Rainsford I. and Windmill Pt., between tidal current predictions

Now

Ebb 0.2 ktToward NE (56°)

Next slack

7:51 PMEDT

Next max flood

0.9 kt10:44 PM

Next max ebb

1.1 kt5:09 PM

Knots along the channel: above the line the flood, running in toward WSW (251°); below it the ebb, running out toward NE (56°). Times are Eastern Daylight Time. Today: slack 12:44 AM, ebb 1.0 kt 4:34 AM, slack 7:20 AM, flood 0.9 kt 10:15 AM, slack 1:06 PM, ebb 1.1 kt 5:09 PM, slack 7:51 PM, flood 0.9 kt 10:44 PM.

• Small Craft Advisory Small Craft Advisory issued September 28 at 7:49AM EDT until September 28 at 2:00PM EDT by NWS Boston/Norton MAUntil 2:00 PM
  Full text

  * WHAT...Northeast winds 10 to 20 kt with gusts up to 25 kt and waves 1 to 3 feet. * WHERE...Boston Harbor. * WHEN...Until 2 PM EDT this afternoon. * IMPACTS...Conditions will be hazardous to small craft.

  Inexperienced mariners, especially those operating smaller vessels, should avoid navigating in hazardous conditions.

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.

• Peddocks Island, 0.3 nmi northwest ofSubordinate current station0.2 mi
• Rainsford Island, 0.4 nmi SE ofSubordinate current station0.3 mi
• Peddocks Island, 0.2 nmi north ofSubordinate current station0.4 mi
• Rainsford Island, 0.2 nmi NE ofSubordinate current station0.7 mi
• Georges Island, 0.4 nmi SSE ofSubordinate current station0.7 mi
• Georges Island, 0.3 nmi SSE ofSubordinate current station0.7 mi
• Hull GutHarmonic current station0.8 mi
• Gallops Island, 0.5 nmi southwest ofSubordinate current station0.8 mi

• Tide times at Hull 1.0 mi
• Tide times at Nut Island, Quincy Bay 2.1 mi
• Tide times at Moon Head 2.7 mi
• Forecast for Hull, MA
• Open the live map with tidal currents
• All tidal current stations in Massachusetts

Tidal current predictions from NOAA’s Center for Operational Oceanographic Products and Services (CO-OPS), station ACT1366, bin 1: original at NOAA. Marine alerts from the National Weather Service.