St. Andrews Bay Cable Clearance

[zemurray]

We were sailing through Saint Andrews Bay over the weekend, first time through, going under the West Hathaway Bridge , and the overhead cables just north of the center of that bridge. Charts indicate 85 ft clearance in the center section, and 45 ft on the side sections. I think this is way off. is anyone familiar with this area? It’s on the ICW path. Our clearance with antenna is roughly 45’ and I could swear we hit the antenna. Scared the crap out of me and I thought we were going to hit it for sure it looked so low.

We’ve crossed under many 48’ bridges and other cable crossings that never looked that close.

In hindsight we could have done a quick dog leg and went for an area of the cable that was not directly in the center of the span (lowest part). But this is a fairly busy bay, with commercial traffic, and ICW so we assumed it had plenty of room and would be close to the chart.

[SaltwaterChef]

I cant see that part of the bay being that busy ive been on those waters with small sailboats and motor boats, i grew up on this bay and cross hathaway bridge twice a day and never seen it jammed with boats everywhere. now at night time there will be lots of shrimp boats on both sides of the bridge so must have been a fluke day for you

[zemurray]

I’m not sure I understand your reply? I’m inquiring about problems with the charted cable clearance, not sure where the “jammed up with boats” fits?