BeachClocks Tide Clocks

Our tide clocks are another decorative element to add to your beach style.  Navigators and others who require precise tidal information will need to use published tide tables, but fishermen, surfers, boaters, and beachcombers can use tide clocks to estimate the best time for their activities.

Fishermen can use the tide clocks to determine the best times to fish before and after the high and low tides.

Depending on the location and wind conditions, Surfers can use the tide clocks to avoid high tides and catch the better waves when the tide is coming in.

Boaters can use the tide clocks to avoid low tides in certain areas and the rushing waters caused by tides as well as the general direction of the water in certain inlets.

Beachcombers can use the tide clocks to determine the hour before low tide or the hour before high tide when the best beach combing and metal detecting conditions can occur.

Based on a lunar day of 24 hours and 50 minutes, our tide clocks operate on a semidiurnal tide basis (most commonly associated with the U.S. East Coast), which have two high tides and two low tides of about the same height each tidal lunar day.  Semidiurnal tide clocks do not operate as accurately in locations having Mixed semidiurnal tides (where high and low tides differ in height) such as the U.S. West Coast.  Nor are they accurate in locations with diurnal tides (having only one tide cycle a day) such as the Gulf of Mexico.

Our tide clocks count down the number of hours until the next high semidiurnal or low tide. Unlike some tide clocks, our tide clocks include the extra tick mark in the 6th hour needed to approximate a 25 hour tidal lunar day.

Because there are many variable factors that can affect the tides including location and weather, our tide clocks are not described, promoted or intended to be used as “accurate instruments”.  Rather, once properly set and maintained these decorative tide clocks can approximate some useful information about the tides and they can provide a reasonable guide to local tidal changes for some purposes - especially on the U.S. East Coast.

NOTE - These tide clocks should NOT be used in Navigation.  Consult published tide tables instead.

SETTING A TIDE CLOCK
The best way to calibrate your tide clock is to consult a local tide table during either a New Moon or a Full Moon, which results in a "spring tide". A spring tide has nothing to do with the spring season.  Rather, spring tides occur twice each lunar month* and have the highest high tides and lowest low tides. Tide clocks are most accurate during spring tides and least accurate during "neap" tides of the moon's quarter phases which have relatively weak tides. Depending on where you are located, the tide clock may have to be reset periodically to adjust for tidal variations.

Link to NOAA Tide Predictions.