the jacket 10 the tethers 18 are jacked lifted and the barge 14 is ballasted to maintain tension loads in the tethers 18 thus still minimizing wave induced motions during transfer of weight of the integrated deck 12 to the jacket 10 when the load transfer is completed the barge 14 is disconnected from the integrated deck 12 by disconnect means such as spacer drop blocks not shown incorporated into the deck to barge support system jacking lifting of the tethers 18 is reversed and ballasting of the barge 14 continues thus unloading tension from the tethers 18 the tethers 18 are then disconnected from the tether supports 19 and the barge 14 is maneuvered out of the jacket slot 13 in an alternate embodiment the integrated deck 12 alone is lowered while the barge 14 draft remains unchanged a jack system not shown such as a sand jack system or hydraulic jack system incorporated into the deck to barge support system 16 gradually lowers the integrated deck 12 towards the jacket 10 prior to vertical contact between the deck legs 21 and the jacket legs 22 the interface guides 26 are engaged to properly align the deck legs 21 to the jacket legs 22 in the longitudinal and transverse directions final lowering of the integrated deck 12 to the jacket 10 commences when the shock loads associated with lateral motions of the barge 14 are within the structural tolerance of the jacket legs 22 after the integrated deck 12 is sufficiently lowered by the.