Some help with this tide chart please.

[Charlie99]

If you read Wade's page, it tells you to be in the water about 20 mins before slack high tide. The time on the chart IS slack high tide.

Several posters have equated high tide with high slack tide. Is that really true for this site?

High tide is when the tide is at the highest level. Slack tide is when the CURRENT goes through 0 kts as the current reverses. Depending upon the geography of the two bodies of water that are exchanging water, this could either be just a few minutes after high and low water, or it could be a couple of hours after high and low tides.

 

[Aquanaut4ata]

One other thing to keep in mind about NOAA tide charts....they are estimated times....you may want to get there a bit early, and watch for current changes....high slack could easily come 20 or 30 minutes on either side of the time listed on the tide chart.

 

[ChillyWaters]

Several posters have equated high tide with high slack tide. Is that really true for this site?

High tide is when the tide is at the highest level. Slack tide is when the CURRENT goes through 0 kts as the current reverses. Depending upon the geography of the two bodies of water that are exchanging water, this could either be just a few minutes after high and low water, or it could be a couple of hours after high and low tides.

This is such a misconception. I too, not long ago, was under the impression that slack tide meant slack current. However, looking at our local current tables, I would've been hooped on some local sites if I had dove at high tide.

I don't think they teach enough about current in OW.

- ChillyWaters