Friday, December 12, 2008

An ice storm with astronomical tides...

Before I begin, we get fairly large tides but as you move eastward into the Bay of Fundy things get higher, lower, and stronger. However, the tides in my vicinity run in height from around eight feet up to twelve feet depending on the time of the month in relation to the position of the moon. As of right now, we are in the middle of our spring tides this month and the weather once again became a little more unruly.

Starting last night and into this morning, we weathered an ice storm that brought some serious icing to coastal Maine, but then turned to rain as the temperature increased into the mid-forties. This resulted in a two hour delay for school, which gave me an opportunity to catch some high water action of a wharf on the leeward side of the wind. Here's a photo of the tide just before high water, well with thirty minutes to go...



And here's how the wharf fared six hours later, you can see how it buckled...



The last set of spring tides seriously damaged the wharf as a strong Nor'easter took it head on, but today's high tide really put a big hit on the structure. This wharf will never be used again and I'm not sure if the owner intends to rebuild.

On a side note, I did get a chance to snap off a few pictures of some mallards that had found refuge on a local pond.



They were getting a little worried with the Downeast Duck Hunter smiling upon them but today they got shot with a camera...



I'm hoping for a chance to go after some waterfowl tomorrow, but the wind and temperature aren't necessarily in my favor...

DEDH out

3 comments:

Jon Roth said...

Those are amazing photos. It is hard to believe that is the same structure. Very interesting. We hunt one area here in California that is subject to tides, but it is part of an inland delta system of waterways so the worst thing we have to worry about is getting stuck in the mud if we don't time our departure from the honey hole properly. Nothing like this!

Downeast Duck Hunter said...

Live to Hunt
When I get a chance, I'll take some pictures below my house every hour to show how far out the water line goes in connection to how much the tide drops... Sounds like a good blog entry...

The tide does impact how we hunt if we choose to pursue ducks over lands especially when trying to get a few buffleheads, goldeneyes, and other divers...

Tomorrow, I'm hoping to be in the mud at the tides edge for legal shooting... I just need to look back in my journal to see if my timing is right...

Take Care

tugboatdude said...

I have yet to experience the high tides in the Maine area.However some of the old timers I work with say it is quite normal to have a 10-12 foot ebb tide.That's insane to me.The Chesapeake Bay,where I grew up,has a three foot ebb and that is a whole bunch of water moving in 6 hours.awesome pictures.