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HOW TIDE CLOCKS WORK
Tide Clocks are clocks that tell the tide. They show you how many hours there are until Low Tide or High Tide. They have a quartz movement that is set to the time it takes the moon to rotate around the earth.
The moon is the major cause of the tides. The lunar day, the time it takes for the moon to reappear at the same place in the sky, is 24 hours and 50 minutes. Most locations in Australia and around the world have 2 high tides and 2 low tides each lunar day.
Our tide clocks rotate approx. once every 12 hours and 25 minutes, twice each lunar day. Once set correctly, the Tide Clock will always stay in exact step with the moon.
SETTING YOUR TIDE CLOCK
The best time to set your tide clock is at high tide on the highest tide of the month. This usually occurs around a full moon or a new moon. Please see your local tide charts, or go to the 'local tide times' link above for this information, or to purchase a tide chart please follow the '2008 tide charts' link above.
The purpose of setting your tide clock at this time is to reduce the fluctuations that can occur due to other small factors that are not incorporated into the clock, but can also affect the tides. These are such things as the gravitational pull of the sun, atmospheric pressure, wind, and the contour of the sea bed..
It is also important to remember that high and low tide are states that exist over a period of time, not just for one minute of the day, as you may find your tide clock will fluctuate around the actual tide times. To buy a tide clock online please use the 'tide clocks' link above this page.
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