Tide Directions taking Dover as Example

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alan8376

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Fairly new to sailing! Taking Dover as an example. Which way does tidal water water flow after HW, taking Harwich as a northly point and say Plymouth as a southerly. How are ther HW timed?
 
Essentially water flows downhill. When it's HW Dover, its LW in other places, therefore Dover's water will rush off in to fill up LW places. Sort of.

Tide tables will tell you exactly (ha!) in which direction it rushes, and how fast, all which predicted information will be modified by wind direction, air pressure, your inside leg measurement and the price of pork bellies on the Chicago exchange.

(Oh, and the moon and sun help suck water uphill, which is why we have all this nonsense in the first place)
 
Sorry, Did not mean to make it complicated naming ports as examples.
I was more interested in the general picture of flow around uk! If there is flow up the English channel and equally up the west coast. Is there a point where both meet?
 
Sorry, Did not mean to make it complicated naming ports as examples.
I was more interested in the general picture of flow around uk! If there is flow up the English channel and equally up the west coast. Is there a point where both meet?
 
Sort of, but it's all a bit of anti-climax as that point isn't fixed because the moon and sun are moving (well, you know what I mean), so it's not one fixed bit of sea that is most uphill in both directions, and it's not spectacular. Eastern end of the Solent is one example where the tide might be running in two very different directions, only a mile or so apart, but effectively it's just a patch of slackish water between two streams.
 
Dover is the point used in most tidal charts because it is at the eastern end of the channel and southern end of the North Sea.

For (most of) the south and east coasts there are two basic tidal streams. 6 hours before HW Dover the channel stream is mostly starting to run eastwards and turns westwards for the 6 hours after HW Dover. For the eastern end of the channel most places have a HW the same as Dover.

In the North Sea the tide is coming south for the 6 hours up to HW Dover and North for 6 hour after. The tides here are different with HW Lowestoft being about an hour before Harwich which is an hour before Southend-on-Sea.

There are lots of local exceptions to this general rule which is why we all buy books with tidal charts in them and charts that give even more detailed info about direction and speed at any point. Don't leave home without one.
 
Yes, but yaker is going to be confused by the fact that the stream at Dover does not change exactly at HW/LW but a couple of hours different. You need to read the tidal charts for the area you are in or visiting and get a feel for what is happening, or you are condemned to looking at tables all day long. It's much easier mid-Channel or up the top of the Thames rivers, where the streams change at HW/LW-ish.
 
I hope Yaker has got the message that he needs proper charts. I was just giving him a very basic idea of how it goes.

Sign up for a Day Skipper theory course (see RYA website) Yaker. It's the best way to learn the basics.
 
Don't listen to them Yaker.... the tide begins each day in Birmingham and flows up in the direction of Manchester, before continuing to Bradford, then turns around and goes down to Northampton, then Oxford and down to Swindon, before finishing being excreted out at Southampton... that bit is easy to remember as if you look at a chart, you will see that Southampton waters looks like a crack in the 'bottom' of England and the Isle of Wight looks like what it has just excreted!
Okay? Anything else anybody would like to know, just ask. I'm always willing to help. /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif
 
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