Faster tides seem to be a good source of natural performance art. We have fairly fast tides in Brooklin, although nothing like the mini- tsunamis in Canada’s Bay of Fundy, where there can be 38-foot-plus high tides. Our highest tides usually reach slightly above 12 feet over the approximately six-hour intervals from low to high tide. But, they seem impressive to us.
Their surge is hard to describe with mere words. However, if you are six feet tall, standing on the low tide line in Great Cove, and incapable of moving, there could be six feet of water above your head at high tide within about six hours – that’s a rise of two feet per hour.
Unlike the slower two- or three-foot high tides south of us, it’s easy to see our faster tides coming. As you can see in these images taken last week in Great Cove, they come rippling in and bubble around the rocks at our feet – which is when we also can hear them. Soon, the rocks are below clear Maine water and so are our boots if we don’t move back.
(Brooklin, Maine)