Considering how tides affect water depth
UPDATE: Changed example pictures to a better match at high and low tides.
Water depth was the cause of the recent tombstoning incidents, and this made me think about if we had any pictures in our archive highlighting just how much the tide affects water depth. As one commenter on our first YouTube video put it...
The variation here highlights a couple of things...
thats the harsh thing with tombstoning, it all depends on the tide. 1day you could be fine the next its goodnight irene.Below are two pictures (unfortunately from different angles) and a mock-up showing just how much the tide changes at Stair Hole. The first was taken back in 2006 when we first started taking a waterproof camera with us to get some pictures; the second was October last year. Each picture has a caption attached when opened.
The variation here highlights a couple of things...
- It has completely obscured a metre square section of rock around water level, which if you weren't aware of, you could land on.
- Your falling distance and water depth are both affected by the tide. So at high tide it could be a 25ft jump in to 15ft of water, but the same jump at low tide might be a 30ft jump in to 10ft of water; much more dangerous!
