Big tides

So check out this snapshot of an electronic chart... The underscored depth readings are heights showing above low tide. All well and good, lot of green on the chart in these parts. What is different is how much of the green is deemed navigable channels and water. Frequently a channel or passage description will note that it is workable at half tide or better, and then explain a channel that passes a few miles over drying ledge. Gotta love it and different from Maine and even The Bay of Fundy, where we have sailed for the past nine years. It all just takes a bit to get used to.

It also explains why shoal draft boats (boats that don't draw much), bilge keelers (boats with two stubby keels the boat can rest on), and center board boats (like ours) are so common here. 

We by the way, creeped into the very middle of the above and anchored just south of Ile D'Er pretty much on the "S" and then waited for the tide to go out. At low tide we were a meter or so above the ocean level.

- Christopher