Cattlewash 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 00:00 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/Barbados local. Folk tradition, not a scientific forecast.

Last spring tide on Mon 18 May (range 0.9m). Next neap on Fri 22 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.

Cattlewash is a coastal village in the Belleplaine district of Saint Andrew, approximately 5 kilometres north of Bathsheba on the Atlantic coast road. The name is the kind of straightforwardly descriptive label that places acquire over generations: cattle were washed in the sea here, probably along the lower beach at low water where the firm sand made entry and exit easy. The village today has a handful of houses, a rum shop, and the coastal landscape that defines the east coast of Barbados — Atlantic swell arriving without obstruction from the northeast, a narrow beach that widens at low tide, and the hills of the Scotland District rising immediately inland. The Scotland District is geologically distinct from the rest of Barbados — a zone of older, softer Scotland Formation sedimentary rock (as opposed to the coral limestone that underlies most of the island) — and is notable for its steep, eroded valleys, landslide-prone hillsides, and agricultural poverty. The Barbados National Trust has classified the Scotland District coastline, including the Cattlewash foreshore, as scenic heritage under its Open House and Hiking programmes. There are no resorts at Cattlewash. There is one guesthouse — the Atlantis Hotel at Tent Bay, a kilometre south — that represents the upper end of the east coast accommodation infrastructure. This absence of development is partly a function of the Atlantic exposure (the coast is not suitable for the beach-resort model that drives the west coast tourism economy) and partly a reflection of the historical landholding patterns in Saint Andrew. The beach at Cattlewash at low water is approximately 30 to 40 metres wide — much of it firm enough to walk comfortably — though the width change between spring high and low water is only around 15 to 20 metres given the small 0.7-metre spring range. The dominant influence on beach width is swell height: when a large northeast swell is running, the active swash zone covers the full beach to the cliff base; on calmer days in settled summer weather, the upper beach dries and firms. Atlantic water along the east coast runs clear when the swell is below 1 metre and the offshore winds are consistent; it turns turbid quickly when larger swell stirs up the inshore sand. Swimming at Cattlewash is possible in the very calmest conditions — settled summer days with no swell and glassy seas, which occur perhaps 20 to 30 days per year — but the east coast is not a reliable swimming destination by design. Beach walking at low water from Cattlewash north toward the Chalky Mount area, or south toward the Bathsheba boulder formation, is the most rewarding physical activity on this stretch of coast. The walk north to Barclays Park (5 kilometres) follows the beach and the coastal cliff path through scenery that sees few tourists. Frigatebirds soar on the trade wind thermals above the cliff line year-round; brown pelicans work the shoreline at any tide stage. Predictions on this page come from Open-Meteo Marine, a gridded global ocean model. Accuracy is typically within plus or minus 45 minutes on timing and 0.2 to 0.3 metres on height — model-derived, not from a local gauge. The Caribbean Institute of Meteorology and Hydrology (CIMH) is the regional hydrometeorological authority for Barbados.