Black Point and Plum Island, between tidal current predictions

Now

Flood 1.4 ktToward SW (236°)

Next slack

8:14 AMEDT

Next max flood

2.0 kt5:05 PM

Next max ebb

2.2 kt10:57 AM

Knots along the channel: above the line the flood, running in toward SW (236°); below it the ebb, running out toward ENE (76°). Times are Eastern Daylight Time. Today: slack 2:18 AM, flood 1.9 kt 4:42 AM, slack 8:14 AM, ebb 2.2 kt 10:57 AM, slack 2:40 PM, flood 2.0 kt 5:05 PM, slack 8:41 PM, ebb 2.3 kt 11:32 PM.

• Small Craft Advisory Small Craft Advisory issued October 5 at 3:17AM EDT until October 6 at 11:00AM EDT by NWS Upton NYUntil Tue 11:00 AM
  Full text

  * WHAT...Northwest winds 15 to 20 kt with gusts up to 25 kt. * WHERE...Long Island Sound east of Orient Point and the Connecticut River. * WHEN...From 11 AM this morning to 11 AM EDT Tuesday. * 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.

• Plum Island, 3nm. North of, Buoy PIHarmonic current station1.6 mi
• Plum Island, 0.8 mile NNW ofSubordinate current station2.4 mi
• Black Point, 0.8 mile south ofSubordinate current station2.8 mi
• Hatchett Point, 1.6 nmi S ofSubordinate current station3.1 mi
• Bartlett Reef, 0.2 mile south ofSubordinate current station4.4 mi
• Great Gull Island, SW ofHarmonic current station4.6 mi
• Little Gull Island, 0.8 mile NNW ofSubordinate current station4.8 mi
• Hatchett Point, 1.1 miles WSW ofSubordinate current station4.8 mi

• Tide times at Plum Gut Harbor, Plum Island 4.3 mi
• Tide times at Little Gull Island 5.7 mi
• Tide times at Niantic, Niantic River 6.4 mi
• Forecast for Niantic, CT
• Open the live map with tidal currents
• All tidal current stations in New York

Tidal current predictions from NOAA’s Center for Operational Oceanographic Products and Services (CO-OPS), station ACT2691, bin 1: original at NOAA. Marine alerts from the National Weather Service.