We are blessed with a long stand at high water in much of this area, nominally two hours but in practice this can mean four hours with the water close to high and not much current, giving plenty of time to explore the various creeks and so on. It can also mean a fast ride once the ebb really gets going - around three knots or more in places so all you need do is steer and try not to miss the take-out. I think we must nick the water from Weymouth Bay because conversely, they get lots of sand for four hours at a stretch.
Some routes are possible the other way round but I tend to prefer up-and-down rather than down-and-up. For example, Christchurch to Mudeford is possible at any state of tide but towards low water you are severely restricted to the main channel, can't explore the whole of Christchurch Harbour and it's a muddy drag to the shore to reach the pub at the bottom of the trip.
There is a very useful rule of thumb for high water times. The following applies only to the UK but I am sure the general principle can be used world-wide - we all look at the same moon. High water Portsmouth is 12:40 at springs on average; it doesn't vary from this by more than ten minutes or so. High water at springs throughout most of the area, from the Beaulieu River eastwards at least, is offset within about half an hour of Portsmouth and the time at each location is fairly constant in the same way as Portsmouth HW is constant, varying by no more than a few minutes - for that location!. This means that for a trip centred around lunchtime-ish, you would need to choose springs or near it. In winter, if you travel more than a couple of days before or after springs, be sure to bring a torch.
This applies to every location around the UK; HW springs for each location is always within a few minutes of that location's average time, month after month, year after year. I would imagine that Cornish lunchtime HW trips would be best during neaps, since their tides are roughly 180 degrees out of phase with ours. There may be local exceptions, make sure to confirm this on any particular day.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/weather/coast_and_sea/tide_tables/8/65#tide-details
That is perhaps not easy to grasp at first but I have found it very useful; I can look at the moon (weather permitting) and judge when high water will be - roughly. I don't know of any tide table sites that give predictions more than a few days in the future (unless you pay) but there was a (now defunct) site that was superb for phases of the moon. After a quick web search I found this, which looks as though it will do. If you want to plan a trip in the future, it certainly goes way beyond any date I will be bothered about:
http://www.moonconnection.com/moon_phases_calendar.phtml
To use it:
To establish the average HW springs time for your chosen location (this is just a one-off for any location):
- Use a moon site (example above) and choose the closest future date with a full or new moon. Pick the date two days after, which will be close to springs. Look at the tide table for that location on that date on the BBC site above (the Beeb only show five days into the future). Check a couple of days either side and choose the date that has the highest value in the "Height" column. It might be worth repeating this procedure in a few weeks and see what slight changes there have been. Once you have established the date for springs, note the time of HW. That is your average time of HW springs for your location, subject to further tweaking over time.
For any proposed trip, look at the moon phase for your preferred date. Find the probable springs date before or after your date (to repeat, spring tides occur a couple of days after full/new). At the rate of advance of 50 minutes per day, apply this to the difference between springs and the date you would like, to give you the approximate time of high water on your day.
Once within a few days of your trip, check the BBC tide table site (above) for the exact predictions. Please note that these sites only give "predictions"; weather conditions can alter the actual situation, for example in the Solent a significant high or low pressure can affect the height of tide by around 300mm either way but that is unlikely to affect paddlers. Times can also be affected, probably giving us a longer stand as the English Channel is fluffed up into the Solent after a few days of gales. In such weather, I've got my walking boots on and the canoe stays in the garage so I don't care.
I apologise to those of you who are familiar with tides and the moon but this will hopefully help others to get a good feel for how to plan a paddle in tidal waters. At the very least, it might prevent someone sitting within sight of some pub but with a huge swathe of mud inbetween, watching everyone else wearing clean clothes and enjoying themselves; I know what that is like first hand.
More to follow ...
