Fitting a 64'10 mast under a 64'2 bridge!

In my last update I mentioned that the next bridge was the Coinjock bridge. First thing Thursday November 9 we left the dock in cold drizzle and headed for the bridge. We were ecstactic to see the bridge board reading at least 66'!

Coinjock bridge board 2017-11-09

Nonetheless we crept under, hearts pounding.

Next up was the Fairfield Bridge which is listed as 65'.  Having been under three 65 footers we were beginning to gain some confidence. The confidence quickly evaporated when Seeadler, a boat we were travelling with called back to say "ahhh, there is no bridge board, so not sure what to tell you about the available clearance".  Oh, God, what I had considered suspect information on the interweb turned out to be true.  Now we really were flying blind!  Anyway, we inched up to it, I declared us under the first girder, Karen yelled "no we're not", following which she saw the orange pointer on our wind indicator scraping under the girder!  When we came out the other side it was gone.  Ok, so that made our height 64'10 rather than 65'.

Next was the dreaded Wilkerson Bridge listed as 64'.  The AIS had been showing a vessel named Island Explorer categorized as "Other" sitting at the bridge and as we got close enough to see it with binoculars it turned out to be a barge docked under the bridge. Seeadler called back to say that the bridge board was showing 64'2, and yes, half the channel was occupied by the barge. Then Island Explorer called to say he had heard Seeadler and Trekker talking and were we concerned about getting under the bridge? Now you can take the contracts guy out of the office but it is hard to change behaviours ...  My first reaction was that I was going to be read the riot act and told about the consequences of hitting and damaging a bridge, but all he wanted to say was that from his perspective we'd have "no problem fitting that mast under this bridge".  Hmmm ... well brother Adrian says we'll have to use the bag eventually so no time like the present.   So we idled along rigging the bag to the topping lift that normally holds up the boom, and the main halyard that usually raises the mainsail both of which would raise the bag.  The outhaul that normally pulls out the foot of the main to the end of the boom was attached to a block through which a line from the topping lift ran on its way through another block on the straps of the bag to the end of the main halyard. The outhaul pulls the bag out to the end of the boom. Then my spinnaker downhaul that normally holds the bottom of the spinnaker at the bow was clipped on to the boom to pull the boom out perpendicular to the boat. And of course the main sheet was still attached to pull the boom (bag) back in. Finally we rigged a line to a loop I'd sewn inside the bag on the bottom to retrieve it.  Over the side went the bag and it slowly started sinking and for good measure I tamped it down with the boat hook until it was fully submerged. Karen began hoisting the main halyard (thank goodness for electric winches) and slowly the bag came clear of the water, simultaneously swinging out and healing us to 12 degrees! I  know it doesn't sound like a lot, but it was enough for items not secured below to slide to the low side!  My calcs said we were under 63' so away we went, very slowly.  Now the horizontal clearance is shown as 90', we had a 30' wide barge sitting in the channel and our heeled beam was about 22' leaving us 19' either side. Nevertheless when you stop a boat it goes where ever the wind and current want to take you resulting in my nearly hitting the barge!  Anyway, we fit, following which the barge operator told Karen that we wouldn't have fit straight up!  Glad I didn't take his initial advice!.

The Bag

So we've been called brave, courageous and inspirational for doing this bag thing, but oddly enough, not foolhardy!  

Please excuse the lack of photos or videos, maybe next time!