Friday April’s 13th, twenty eighteen
Notwithstanding, Fracas is being lifted and stored ashore today, Friday the thirteenth, it won’t be as stressful as yesterday. Yesterday we had to take the old girl spelunking. We had to put a size 10 into a size 9.5.
I made copious calculations. I used clear plastic hoses to get an accurate water level on the mast. We carefully measured the mast from the water line to the reference line above deck. Everything came together that when Fracas is heavy she is about 53’7.5″. That measurement is to the top of the hard mast. I had to remove everything above that level or the Palm City Bridge would do it.
Mangos were on board and when we shipped the masts from Chicago to Mobile I had to send John exact measurements. John found the email and it said 55’4.25″ for the total mast length. Minus the amount of mast below the water and 53’7.75″. This was only .25 different from my measurements. Holy Crap… When I went up the mast the first order of business was to measure from the top of the mast to the reference point I was only out .25 of an inch. The missing .25 found things could proceed.
I’ve been told by engineers that clearance is clearance and if it will fit you don’t need to clear by feet… It is still daunting and f*ng scary. I slowed the boat as we approached the bridge to a crawl. It didn’t look like it would fit. I had to put my measuring tape where my mouth was and do this thing. The tide board said 54.5 clearance so we had almost 8 inches of clearance… We slipped through like shit poop through a goose.
We had to do an additional 6 bridges one of which was a swing bridge for trains. All of these bridges had 55 to 56 feet of clearance, so we barely slowed down. We had to clear through the St. Lucie lock a lift going our way of about 14 feet. That went well and we saw one alligator and some cows next thing you know we are at Indiantown Marina and our promised dock was available for us.
Karen took some pics:
