Bluff Head, west of tidal current predictions

Now

Flood 2.0 ktToward NNE (14°)

Next slack

6:09 PMEDT

Next max flood

2.0 ktSat 3:45 AM

Next max ebb

3.7 kt8:55 PM

Knots along the channel: above the line the flood, running in toward NNE (14°); below it the ebb, running out toward S (184°). Times are Eastern Daylight Time. Today: slack 12:22 AM, flood 2.2 kt 2:45 AM, slack 5:53 AM, ebb 3.2 kt 8:26 AM, slack 12:10 PM, flood 2.6 kt 2:56 PM, slack 6:09 PM, ebb 3.7 kt 8:55 PM.

None right now. The National Weather Service issues small craft advisories, gale and storm warnings, special marine warnings, dense fog advisories and coastal flood products for water like this.

The flood is the tidal current running in from the sea, the ebb the current running back out. Slack water is the short turn between them, when the current is weakest: the time to cross a strong channel, anchor, or dive. Slack in a channel is not the time of high or low tide; it can come hours after.

Speeds are knots along the channel's main axis, and directions are degrees true toward which the water flows, as NOAA prints its tables. A current against the wind stands the waves up steep and close together.

Predictions are astronomical: the moon and the sun, not the weather. Strong wind, river flow after heavy rain and storm surge all change the real current. This is a subordinate station: NOAA predicts it from a nearby harmonic station by fixed corrections to the times and speeds of its slack waters and maxima, so the curve between them is less exact.

• Fiddler Ledge, north ofSubordinate current station1.7 mi
• Doubling Point, south ofSubordinate current station1.8 mi
• Lincoln Ledge, east ofSubordinate current station3.0 mi
• Upper Hell Gate, Sasanoa RiverSubordinate current station3.0 mi
• Bath Iron Works, Kennebec RiverHarmonic current station3.4 mi
• Lower Hell Gate, Knubble BaySubordinate current station3.6 mi
• Bald Head, 0.3 mile southwest ofSubordinate current station3.7 mi
• Lowe Point, NE of, Sasanoa RiverSubordinate current station3.7 mi

• Tide times at Phippsburg 2.6 mi
• Tide times at Mill Point, Sasanoa River 2.7 mi
• Tide times at Robinhood, Sasanoa River 3.2 mi
• Forecast for Phippsburg, ME
• Open the live map with tidal currents
• All tidal current stations in Maine

Tidal current predictions from NOAA’s Center for Operational Oceanographic Products and Services (CO-OPS), station ACT0611, bin 1: original at NOAA. Marine alerts from the National Weather Service.