Be careful on the "ICW" magenta line which is probably on your chartplotter! Often the best chanal is not on the magental line. Active Captain used to provide a lot of "unfiltered" and often not verified info from various boats passing a particular thin spot but you also had to be skeptical since you don't really know how their depth sounder is calibrated and whether they read true depth, depth from the sounder or even depth beneath the keel. I don't know if they fixed that but I found it useful to cut and tape any Active Captain comments on the area of concern right on the Waterway Guide page where it appeared. I recall on my trip back in 2012 that my shallow depth alarm at 10ft (actual depth) alarmed many times but most of that was mostly in South Carolina.
I also went offshore from Brunswick Ga to Beaufort NC and then the ICW from there north to Norfolk about 2 years ago as crew with a friend on his Moody. He too had a 64+ masthead height and we tinged the VHF on several bridges but didn't have any depth problems on the ICW as I recall anyway.
At the Bellhaven Bridge, we actually had to heel his Moody over with a heavy bag of water (500 lb diver's bag) attached to the boom and we still tinged the VHF antenna
. We would have hit the mast if we had not heeled over. If I recall (and this is only hearsay only) there is an outfit what will come out and "heel you over" with a line like your main halyard to help you get under the bridge. You can probably call the Towboat operator near there and they may be able to tell you if this hearsay is accurate. When the wind is from the south for a sustained period of time and/or there has been a lot of flooding. There is very little tidal change When I made my transit back in 2012, the winds had been from the south and I chose to go around Roanoke Island but the water was really thin along that passage and unless its been dredged I have heard that it is silted in even more. You can check the chart updates and NOTAMs etc. and they give you some useful information for this kind of thing. There is also a periodic notice of information along the entire east coast by email but I can't recall the site. When I get the next one I'll post the link in this thread. Best of luck and as I remember things I will try to give you the info.
