The Bridge Machine

We are in the process of completing plans to cross the Okeechobee Canal to the west coast. Sounds simple enough...but wait...there are some problems to be dealt with. The biggest one is the fact that the bridge clearance for Crossroads is 54ft. 6 inches. So?
Well, it seems the Port Macaya Railway Bridge near Lake Okeechobee is only 49 feet tall. Several others are only 53 or 54 ft. tall. And so the question arises: How do you get a tall boat under a low bridge?
Heh...heh...heh! I don't want to spoil the fun so stay tuned. We are leaving Velcro Beach (That's what the boaters here call it. It is nice here) on Friday and head for Stuart and the St. Lucie River to begin our transit. Saturday we hope to be in Indiantown Marina and Sunday at Port Macaya to meet a guy by the name of...Billy Owens!!!!!. In the meantime I will search for a bridge stretcher and a very long tape measure! Oh,and did I neglect to mention that I am terrible at math? Not to worry.
I am enclosing a picture of my new "S.S. Bridge Machine". The S.S. stands for Sandy Sanderson. I named it in honor of a guy who has been my "Bridge Mentor" and advisor over the past months. (By the way, he is good at math and a heck of a good friend too. Thank you Sandy!) The bridge machine is supposed to make a dumb guy like me look good. Time will tell!
Here is a link that you can go to to learn about the Okeechobee trip: http://www.floridacruising.com/html/okeechobee_chart.html

Warm and windy day here today. I pedaled to Vero Beach and picked up a new handle for my boat hook which snapped. The bridge machine uses part of the snapped boat hook. More details later.