I helped friend Steve move a Leopard 44 to Fort Myers Beach this morning and had a very interesting experience in the process.
We arrived at the USCG Station just North of the Bridge a little after high tide - the bridge was supposed to have 65 feet of vertical clearance at a high tide of 3.6ft. We arrived just after a high tide of 2.6 feet and the depth board was showing only 64 ft.
We did all kinds of checking and waited the till depth board showed 65 ft then I went up the mast in the chair. I removed the wind transducer and Windex and because I could not get the whip off the mount I bent it horizontally. Steve slowly approached the bridge with me up the mast and with some shouting and hand signals I had him proceed. As we neared the bridge I gave him the high sign to proceed and we cleared the bridge with perhaps a foot to 18" to spare!
Not the way I would do the ICW or any bridge but we got the boat into the yard. The return trip will be equally thrilling I'm sure!
The Leopard was "Modified" at the factory to be OK for the ICW - this makes me wonder if ICW means something else in South Africa?
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