Launching with the tide: reading a tide table for a ramp

What the numbers are measured from

Predicted heights are given against MLLW — mean lower low water, the average of the lower of each day's two low tides over a 19-year cycle. A prediction of 0.4 ft means four tenths of a foot above that average low, not four tenths of a foot of water. Negative predictions are ordinary and mean a lower low than average, which is exactly when a shallow ramp stops working.

Planning a window

1. Find the low tide that falls inside your trip, not just the one nearest your launch time.
2. Launch on a rising tide if you can. A trailer that floats off easily at launch will float on easily at recovery.
3. If you must launch on a falling tide, work out where the water will be when you come back, and accept that the answer may be "not at the ramp".
4. Add the wind. A sustained onshore blow holds water in and an offshore blow takes it out, by a foot or more in shallow bays, and predictions account for neither.
5. Check for a spring tide. Around new and full moons the range is largest, which means both a better high and a worse low.

Our tidal ramp pages show the next high and low waters in station local time, with the station name and its distance from the ramp. A station 20 miles along the coast can be an hour out at your ramp; where the tide matters to the foot, use the station's own NOAA page and the local knowledge that goes with it.