Ghazaouet tide times

Predictions: Open-Meteo Marine (MeteoFrance SMOC, 0.08° grid) — heights relative to MSL (not chart datum / LAT). Model-derived.

Model-derived from a global ocean grid. Useful indication; expect about ±45 minutes on average vs. a local harmonic gauge, individual stations vary widely. See /methodology for per-region detail. Not for navigation.

Conditions as of 23:00 local time. Refreshes daily.

Predictions: Open-Meteo Marine (MeteoFrance SMOC, 0.08° grid) — heights relative to MSL (not chart datum / LAT). Model-derived. · Not for navigation.

The angler tradition for major/minor fishing windows: major ≈3-hour windows around moon transit and opposition; minor ≈2-hour windows around moonrise and moonset. Times are Africa/Algiers local. Folk tradition, not a scientific forecast.

Ghazaouet is a port town on the far western edge of the Algerian Mediterranean coast, roughly 70 kilometres from the Moroccan border at Oujda. Known as Nemours under French colonial administration until 1962, the town retains a compact harbour and port infrastructure that has served as a commercial and ferry gateway between Algeria and Spain. The ferry to Alicante makes Ghazaouet one of the few Algerian ports with a direct European maritime connection. The coastline at Ghazaouet is typical of the western Algerian Mediterranean: a sheltered harbour backed by limestone cliffs, with small pocket beaches between rocky headlands to the east and west. The Tlemcen mountains — Algeria's western ranges — form the backdrop inland, with peaks above 1,000 metres visible from the water on clear days. Tide data for Ghazaouet uses Open-Meteo Marine, a global gridded ocean model. Timing accuracy is ±45 minutes; height accuracy is ±0.2 to 0.3 metres. In the Mediterranean, these tolerances are large relative to the tidal range itself: the western Mediterranean at this latitude has a semidiurnal tide with a spring range of just 0.1 to 0.4 metres. The astronomical tide is nearly irrelevant to practical water-level planning. Wind setup, atmospheric pressure systems, and seiches (standing wave oscillations in the Mediterranean basin) routinely produce water-level changes equal to or larger than the tidal range. For the working port, wind-driven sea state and swell direction matter more than tide. The harbour entrance faces north-northwest; it is well-sheltered from the dominant westerly and southerly winds but exposed to north and northwest weather systems that periodically bring swell into the western Mediterranean. The cross-strait swell window from the northeast is the main source of harbour disruption. For divers and snorkellers, the rocky headlands around Ghazaouet offer posidonia seagrass meadows at 5 to 20 metres depth, with the usual Mediterranean assemblage: saddled bream, painted comber, scorpionfish, and octopus. The clarity of the water — typically 10 to 20 metres in summer — is the main draw for underwater activity. Low atmospheric-pressure events, rather than tidal cycles, are the primary driver of water-level changes that affect shore entry and exit. For beach visitors, the small beaches between the port and the eastern headlands are usable through the summer months. The town is close enough to Tlemcen — Algeria's historic inland city, 80 kilometres to the southeast — that day visitors combine a coastal stop at Ghazaouet with the citadel and mosque complexes of Tlemcen. Water temperature peaks at 24 to 26°C in August and September and falls to 13 to 15°C by February. The western Algeria coast between Ghazaouet and Beni Saf is thinly visited by international tourism. The ferry connection to Alicante — operated seasonally — is the main international traffic. Domestic Algerian beach tourism peaks in July and August. The coastline between Ghazaouet and the Moroccan border at Saïdia is a 30-kilometre stretch of rocky Mediterranean coast with limited road access and few settlements. From the sea, the coast appears as a continuous cliff face punctuated by small coves, some with sand beaches accessible only by boat. This section is the least visited part of the Algerian Mediterranean, and even domestic Algerian tourism thins significantly west of Ghazaouet. The road east from Ghazaouet toward Honaine and Beni Saf runs inland before returning to the coast; the dramatic Traras mountain range visible to the south is the geological continuation of the Rif Atlas across the border in Morocco. The visual signature of this landscape — pale limestone, dark blue Mediterranean, mountain haze — is consistent along the entire western Algeria coast and is most striking in the late afternoon light. For marine biology context, the western Mediterranean at this longitude is part of the Atlantic-Mediterranean transition zone. The Strait of Gibraltar, 150 kilometres to the west, allows Atlantic water to enter the Mediterranean as an upper-layer inflow and Mediterranean water to exit as a deeper, saltier outflow. This exchange drives circulation patterns that affect the western Mediterranean's temperature and salinity differently from the closed central and eastern basins. The relatively lower surface salinity of the western Mediterranean compared to the east is a product of this Atlantic dilution.