Disappointing Weekend

Well, boat-wise anyway. With early and late high tides, I wanted to get the boat on the beach and scrub the bottom.

Well, that was the plan.

Yesterday I was delayed by the Mrs cooking me breakfast before I went out. I got there and the tide was well below the point at which I can beach Sprite 2. I got there about 30 minutes after high tide (4.1m).

Today I got there just before high tide (4.2m) but even at it's highest, the tide didn't get up to the point at which I could beach the boat.

This is high tide apparently:

The tide needs to be at least to the top of the seaweed line before I have a clear run to the beach. In that picture it's at least 0.5m too low.

I assume the high atmospheric pressure (over 1000mb) has depressed the tide so that it didn't reach up far enough.But checking it out, the "standard" tide hieght is calculated witha pressure of 1013Mb, but the current pressure is 1000Mb so in theory the water should be higher, not lower... I'm going for a lie down, my brain hurts. But that could be the paint fumes, who knows.

There we go then, a note for the future is the tide needs to be at least 4.5m in future before I can contemplate beaching. saved to memory. The strange thing is I'm sure I've beached on a 4.0m tide before, but that was when the tide prediction was a lot higher. I just wonder if there is some variation in predictions for neap and spring tides. Certainly these neaps don't seem to be anywhere near as high as the predictions estimate.

So, although yes you can scrub off cheaply on the beach, it's a bit of a lottery as to when you can do it. Almost makes you want to get the boat lifted out for a week, (until you see what Marinas are charging that is).

In the meantime, I'm consoling myself at home by making the new mounting panel for the Depth sounder and doing another coat of white paint on the cup and plate rack. Oh, and updating the blog while I have a coffee. :-)