Providencia, Colombia 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 17:00 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/Bogota local. Folk tradition, not a scientific forecast.

Last spring tide on Tue 19 May (range 0.5m). Next neap on Mon 25 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.

Providencia — officially Old Providence — sits 80 km northeast of San Andrés in the western Caribbean, a volcanic island rising to 360 m at El Pico, forested and steep compared to the flat coral-sand San Andrés. The island is small (17 km²), moves slowly, and is encircled by the Old Providence McBean Lagoon National Natural Park, a barrier reef system designated part of the UNESCO Seaflower Biosphere Reserve. The English-Creole speaking Raizal community has maintained a culture distinct from both mainland Colombia and the English Caribbean since the island's settlement by English Puritans in 1631. The tidal pattern is microtidal Caribbean: spring range 25–40 cm, mixed semidiurnal. Open-Meteo Marine provides forecast data — timing accuracy ±45 minutes, height accuracy ±0.2–0.3 m. The barrier reef absorbs most of the Caribbean swell before it reaches the lagoon, making conditions inside the McBean Lagoon nearly flat regardless of tidal state. The ocean side of the reef experiences more pronounced tidal flow through the reef passes. The McBean Lagoon reef complex is one of the healthiest coral systems in the wider Caribbean basin. Hurricane Beta in 2020 caused significant damage to Providencia (estimated 98% of structures affected), which paradoxically reduced diving pressure during reconstruction. Recovery of both the island and the reef is ongoing. The main dive sites — Southwest Bay wall, Manta's Place, Nick's Place — operate from dive boats based at the island's small hotels. Fish populations are dense by Caribbean standards: schooling creole wrasse, yellowfin grouper, tiger grouper, and regular eagle ray sightings on the wall dives. For anglers, the channel between Providencia and its sister islet Santa Catalina (connected by a pedestrian bridge called the Lovers Bridge) concentrates baitfish and produces snapper, barracuda, and jacks from the rocks and the bridge itself. Offshore, the shelf edge northwest of the island is within panga range and holds wahoo and mahimahi in the December–April season. Kayakers working the lagoon side of the island have calm, flat water protected by the barrier reef, with excellent visibility over the coral garden. A circumnavigation of the lagoon takes 4–6 hours — a full day at a relaxed pace with stops to snorkel. The lagoon bottom is patchy reef and white sand at 1–5 m depth, ideal for paddling and snorkelling without needing dive equipment. Beach families use the southwest bay beaches — Manzanillo Bay and South West Bay have the finest sand and clearest water on the island. The water temperature is 27–29°C year-round. Providencia has no mass-market resort infrastructure: accommodation runs to small locally-owned cabanas and one or two modest hotels that survived the 2020 hurricane reconstruction.