Marsh Harbour 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 18:00 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 America/Nassau local. Folk tradition, not a scientific forecast.

Next spring tide on Tue 12 May (range 0.9m). Last neap on Wed 06 May.

Spring tides cluster around new and full moons (biggest swings). Neap tides land on quarter moons (smallest swings). See the spring tide and neap tide glossary entries for the why.

Marsh Harbour is the main port of Great Abaco and the commercial hub of the Abaco Islands — the largest town in the Bahamas outside Nassau and Freeport, though by the standard of most island communities, still a small place. The harbour faces east into the protected Sea of Abaco, the shallow turquoise lagoon enclosed between Great Abaco's mainland and the chain of offshore cays running south from Man-O-War through Elbow Cay and Tilloo. Water taxis to the cays — Hope Town, Man-O-War Cay, Great Guana Cay — depart from the Marsh Harbour ferry dock on a regular schedule, and the town's provisioning infrastructure (groceries, fuel, chandlery, boatyard) serves the entire Abacos cruising fleet. The tidal regime at Marsh Harbour is mixed semidiurnal with a mean range of roughly 0.6 to 0.9 m — a full Caribbean cycle with two unequal highs and two unequal lows each day. This is noticeably larger than the microtidal Caribbean south of the Bahamas and represents the stronger Atlantic tidal signal reaching the northern Bahamas. At the harbour approaches, the tide state matters: several of the bars and shallow cuts in the Sea of Abaco have controlling depths of 1.2 to 1.8 m at mean low water, and the 0.6 to 0.9 m range means the difference between low and mid-tide can be the difference between a comfortable transit and a grounding. Shallow-draft vessels crossing the Sandy Point Bar south of Marsh Harbour or the cuts between the offshore cays plan their moves around the tide table. The Bahamian Department of Meteorology references NOAA for tidal data; predictions on this page come from Open-Meteo Marine, a gridded global ocean model, accurate to approximately ±45 min and ±0.2–0.3 m. For bonefishing — the primary angling draw of the Abacos — Marsh Harbour is the main launch point. The tidal flats extending south and east from the town toward Snake Cay and the backcountry between the mainland and Great Guana Cay hold some of the largest bonefish in the Bahamas. The fish move onto the flats on the flooding tide, typically arriving on the flat edges 30 to 45 minutes after the predicted low, and feeding actively until the water reaches mid-flat depth. As the tide drops on the ebb, the fish retreat to the tidal channels and creek mouths at the flat edges. Guides operating out of Marsh Harbour plan their entire schedule around the tide table: morning flat sessions on the early flood, afternoon sessions timed to the second flood of the day on mixed semidiurnal tides. Permit and barracuda share the same flats; snapper and grouper hold in the tidal channels and the deeper harbour edges. For paddlers, the Sea of Abaco offers sheltered flat-water conditions across most of the arc from Marsh Harbour north toward Treasure Cay. The protected lagoon between Great Abaco mainland and the offshore cays runs in depths of 0.5 to 2.5 m across most of its area, making it navigable by kayak and paddleboard on any tide except the lowest spring lows over the shoal sections north of Marsh Harbour. Wind matters more than tide for paddling in the Sea of Abaco: the dominant easterly trade provides a reliable afternoon sea breeze that makes the return leg westward to Marsh Harbour consistently into the wind. Beach-walkers and families use the small town beach east of the ferry dock and the beaches on the offshore cays accessible by water taxi. The Abaco Beach Resort on the harbour has a private beach on the harbour margin. The offshore cay beaches — particularly at Great Guana Cay and the Atlantic-facing strips on Elbow Cay — are more open, with wider sand and the full Atlantic-side swell exposure providing a different character than the calm Sea of Abaco side. Photographers working Marsh Harbour find the harbour views at dawn — before boat traffic starts — and the late afternoon water-taxi departures as the strongest subjects. The silhouette of the offshore cays across the Sea of Abaco at sunset is a consistent opportunity; the Sea of Abaco has the shallow-water colour shift from turquoise over the flats to deep blue in the channels that the Bahamas does better than most places on Earth. Predictions on this page come from Open-Meteo Marine, a gridded global ocean model. Accuracy is typically ±45 min and ±0.2–0.3 m. For navigation in the Sea of Abaco, use current NOS (National Ocean Service) charts and NOAA tide data for the Bahamas.