ICW and 65' Mast...

[mindsofman]

Chances are some of the boards have either been hit by a boat/barge or just
popped off by the current,,,again,most of them are the same height ,,any doubt,
wait for the tide to drop a little.
You should be ok all the way up the Chesapeake and back down the Delaware .
Just don't try to go up through Jersey on the inside.........

[LH44 Anne]

Originally Posted by Nemos

We are heading up the Florida coast offshore, and we finally measured the height of our mast – 65’ to the tip of the VHF antenna…

Does anyone a convenient source for determining which portions of the ICW can be used with a mast of that height?

Thanks in advance for any help.

Norman Paradis
SV Abigail Joy

Not sure how popular I'll be after this, but here's a link to up-to-date information on ICW bridges - each of them!

Cruiser's Net

Enjoy!

[waterworldly]

Did the trip several times now. Spring is better than fall for bridges.

[lrclough]

Just came up the Intracoastal Waterway from Fernandina Beach to Norfolk on my Cambria 44 with a mast height of 62’ 1.5” + 10” nav light = 62’ 11.5” to the top of the mast's fixed portion.

There is a 36" VHF antenna also mounted on the mast, which means 62’ 1.5” + 36” antenna = 65’ 1.5" total mast height.

The only bridge that the VHF antenna hit was the infamous Lester Wilkerson bridge above Bellhaven, NC (located at the start of the Alligator River/Pungo River Cut, reported to be only 64 feet high). The bridge just dinged the top portion of the VHF antenna. There is probably some rounding in the 64' height in my opinion - probably the bridge a few inches more than 64,' at least on that day.

The River Forest Marina in Bellhaven reported that the tide boards on that bridge are accurate.

There is very little tide change there, with the major influence being the wind. When we came through the current in the Cut was flowing northeast to southwest.