Our experiences were not all that serious, just annoying enough
that when I hear Wapoo Creek I flash back. On the way down,
we timed our departure from City Marina so that we would arrive
at the bridge just before opening time. We arrived 2 minutes before
the hour but the operator said we were too late. We had to mill
around until the next opening. On the way back up, we arrived way
early with another boat. We both milled around awaiting the next
opening. As the time neared the operator instructed us to approach
the bridge and she would open it when we were close. As we
neared the bridge a tug/barge came through the bridge. We had
to scoot out of the way while being swept towards to bridge by the
current. We couldn't come about so had to tread water in reverse
while being squeezed between the barge and the shallows. The wake
from the barge complicated matters as did the fact that she still hadn;t
raised the bridge. She made us jockey around for another 5 minutes
before finally opening the bridge.

Doug
s/v Callista


"Larry W4CSC" wrote in message
...
"Doug Dotson" dougdotson@NOSPAMcablespeedNOSPAMcom wrote in
:

(She usually thanks you for saying something nice.)

Bridgetenders are great people...

Interesting. Out of all the many bridges on the ICW, the Wapoo Creek
operators (one on the way down, another on the way up) were the only
ones that we had trouble with.

Doug
s/v Callista



What kind of "trouble"? I'd be glad to talk to them, in person, to
straighten out any misunderstanding you had with them.

Was the bridge stuck at the time? They usually get a little excited when
it won't lock back down. In SC, we divert road and bridge funding away
from where it's needed to Mt Pleasant, where the politician-lawyers'
mansions are, which lets the rest of the infrastructure cave in.

The old swing bridge at Main Road on John's Island, SC, has been replaced
with a 55' high span, now, because the lawyer-doctors didn't like to wait
on their way to the Kiawah and Seabrook Island resort homes. There's no
bridge tenders there, any more. The Stono River swing bridge is also gone
to a 55' span so Kiawah and Seabrook lawyers can get to court downtown,
too.