Tide Clock
The Cove Journal by JoDee Samuelson
We’ve recently had some home repairs carried out by a local handyman, and is there anyone more praise-worthy than a competent handyman? Daily life consists of things going wrong and needing to be fixed, and some jobs need a special device and the touch of a person who’s fixed that thing before.
As our plumber/carpenter/man-with-a-long-level was tidying up his tools, he glanced at the clock. “Say, what kind of clock is that?” he asked. “That’s a tide clock.” “What does it do?” “It tells where the tide is. See the red hand pointing just after six? That means it’s low tide.” “You gotta love that.”
I do love it. A tide clock tells when you can walk on sandbars down at the Cove at low tide, or swim or launch a canoe at high tide. Here’s how it works: The hands of a normal everyday clock turn according to a 24 hour solar day (one complete rotation of earth), but the red hand on our tide clock revolves according to a lunar day (time for moon to circle the earth) of 24 hours 50 minutes… or one high tide and one low tide every 12 hours 25 minutes. It’s that simple!
Our tide clock came from the Fundy Geological Museum in Joggins, but if you want your own check out local marine supply stores.
On the subject of tides, I always thought that a “spring tide” had something to do with spring—and it’s spring now! yay!—while in fact a spring tide occurs twice every lunar month (of 27.3 days) during full moon and new moon when the tides
“spring up.”
As for springing up, the March 8 International Women’s Day (IWD) event at the Charlottetown Library had us on our feet trying out some basic belly dancing moves: Step left, toss that hip! Step right, toss that hip! Then weave weave weave…
Reading about IWD around the world, I find that Canada is not exactly a leader in celebrating this date. In Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, Kyrgzstan, Uzbekistan, and Tajikistan women get flowers and sweets; in China they receive presents and a half-day holiday; in Russia women are presented with gifts and flowers, plus it’s a public holiday for everyone. Come on Canada, let’s get going!—but honestly, I can’t think of a better place to live right now.
This year spring on the Island began on March 20 at 11:46 a.m. The sun rose at 7:19 a.m. and set at 7:16 p.m. Hurray! For the next six months we’ll have plenty of time to barbeque in the evenings, dine in the great outdoors, leave our curtains open, stretch our cramped indoor limbs, and haunt garden centres to admire implements we don’t need and dream of perfect carrots and tomatoes like those shown on seed packets.
We see daylilies poking their first leaves through the warm earth by the house and male goldfinches turning even more golden. The season of hope is upon us! And as the tides rise and fall our tide clock turns silently on the kitchen wall, keeping us in touch with the whole show.