The boat is back.

The Lady Grace has revealed itself once again in the Hoquiam River, weeks after it seemingly disappeared, just ahead of its planned removal from the river, where it sank nearly two years ago.

“We found out the boat is still actually in the river,” said Hoquiam City Administrator Brian Shay. “It is now in the middle of the channel and you can see just a small part of it at low tide.”

Just before Christmas a contractor bidding on the vessel’s removal — funded 100% by the Department of Natural Resources Derelict Vessel Program — went to look over the Lady Grace, and it wasn’t where it had been since it sank March 2, 2018, just off the west bank of the river just north of the Riverside Bridge.

City officials were hopeful the boat had been removed, possibly by its owner, maybe by the owner of the property where the 80-foot commercial fishing vessel went down. Jerry Farmer, a member of the Derelict Vessel Removal team, was less optimistic, saying then it had likely shifted with the tide into deeper water.

Turns out Farmer was correct.

The good news for the city is the shift in location doesn’t take the Grace out of the running for fully funded removal, something the city has been working on since boats started sinking at the property at 200 Monroe St. in July 2017, seven of them in total.

“It still qualifies for 100% reimbursement through the Derelict Vessel Removal Program account,” Farmer said Tuesday. “The City of Hoquiam will be proceeding with this vessel’s removal and disposal from the river.”

Shay verified that, saying city code enforcer Dorian Wylie got approval from the program to continue with the bidding process for the removal of the Lady Grace, “using a contractor already approved by the state.” Shay said all signs indicate “the ball is in motion to hire a contractor very soon.”

Normally, the Derelict Vessel Program account shares funds with cities and other entities to remove derelict vessels, but because of its size the Lady Grace qualified for 100% funding because of a special allocation by the Legislature last year for the removal of larger vessels.

As for the other six vessels sunk in the river, they aren’t large enough to qualify under the large vessel allocation afforded last year, but the city continues to look for options for their removal. All the sinkings prompted responses by the Department of Ecology, where fuel and other spills were contained and, when possible, remaining oil and fuel was removed from the vessels.