For whatever it's worth, yesterday when we returned from S8, I measured the clearance between the bottom of the bridge and the motor. As long as all the passengers can duck lower than the motor, the motor is the limiting factor for clearing the bridge. The clearance was 16", and at the time the Lewes station tide level reported 2.26 ft above MLLW. So I hope that gives a guide as to when the bridge is passable or not. For example, if the Lewes station is measuring 3.25 ft above MLLW, something that is updated every 6 minutes and can be checked from a smart phone while out on the marsh, then that would leave 4 inches of clearance under the bridge. I'm not suggesting what a safe clearance should be, only wondering if this can help with planning.
Kurt's guidance is to look for the "step" in the bridge foundation at either side of the bridge: If it's visible then there is enough clearance. That has been a good rule of thumb for us that we have followed. However, maybe there's still enough clearance even when the step is not quite visible, meaning we could save ourselves the 30 minutes coming back the long way.
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Steve Oncley
FYI, git <should have> an R function that creates dat("Tide") to allow plotting of the tide level every 5 minutes. To run it, you need the R package "TideHarmonics" to be installed locally.