Fort Wetherill high or low tide

Hi everyone, I haven't been to FT. Wetherill in a long time and I can't remember whether the best time is high or low tide any advice?
Thanks

If entering in from the left cove, it sucks big time when it's low tide. Tough rocky entrance is what I remember. The only other time I didn't have fun was when I tried going from left cove, around the point, and into the right cove. Current coming out of the right cove was too much for me to make any headway. Had to head back to the left.

Wait till RIO getS back form his adventure, He's the most knowledgeable person I know on the tides there.

I like a 1 hr before high entry (just my preference).

I may also be a matter of were you plan to dive at FW.

RIO has explained to me this a couple of times....let's see if I have learned well.
The only tide/current dependent sit is bull point you can dive the other cove (island goat path) under regular conditions. If you want to jump from the pier you better have high tide otherwise low tide is fine if you do not jump....if you have decided to dive off the pier and go around the point you should do a drift dive instead of summing against current. If you dive off the little cliff (beach parking lot) you better have high tide and the current on your favor or will suffer with currents up to 2knots and the hiking to get over the pier. Well I'm sure RIO will simplify ....but at least I gave it a shot !!!

All4Scuba05 is right about the left cove (as you are facing south in the main parking lot), finding your way out is a little bit trickier at low tide but doable. The only places you'll usually hit a current is right where he said going around the point between coves or if you venture around the point at the SE corner of the left cove to the Bull Point/East Passage side facing Newport which is what Tampico_Ed was talking about (if you do Bull Point you really have to plan for this or you can get in trouble). Sometimes you can also hit a little current on the Goat Path side at the mouth of the cove but that isn't generally very strong in my experience. Basically as long as you avoid the mouth of the coves you can avoid the currents.

The current around the point between the right and left coves usually doesn't last long if you get into it (it disappears when you get into the coves). It will generally be running along the SE side of the Island as you come around into the left cove.

As a rule the currents will be heading out of the Bay on an ebb tide and into the Bay on a flood tide. It will also on average tend to be stronger on an ebb than a flood (because the river flow and tidal flow are additive on an ebb and opposing each other on a flood) and stronger on a new or full moon.

In theory, the vis can be a bit better at high tide because you are getting more water from the Sound vs from up in the Bay, but in practice it doesn't generally make a huge difference.

ScubaSarus:

Wait till RIO getS back form his adventure, He's the most knowledgeable person I know on the tides there.

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Err... no pressure then....

Tampico_ED:

you better have high tide and the current on your favor or will suffer with currents up to 2knots and the hiking to get over the pier. Well I'm sure RIO will simplify ....but at least I gave it a shot !!!

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If you do this dive basically the idea is you either do it at slack or you do it as a drift dive. Ed's right, that Bull point current hits about 2kts at times so it is fast. That side is also deep (over 100ft in places) so it should be considered an advanced dive between the depth and current. Don't attempt it unless you are very comfy in the water. I've seen people get in trouble there.

If you chose to do it as a drift dive, first do not lose site of the wall or you can get in trouble. Second, if the tide is ebbing you will want to enter by doing a giant stride off the pier, then drift south around the point up into the cove exiting on the cobble beach just around the point as you enter the cove. Once you come around the point you'll be out of the current. On a flood it goes the other way, enter at the cobble beach and head around the point exiting at the pier (either on the ladder or at the rocks in the SW corner of the pier). Both exits are pretty good workouts. So generally it is easiest to do this dive on the ebb entering from the pier and exiting at the point in my opinion. Besides, giant strides are fun.

Also usually if you work your way up the wall into the shallows right near shore you can get out of the worst of the current. Just under no circumstances lose that wall because if you do a free ascent in the the open, who the heck knows where you will end up.

Hopefully the visibility is better than it was on Friday. Brian and I entered the west cove via the boat launch, dropped down and the vis was down to 6". Swam around a bit, startled a flounder, surfaced and decided to call the dive due to conditions and murphy's law.

Thanks again Chris for the weight belt. Lesson learned.

thanks for all the advise, I think I'm just going to stick with staying in the cove, maybe once I do more diving here then I consider the peir to cove dive.
Thanks again!