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Captain Richard Chesbrough’s Salem riverboat is out of hot water.

It looked like Coast Guard brass might stop the Willamette Queen permanently because Chesbrough could not pull it out of the water for an inspection. With a Dec. 31 deadline looming, however, the Coast Guard agreed to send a diver to inspect the riverboat’s hull.

“We’re very excited,” said Barbara Chesbrough, the captain’s wife and his partner in the business, which takes diners and sightseers along the river in Salem. “It looks like it’s going to be business as usual after the first of the year.”

Even if a diver can’t inspect the boat until after the holidays, Barbara Chesbrough said she and her husband have been guaranteed the Queen’s paddle wheels can keep turning until he gets there.

Coast Guard regulations require passenger boats be pulled out the water every few years for inspection. However, there is no way to get the Willamette Queen into dry dock with the Willamette Falls Locks in Oregon City out of service. The Army Corps of Engineers closed the locks last year because the anchors that hold the gates in place are corroded.

While Coast Guard officials can send divers to inspect vessels, the rule book only allows divers for vessels with hulls made out of steel or aluminum. The Willamette Queen’s fiberglass hull didn’t qualify for an underwater inspection.

“Apparently, there is no one in the Salem area who is an expert on fiberglass hulls,” Barbara Chesbrough said. Faced with the end of their business, the couple appealed to the upper echelons of the Coast Guard, who agreed to send a diver from another part of the country.

Despite the resolution of the inspection issue, the Willamette Queen may still sit idle several months out of the year. However, the Chesbroughs will get paid for that.

Salem officials, planning to build a $9 million foot bridge across Willamette Slough, have talked about paying the couple $50,000 a year for five years if the proposed bridge keeps him from taking passengers along the slough.