Time And Tide

[Ray]

A seemingly obvious question but here goes. Published tide charts for the Broads and in particular the BA ones, give a time chart for adding to particular destinations for example Potter Heigham high water should be +4 hours after Gorleston (Gt Yarmouth)

But they only ever state High Water in the page for other locations, given that we are often concerned about Low Water does the same time lapse occur. If Low Water is at 13:00 at GY is it Low Water at 17:00 at PH?

All this doesn't take into account wind, air pressure, rainfall over previous days etc. But is the general principle the same for both High and Low tides?

[Broads01]

Great question Ray, I'd like to know the answer as well. 

[Vaughan]

Yes, but as you say yourself, it depends very much on the weather.

[Hylander]

I thought you were going to start a post on sayings : ie Tide and time waits for no man.

[Ray]

I almost did but I looked before I leapt 

[TheQ]

The chart I use is on here http://www.norfolk-broads.org/index.htm

It tends to indicate that the 4 hours applies to low tide as well, the difference being that more time is spent on tide going out than going in, as it brings the river water down and out.  So may be it's 7 hours going out for 5 and a bit coming in.

 As is said, the wind rain and air pressure makes it difficult to predict exactly..

[Ray]

Thank you, interesting point about the outward tide being longer.

[vanessan]

This is what we go by more often than not, useful for depths as well as tides. It’s the Broads Authority Tide Table booklet by the way.

[vanessan]

Sorry Ray, I had copied the June page from the BA Tide Table booklet but can’t get it to show! Do you know the publication I am referring to?

[Ray]

Hi, many thanks! Yes, I should have been looking in there all along! The little blue book 

[marshman]

On the Broads I have always used, as an estimate, 5 hours for the flood and 7 for the ebb. Is it ever right???  Well usually, give or take!!

I have used as a premise for that , the fact that nearly all of Broadland rivers are supplemented by fresh waters coming downstream from the middle of Norfolk so bearing that in mind you can see how random it can become! In times of lower freshwater flows it will have an impact but how much - I am afraid your guess is as good as mine!

But as a rule of thumb it seems to work give or take an hour or so and bearing in mind that tides cannot read, and the fact that tides are invariably late, to get anywhere close is problematical. And as for crossing Breydon, such antics don't help!!

Going south is not a problem but coming north you can get horribly wrong - only last week I was miles out and was pushing the ebb all the way to Stracey Arms! I would have stopped at GYYS but that was full and in case the guys there seem to delight in charging you £6, even if only waiting for the tide so rather than argue the toss, I just plodded on!

I find the Shorebase tide tables pretty self explanatory and pretty good most of the time.

[Meantime]

6 hours ago, marshman said:

I would have stopped at GYYS but that was full and in case the guys there seem to delight in charging you £6, even if only waiting for the tide so rather than argue the toss, I just plodded on!

I had a similar situation going South at Easter. Had to wait for the tide to drop a bit and knew from previous experience we would have to pay to wait. However on a recent trip through I took a closer look at the mooring between the yacht station and the rail bridge. I cannot remember the exact wording but it says something like, for use in emergencies, de-masting or for waiting for bridge clearance. I had never noticed that before!

So bear that in mind if your in a similar situation and heading South. Off course if your heading North then you've already done the bridge, so unless your re-masting, or have an emergency then should probably just plod on against the ebb.

[JennyMorgan]

In many, many years I have never ever been charged at YH Yacht Station for just laying alongside whilst I wait for the tide, very nice people, not allowed to leave the boat though but that's no hardship!

[MauriceMynah]

10 hours ago, JennyMorgan said:

In many, many years I have never ever been charged at YH Yacht Station for just laying alongside whilst I wait for the tide, very nice people, not allowed to leave the boat though but that's no hardship!

Same here Peter.