Positive Vibes and Tides
The sight of the RNLI lifeguards on the beach this week filled me with joy. Whitby feels like it is starting to open up once again.
As we sat on the beach this morning, listening to the waves and watching my children run in and out of the sea, I realized that 12 weeks ago I had thought about open water swimming in the sea. I then realized it was ‘banned’ initially in lockdown so I did promise myself that maybe one day when I had bought myself a wetsuit and the RNLI had returned (so I felt a bit safer that there would be someone to rescue me just in case) I might think about it again. So I am thinking about it and one day I just might venture and swim a bit in the sea – only a bit, as I am told the temperature currently is 11 degrees which doesn’t sound that warm. However it does feel good to start to be able to make plans and do things once again.
Strangely enough whilst I was thinking about swimming in the sea, 3 months ago, plus considering high and low tides and potentially when was best to swim, that particular weeks home schooling was all about tides and I needed to learn about them first to help out with the lessons. (I’m sure that resonates with plenty of parents who have had to re learn things, so that what our children have produced as work, might be right)
I partially knew that high tides and low tides are caused by the Moon and the Moon’s gravitational pull generates something called the tidal force. The tidal force causes Earth – and its water – to bulge out on the side closest to the Moon and the side farthest from the Moon. These bulges of water are high tides.
What I didn’t know is that two tidal shifts occur every 24 hours and 50 mins – a lunar day (Although in the UK, high tides occur approximately every 12 hours and 25 mins but this does change depending on your location) so at any given time of the day the tide is either slowly moving in or moving out.
One indirect but very powerful affect tides have on humans is the behavior of sea life, many different kinds of sea life, especially those that live on or near the shore, depend on the changing tide for survival. We have discovered lots of starfishes in the past week, my children have no fear when it comes to delicately picking things up and then popping them back where they found them. Although I have to admit Eadie did want to take the large shrimp home in the bucket to keep as a pet.
So as we look towards July when we are hoping to reopen – we are just waiting for the guidelines to be published and Boris to tell us exactly what date we can open, I have checked my tide timetable and there are plenty of days when low tide occurs through the day allowing for plenty of beach days, armed with a bucket and spade ready to explore the rock pools.
Michelle, Corra Lynn, Whitby
If you look closely at the children’s hands below, they are holding a starfish.
