We’ve been getting some hefty high tides lately. Here you see a receding tide at Naskeag harbor on Wednesday. It reached a recorded 12.5 feet high an hour before this image was taken. At that time, it lapped above the Town Dock and brought in the rockweed and other detritus that you see lying about.
As you probably know, high tide usually is measured from the low tide water mark, which is considered to be zero feet. (Think of seeing a six-foot tall man whose feet are somehow firmly stuck to the low water mark. A 6.5-foot-high incoming tide would slowly make him disappear and turn him into an underwater small boat hazard. In a 12.5-foot tide, such as you see here, he likely would no longer be a small boat hazard.)
Below,, you’ll see Monday’s receding tide that was reported as 11.9 feet high in the morning. It invaded a usually dry area near the shore of Great Cove, made a floating draw bridge across a stream there rise, and tried to climb the beach-access stairs.
Note the 50-foot long, blown-down spruce in the center of the image above. It toppled into the Cove from its eroding bank, a victim of a recent high-wind storm. The tree will be removed during a low tide by our local expert for such difficult jobs, Tobey Woodward. (Images taken in Brooklin, Maine, on April 8 and 10, 2024.)