Stuck on the bottom!

[BubbleheadMd]

WOW. From one extreme to the other! Garffin posted a warning about high tides a few days back and I found our jetty totally underwater. I had to row out to the boat to check my mooring lines.

Tonight, I go out to check after 2 days worth of stiff winds and I find the tide so far out, that she's firmly stuck on the bottom! We all are, even the guys in the deeper slips.

Thank GOD I did the mooring lines right. There was enough slack and none of them are straining. I could have ripped out a cleat or something.

[CalebD]

Extreme high and low tides often go together in some parts when the moon is in full or new phase. The Eldridge Tide & Pilot manual has a nice little piece in it about how prevailing winds effect the tides. This happens both in the LI Sound that has a rather large tidal range and the Chesapeake which has a fairly small tidal range. In short, the effects of the prevailing winds can and do trump the gravitational pull of the moon (tides) when they are strong enough.

[lapworth]

Also when we have a big blow from the west like we did these past two days it pushes the tide out. In the summer the eastern shore has this happen with eastern winds. A few weeks ago I needed a push out of my slip.

[BubbleheadMd]

My neighbor came down while I was working and told me that. He said that the wind blew all the water out of the creek. He wasn't lyin'.

I was just reading about tides in "Sailing- The Basics" by Dave Franzel. Looks like I got to experience it first hand.

[nickmerc]

Two years ago a friend and I got into a... discussion about wind vs atmospheric pressure having more effect on tides. We ended up contacting NOAA and found that we were both right, for different reasons. Prolonged winds have more of an effect locally. In the Cheapeake we tend to have winds from a more northerly direction which can blow water out of the Bay. In addition high pressure fronts moving through the area also push water either up the Bay or down the Bay depending on which direction they are coming from. They also effect the tides as they leave the area. There is an opposite effect with low pressure fronts as well. Atmospheric pressure effects a much larger area than does wind driven currents. So, coupling the normal tidal cycle, with the winds we have had and the high pressure front that came from the NW the past few days have had a very low tide.
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WEB SHOWS

[NICHOLSON58]

I used to sail the Saginaw Bay on Lake Huron. (Michigan) A strong SW wind of three days would push out the bay. We were stuck in our slip on the Saginaw River a few times. In a big blow in my father's day people walked out to collect stranded fish in the pools. When it blows the opposite direction for long enough the slips go under water and all local low lands flood.