, salvors Bruce Jeter and Lon Cross relaxed, catching a few badly needed Zzzs, in the maintenance container on shore, prior to returning to the barges after a supply run to town. Bruce stretched on the floor, his hard hat an improvised pillow. Lon stretched out in a van seat stacked against the back wall of the container.

Many of the crew were tired Monday but by the end of the day,  jubilation abounded on the barges Karlissa A and Karlissa B and, later, at local bars and the Edgewater Inn, too. They finished work somewhat early Monday, enabling the salvors some well-deserved celebratory drinks.

Relatively calm days on Friday and Saturday allowed the torch workers to make cuts in key places to separate piece from larger piece. They made more cuts Sunday — all day Sunday — in preparation for a big push on Monday to get the rest of the rusting hulk out of the surf.

Titan crews made it look easy, despite waves that splashed most of the torch team — Salvage Superintendent Dave Grecho, Robert Swanson and Eric Hickey — and absolutely drenched salvor Yuri Mayani.

Waves of saltwater hit Yuri so hard that at one point, looking down from the stern of the Karlissa B, I saw him take off his glasses, shake his head and spit out a few gulps of saltwater.

Yuck. I don’t envy him his job. But later, he was smiling as he, Dave Grecho and Eric Hickey talked with Salvage Master Shelby Harris. Yuri, though, was standing in front of a ReddyHeater, warming up and drying out.

After the second piece was gone — Dave and Robert ducked into cubby holes in the last piece as Yuri made the last cut to release the penultimate piece to the crane — they fired up the pullers.

“We’re gonna lift the whole thing, see what’s under there,” Dave Grecho said.

There was nothing. Zip. Nada. The big piece, the last piece, swung by three anchor chains as they popped and snapped, sending rust dust into the air. Waves every seven to eight seconds pushed the piece to the sway of the swells as little by little, it rose from the water.

Soon, no waves touched it at all.

Harris said crews likely will take off some smaller pieces today, before putting the last piece on the barge and before diving in the water to gather up miscellaneous metal pieces.

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All I heard on the Titan Salvage barges Friday was: "You should have been here last night."

Yeah, I know. The sunset was beautiful. The next trophy, a 105-ton hunk of metal that held part of the keel and warped prop from the New Carissa, hung off the Big Red crane on the Karlissa B barge — a prize worthy of hanging overnight and letting the few visitors to the beach see and admire it.

Several of the Titan salvors said local photographer Gene LaRochelle got some great pics of the piece with the sunset in the background. Sometimes a photographer gets lucky and, if you have a good eye, like Gene, you get some outstanding photos you'll treasure forever.

On Friday, Titan Engineering Director Phil Reed and I visited the barges when the crew went out at about 7 a.m. For me, the sunrise was all that the sunset was the night before.

Salvage Master Shelby Harris gave a brief outline of the day's events on the Karlissa A barge, then crews got busy. Engines were turned on, pressure washers started.

But first, there was some staring to be done by the leaders of the crew. The wreck, nestled between the Karlissa A and B barges, was getting hit by waves. Harris, Reed and salvors Dave Grecho and Mike Pacheco stared at the wreck. Five minutes went by. Then 10. Then some discussion took place. Periodically, one would point to a part of the wreck. More discussion. Serious expressions. The sun came up over the eastern hills and soon, even the four were moving around and getting ready for action.

The first job of the day required making room for the 65-foot-or so piece of the prop and ship on the bow of the Karlissa B barge — the area commonly referred to by Titan guys as "Scraptopia." Crews were going to place it near the 170-ton engine pulled out just days before.

Jesse Harris and Big Red moved the big piece to the bow of the barge and lowered it down, prop end first. Metal, sand, plastic and other junk cascaded off the shaft and the part of the hull to which the propeller was attached. Clangs, clunks and thunks reverberated throughout the B barge.

Salvor Kenny Kruckenberg walked by and said hello. Apparently, he's moved up the ladder in Titan world, and now has more responsibility on the Karlissa B.

"I'm the 'Ayatolla of Scrapola,'" Kenny said, laughing and flashing his broad, toothy grin that's earned him the name "Smilin' Kenny" on the barges.

Back on the stern of the B, Reed and Shelby Harris were looking down at the wreck.

There's only a little of the New Carissa left -- but how long it will take for it all to disappear is anybody's guess.