Captain Lar- Der Low Bridgemeister

A 15.5' bridge on the Eastern Erie

When loopers are contemplating their routes they have a number of options. Sometimes a route that is selected is not necessarily determined by what one will see, but rather fixed bridge clearances. Because of these bridge heights, all sailboats have to have their mast stepped unless they sail around Maine and up the St. Lawrence River and through the Wellend Canal into the Great Lakes. Even with this option, loopers are restricted by a 19' fixed bridge in Chicago and cannot proceed through the inland rivers unless they can clear this bridge. If a boat can clear 17', a route into Lake Champlain is possible ending up in the St. Lawrence River and Lake Ontario. To transit the eastern Erie Canal you have to clear 20.5', and if you can clear 15.5' you can go anywhere.

With her antennas fully up and 3/4 load of fuel and 1/2 tank of water, Bavarian Cream has an air draft of 18'4". With antennas down she measures 16'6" to the top of the mast light. With the mast light stepped she measures 15' to the top of the radar dome. There is 1'6" between the top of the radar dome and the radar arch which is located about 1/4 the distance from the stern, but this would require an excessive amount of work and removal of the bimini. So for all intents and purposes we need an air draft of 15'6" to clear the western Erie Canal bridges at maximum pool. If the pool levels are lower, we have more clearance. Also, we took on a full fuel and water load in Brewerton, plus the boat has a lot more weight in it than when we measured her on the Tickfaw. We should be good to go.

Squeaking by bridge E-92 with stepped mast light

Once we passed Three Rivers and the Oswego River, we were pretty much committed to completing the western Erie. Since we weren't going to Canada, going up the Oswego Canal and into Lake Ontario to lock through the Welland Canal was a viable option. The Welland is for very large, ocean-going ships and we've heard nothing but horror stories about recreational boats going through there. Besides we had at least 6" of breathing space, right? We left Baldwinsville early the next morning for the almost 50 mile and 2 lock run to Lyons. This would be the day in which we encountered some of the lowest bridges on the canal. Capt. Larry had lowered the antennas and stepped the mast light, so clearance shouldn't be a problem with a 15' draft. The problem was we could never figure out what the pool levels were between the locks. We couldn't locate the information on the NY Canal System website or find a number to call for the info and there are no depth gauges at the bridges. All we knew was that the region had received a lot of rain lately and to be safe we would have to assume the levels were near maximum pool. Besides, even at maximum pool we only needed 15.5' of clearance and we were drawing 6" less than that, right? Well we started through the canal and each bridge seemed to get lower and lower. Every time we passed under a low bridge we cringed and waited for the radar dome to end up on the cockpit floor. After a few of the bridges, we were pretty sure that we were close to max pool.

E-93, lowest bridge on Erie Canal

To make matters worse, we had clearance heights from 3 different sources, and none were in agreement. The charts on the chartplotter had the clearances charted at normal pool, sometimes 2-3 feet more than the maximum pool clearance. Skipper Bob and the NY Canal System had the maximum pool clearances, but due to rounding errors, the sources did not agree. We decided to trust the NY Canal System figures, thinking that they should have the best handle on what was going on. Capt. Larry would call out the bridge number and Jane would look the clearances up. We were doing pretty well and not abusing the radome, when we came to bridge E-92, the County-Line Road bridge. This had a clearance of 15.5' at maximum pool. But, god, it looked so awfully low! Capt. Larry gave the helm to Jane and went astern to view the radar dome as it passed under the bridge. By his eyeballs, the dome cleared by less than 6", perhaps at little as 3-4". This was really disconcerting and what was going on? Doesn't maximum pool mean just that? We mean, if you define maximum pool as the maximum plus a little bit, for godsakes tell us! We really didn't have time to sort this out too well, because we had to lock through Lock #26, and we are now looking at what is identified as the lowest bridge on the Erie Canal, E-93, the "Old Railroad Bridge." Jane says the bridge table shows this bridge to be an inch or two higher than the last one, but there was a warning label on the map next to the bridge- "Use caution when passing under this bridge.

Jane enjoyed her ride under E-93

Overhead clearance can be low." What the hell! We likely have a little more clearance, but the unknown variable is that after passing through the lock we are now in a new pool, and everything is dependent on pool level. We have about 1/4 mile from the lock to the bridge to decide what to do. Capt. Larry tells Jane to go sit as close to rear of the boat as possible.

After E-93, on to the next bridge!

He idles the boat up to the bridge, geez it looks low, and about 20 yards from the bridge he firewalls the throttles, popping up the bow and setting the rear end of the boat down hard. We came through so hard and fast we had to turn hard to avoid running into the bank. But we made it with no damage to the boat. Jane said she thought we had 2-3" of clearance to the top of the radome. Both of us were laughing so hard we couldn't believe it. And that, folks, is how we roll and how Capt. Larry became the low bridgemeister!

Bald eagle looking for lunch

Lock #25 lockmaster's office

Richmond Aqueduct remains

Our second whitetail deer

Another mature eagle

Closeup of a whitetail deer

The day wasn't all about bridge worries. We came through some wildlife areas and saw whitetail deer (at two different locations) for the first time, some bald eagles, a beaver, and a number of other bird species. We also went pass the remains of the Richmond Aqueduct, which was once one of the longest on the Erie Canal. It was a really enjoyable trip. By the way, did we mention that it's raining.......

I've got a mule, and her name is Sal,
Fi-fteen miles on the Er-ie Canal,
Shes a good ol' worker and a good ol' pal,
Fif-teen miles on the Er-ie Canal,
We'v hauled some barges in our day,
Filled with lum-ber, coal and hay,
And ev'ry inch of the way we know,
From Al-ba-ny to Buff-alo OH

Low bridge ev'ry bod-y down,
Low bridge for we're com-in to a town,
And you al-ways know your neighbor,
And you always know you pal,
If you've ev-er navigated on the Er-ie can-al.

Erie Canal Song
- written by Thomas Allen, 1905