Overhead Foot Action

photos by Cassandra Mohr 

In my previous post "Low Bridge" I pointed out that 
"when the tide is high, you've gotta get low",
and often that's enough, but there are those times 
when the bridge is a few inches too low.

So you move your passengers all the way forward to lower the ferro,
and after that's cleared the bridge, move them back to their seat 
and drag yourself as far back as you can to bring the tail down.
The tail is often the highest point on the gondola, 
so that's where you've got to get creative.

Any gondolier who's ever faced this situation knows 
that you can push the boat down from the underside of the bridge.
Some guys stow the remo and do a double hand bench-press push.
In the case of this bridge, there's often a crosswind just beyond it,
so I usually keep one hand on the remo and push with the other.

Sometimes - when you're already 80% through - and then you realize 
pushing with your hand isn't gonna cut it,
well, you can always get one of your feet involved.

And that's what I did in this photo.
For the record, I did manage to keep the bridge from ever touching the tail of the boat.


There you go, folks:
Overhead Foot Action!

It may not be graceful, but it works.