so after our morning engine work i managed a short nap and when i awoke it was time for a celebratory beer. the sun finally came out for some warmth. as the day progressed projected arrival time slowly came down. we chatted with a lepord 48 song 1 that passed us also on the way into Charleston. they had brought the boat from south Africa and where on their way to Annapolis.
the arrival time finally settled in at 1900 which was good as the tide/current was projected to turn at 1830. we followed the channel in past the civil war era forts and under the 55 foot bridge towards the marina. don had checked his mast height before when we heard we had to clear a bridge. he checked the log book and reported 47 feet. no problem i thought much like i had though many times before on this trip.
when we got to the bridge i was not very concerned, i lined up so we where in the center but not going to hit the light hanging down about a foot. i was wondering in the back of my mind was the 55 feet from the light or the concrete above it. next thing we knew i heard a plonk and then a scraping noise. i looked up and determined the mast its self was still in the right place and then went back to navigating to the dock right after the bridge.
only after we where safely tied up did i say to don, what they hell with the bridge, how high is the mast? 47 feet he replied, i dont think so i replied, we could both clearly see the bridge 55 1/2 showing behind us. a closer inspection of the mast showed we had lost the back half of the windex. the scraping noise we had head was clearly the vhf antenna which was bent but still attached.
i can only imagine what would have happened if we showed up on a high tided like 50 feet. there is always something 🙂
amazingly the customs dude don had called actually showed up at 1930 about 20 minutes after we where there long enough to to have r&c’s and decompress. he was done at 1900 and we grabbed a cab and headed out to “market street” the center point in Charleston about 2 nm from us. had some nachos with the bacon bits on the side and called it an early night. tomorrow we will get the boat together and then head out on the 13th.
cheers,
Roger
