[lefty]

Hi gang
I'm still trying to get the hang of predicting tides if you're not smack on top of one of the measuring stations. Can y'all tell me if I'm on the right track?

In particular -- I'm looking at The Basin area at Ft. Fisher -- CFK is doing the last of their tournament series this weekend. So I found http://tbone.biol.sc.edu/tide/sites_useastlower.html and went looking for the lower cape fear area. From the maps, it looks like the Reaves Pt. station is a little north of Ft. FIsher and Southport is a little south. So I figure I check those two spots and expect to be somewhere between the two, right?

If I read correctly, on saturday, that page estimates hi tide, 4.5 ft above "normal" at 9:10am at Southport, and 4.25 ft at 9:24am at Reaves Pt. So Ft Fisher will probably peak in excess of 4 ft sometime between those two times (which I think is close enough for me). Right?

Now back to the general concepts -- both of those reporting stations seem to be along the river. I'd expect that moving from the river to the ocean side, you'd probably get the tidal crests a little bit earlier. Is that generally correct? Also I'd expect the mouth of the river to crest before a location upstream. And since The Basin area is behind a barrier island, I expect it to behave more like the river than the ocean. Right?

lefty

 

[Topsail Angler]

Lefty - you are on track!

Note that low tide is usually the longer of the two cycles in most spots, esp. true on the sound side of inlets. Also keep in mind these are predictions, wind, currents and seas can all effect the actual.

Also note that the further "up" the river you go, the less the tidal effect.

The degree of tidal change in a given area differs during the lunar cycle. The highest degree of change occurs near the ful and new moons. These are call Spring Tides. Spring tides in most places along the NC are about 6 inches higher than the mean tidal change.

NOAA has some great info on tides - http://tidesandcurrents.noaa.gov/tide_pred.html

 

[CoachKinsey]

Lefty ... Take a good look at the charts and you will see that there is a difference of 1 to 2 minutes in the tide times and a whopping 4-3/8 inches in the predicted high point between Reave's Point and Southport. I believe that I would take the Reave's Point predictions and call that close enough. If you go this weekend, good luck. Bring home a nice red and I'll smoke it for you.