Establishment of a port

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Establishment of a port is the technical expression for the time that elapses between the moon's transit across the local meridian at new or full moon at a given place and the time of the next high water at that place. As an example in the UK, the interval (constant at any one place) may vary from 6 minutes (Harwich) to 11 hours 45 minutes (North Foreland) meaning that the time difference of high water between those two places is 21 minutes. At London Bridge it is 1 hour 58 minutes. [1] The term establishment of the port is identical to the obsolescent term High Water Full and Change (HWF&C) Full referring to the full moon and change referring to the new moon [2] . Before the creation of modern tide tables, it was a quick way of predicting the time of local high water. The moon’s passage at the local meridian is about 50 minutes later each day. If it is HWF&C 1 hour 30 minutes and we are three days after the full moon, then the morning high water is 1h 30 + 150 minutes = 0400 [3] .

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References

  1. Wikisource-logo.svg One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain :  Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Establishment of a Port". Encyclopædia Britannica . Vol. 9 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 789.
  2. "NOAA Tides & Currents". tidesandcurrents.noaa.gov. Retrieved 2024-09-04.
  3. "establishment of the port". Oxford Reference. doi:10.1093/oi/authority.20110803095758485 . Retrieved 2024-09-04.