Two Days of Waterread from the curve down

The harbour empties to its bones

Springs are running; the mud flats off Ferry Point stand clear for ninety minutes.

At first low water the inner basin drops far enough that the old chain moorings show above the surface, black and dripping, in a line that traces the medieval quay wall. Harbourmaster Elin Ravensworth logs it as “a hard bottom night” — the sort of tide where anything drawing more than a metre stays put until three.

Cockle beds east of the training wall are exposed for the first time this fortnight. The permit boats work them by headtorch, and the sound carries a long way over wet sand.

Full basin, and the gates open

Sill covered by 2.1 m. The lock keeps free-flow from 07:40 to 10:10.

Six hours and fourteen minutes of flood put four point eight metres over the datum, and for that half-hour the harbour looks the way the postcards insist it always does. The Kestrel Ferry takes the outer berth; two visiting ketches follow her in on the last of the stream.

Free-flow suits deep-draught visitors, but the current through the gate runs to three knots at mid-flood. Approach under power, keep the leading marks in line, and expect a set to starboard as you clear the pierhead.

Lowest predicted water of the fortnight

Half a metre. The wreck of the Marianne Bell breaks surface off the west spit.

Twice a year the ebb runs low enough to show the iron frames of the 1889 collier, and a small crowd walks out along the hard to look at her. The bay wardens rope the site an hour beforehand; the sand around the ribs is soft and the flood returns faster than anyone expects.

Photographers should note the light turns behind the headland at 16:20, and the return tide covers the outer frames within forty minutes of turning.

Night flood over the quay steps

Five point one metres — the lower steps at Custom House Stairs go under.

The evening high is the biggest of the first day and it arrives forty minutes after sunset, which means the harbour lamps are already doubled in the water. Duty crew sandbag the fish market threshold as a formality; the flood defence line sits at 5.4 m and there is no surge component in tonight's forecast.

Slack water lasts almost twenty minutes here at springs, longer than the tables suggest, because the outer bar holds the stream back as it turns.

Survey window on the north cut

The launch Redshank runs single-beam lines from 03:10.

Bathymetric work is timed for the bottom of the ebb, when the channel edges are sharpest and the fleet is still alongside. Four hours of quiet water produce the chart correction that goes out with next month's notices to mariners.

Expect the survey launch to show restricted-in-ability-to-manoeuvre lights and to work across the fairway without warning. Give her a wide berth on the eastern approach.

Highest water of the series

5.3 m at springs, two days after full moon. The regatta fleet starts on the top of it.

Everything in the harbour calendar bends toward this one number. The Sconce Head Regatta sets its first gun for 10:05 so that the whole fleet crosses the bar with water to spare, and the committee boat anchors on the eastern shoal that will be dry again by four.

Spectators are asked to keep clear of the start box between the pierhead and the outer green. The inshore ebb sets hard once the stream turns, and the recovery ribs work that line all afternoon.

Ebb tide, and the terns work the channel

Sandwich terns from the Scarp Island colony feed the falling edge of the flats.

The last two hours of the ebb concentrate sand eels along the channel lip, and the birds follow it down the harbour in a loose, noisy line. The reserve keeps a hide open on the east wall; counts this week have run above four hundred.

Dogs must be leashed on the eastern hard between April and August. The roped shingle above the strand line holds ringed plover nests that are almost impossible to see.

The series turns toward neaps

Four point nine and falling — the range narrows by 0.3 m each day from here.

The final high of the almanac page is the beginning of a fortnight of gentler water. By Wednesday the range will be under three metres, the wreck will stay covered, and the lock will hold gate times rather than free-flow. Elin closes the day book at 23:10 with a note about the regatta and one lost tender, blue, unnamed, drifting east.

Next issue covers 21–22 July, with the neap sequence and the revised channel soundings from Saturday's survey.

Download the almanac PDF Back to the curve