Tide times
Wells-next-the-Sea tide times, and what each tide is good for
Every trip we run is governed by the sea. This week's high waters at Wells, and a plain guide to what each tide height actually opens up on the North Norfolk coast.
Each dot is a printed high water at Wells, morning and evening, in metres above chart datum. The line simply joins them; low water falls in the troughs between.
This week
High water at Wells for the days ahead, with a note on what each tide suits. Our boats leave roughly two hours before high water.
Loading this week’s tides…
Times are local clock time; heights in metres as printed in the Admiralty tables for Wells. Low water falls roughly midway between the two high waters. Sailing suggestions are a guide, not a booking calendar. Always check availability.
What each tide unlocks
The same stretch of coast behaves completely differently depending on the water. Roughly, by height:
1.9m
Low neap
The creeks barely fill, so the marsh routes are shut. But the sandbanks stay exposed all day, and the whole estuary turns gold. The lowest tides are often the best light of the month.
2.6m
Middling tide
Enough water to work the creek maze between Stiffkey and Wells, mast down for the bridge and all. But tight, so the route matters more than the height. Anything from about 3m is a spring tide, and the creeks fill properly.
3.3m+
Big spring
The channel to Cley Windmill needs a tide this size, and it only reaches this height for a few months of the year. Outside that window, the route simply isn't there.
3.5m+
High spring, the biggest tides of the month
From about 3.5m the salt marsh itself floods, and on the very biggest tides, up to around 4.2m here, for a couple of hours you can sail places that don't exist the rest of the time, including a creek so quiet Henry can count on one hand the times he's seen anyone else out there.
Blakeney is a window, not a height
Whatever the day's tide, Blakeney only has water in and out of the harbour for about an hour either side of high water. On a modest 2.4m tide that can mean pushing the boat by hand. So a Blakeney sail is timed to the minute, and the departure time moves with the tide rather than the clock.
Blakeney on a low tide: mud banks, cotton sails, and a boy's verdict →Why the tide runs everything here
Wells and the marsh sit behind a bar and a network of creeks that are only ever partly full. Depth changes by the hour, not the season, so the same stretch of water can be unreachable at nine and wide open at midday.
The marsh has its own quirk, too. The tide comes in from two directions at once, from Blakeney at one end and from Wells at the other, and the two meet somewhere in the middle. Where they meet, and when, sets up a local pattern of currents and depths that no table will tell you and that we've learnt by sailing it.
That is why our boat trips aren't scheduled the way a normal boat hire is. Each boat and each route needs a different amount of water, and departure times move with the tide rather than the clock, roughly fifty minutes later each day.
Another part of resilience is dislocation of expectation. The weather does not negotiate.
This page is the reference for that. Check what the water is doing and you'll know which of our sailing trips is actually possible on any given day, well before you look at a calendar.
Sail the marsh
Salt Marsh Sails →Sail the coast
Coastal Sails →From the log
The Captain's Log →Ready to book
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