ICW Conditions in the Carolinas, October 2015

[Travis McGee]

Relayed from Joe Nathon on Chesapeake. This is five hours old, so mid-day Friday.
"I just cleared the Socastee fixed bridge, flood guage read 61 ½ ft, my antenna scraped the bridge but stayed on ...... pass the word."

[JonathonClague]

Here is my final post for a while, today I pulled into Georgetown SC from Barefoot Marine in the Rockpile. The locals told me the worst bridge to clear would be Socastee (Route 544 at SM 371) and they were right on ... my mast on Chesapeake is 62ft, the flood guage at Socastee Bridge read 61 ½ ft but remember that is clearance to the navigation light that hangs off the bridge usually by 12 inches or so ...... after clearing the swing bridge immediately adjacent I nudged up to the Socastee and held my breath for at least two minutes whilst my VHF antenna slapped the bridges bottom and S.Y. Chesapeake slid by with barely 6inches to spare. May that never happen again in my lifetime ! Here are the clearances under the other bridges I passed:Veterans Hwy (SM 355.5) 65ft at 7:45am, Grand Dunes (SM 360.7) was 64ft at 8:20am, US Route 501 Bridge was 63ft at 8:45am, Fantasy Harbour? (SM 366.4) was 63ft at 9:35 am, Socastee (Route544 at SM 371.0) was 61 ½ ft at 10:45am, Lafayette (US Route 17 at SM 402.1) was 65ft+
There was a lot of small debris and at least 4 or 5 large tree trunks floating down the Waccamaw River, easily dodged but heads up!
There is a barge picking up submerged cables for service/repair approximately 3 miles SW of Southport on the AICW causing one hour delays to boat traffic, call (910) 512 1645 to talk to operations about working times ..... thanks to Rob/Holly on Hampshire Roads for that info : )

[Travis McGee]

I hate it when my VHF antenna slaps the bottom of ICW bridges. Too much stress.