Distance between the main land and island is so long that it is very difficult to precisely connect the height datum across the sea with the traditional method like the trigonometric leveling, or it is very expensive and takes long time to implement the height transfer with the geopotential technique. We combine the data of GPS surveying, astro-geodesy and EGM2008 to precisely connect the orthometric height across the sea with the improved astronomical leveling method in the paper. The Qiongzhou Strait is selected as the test area for the height connection over the sea. We precisely determine the geodetic latitudes, longitudes, heights and deflections of the vertical for four points on both sides across the strait. Modeled deflections of the vertical along the height connecting routes over the sea are determined with EGM2008 model based on the geodetic positions and heights of the sea segmentation points from DNSC08MSS model. Differences of the measured and modeled deflections of the vertical are calculated at four points on both sides and linearly change along the route. So the deflections of the vertical along the route over the sea can be improved by the linear interpolation model. The results are also in accord with those of trigonometirc levelings. The practical case shows that we can precisely connect the orthometric height across the Qiongzhou Strait to satisfy the requirement of order 3 leveling network of China. The method is very efficient to precisely connect the height datum across the sea along the route up to 80 km.
