Banjul 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/Banjul local. Folk tradition, not a scientific forecast.

Next spring tide on Sun 17 May (range 1.7m). Last neap on Wed 13 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.

Banjul occupies a low-lying island at the mouth of the Gambia River, the capital of one of Africa's smallest countries and its principal port. The city sits on a sandbar island — St. Mary's Island, as the British named it — with the Gambia River running wide to the north and east and the open Atlantic a short walk to the west and south. Three sides of the city are water, and the tidal regime governs what happens on each of them differently. At the river mouth, the tidal range is at its most energetic: spring range of approximately 1.8 m, with the semidiurnal cycle driving a strong tidal current between Banjul Point and the Barra shore 4 kilometres to the north. The ebb current in the river mouth runs at 1.5–2.0 knots at peak spring ebb, creating a visible current rip off Banjul Point where the river flow reinforces the astronomical ebb. The Banjul–Barra ferry crosses this current on every run — the most heavily used river crossing in West Africa, carrying vehicles and passengers to the north bank throughout the day. Ferry captains time the approach to Barra on the ebb by steering well upstream and allowing the current to set them onto the Barra ramp; crossing against a spring ebb with a head wind is noticeably slower than the same trip on the flood. The fish market adjacent to the ferry terminal is the primary early-morning hub of the city's fishing economy. The pirogue fleet — traditional wooden dugout canoes powered by outboard motors, typically 8–14 metres — goes out on the evening ebb and returns on the early flood. The timing is not incidental: the flood current from the river mouth runs in the same direction as the boats' return course, and landing a pirogue through the Atlantic beach break is easier on a rising tide when the wave energy over the bar is more manageable. The market is most active from 05:30 to 08:00, when the returned boats offload their catches of barracuda, bream, and ladyfish directly onto the quayside. Banjul's Atlantic seafront at the southern end of the city faces south-southwest onto open ocean. The tidal flat here is sandy, with a moderate beach gradient, and the intertidal zone varies 40–60 m in width between high and low spring water. The beach is little used for swimming — the currents off Banjul Point and the proximity to the working harbour make the Bakau and Kololi beaches 8–12 km to the west the preferred swimming destinations. The Banjul waterfront is a working coast: a port for coasters and deep-sea fishing vessels, a ferry terminal, and the base for most of the country's inter-island and coastal trade. For photographers, the morning return of the pirogue fleet is Banjul's signature image: brightly painted wooden boats entering the river mouth on the flood, with the low Barra shore in the background and the light coming from the northeast. The best window is 06:00–07:30 in the October–April dry season when the harmattan haze is at its minimum and the light is clean. The fish market itself — activity, colour, commerce — is at its peak intensity in the same window. Permission to photograph in the market area is generally extended readily; a small purchase from the market vendors is the appropriate courtesy. Anglers working the Banjul waterfront target barracuda and jack species from the ferry terminal jetty and the rocky seawall sections around Banjul Point. The ebb current creates current lines off the point that concentrate prey fish in the channel — the productive shore-fishing window is the two hours centred on the peak ebb. Boat anglers using the river mouth and offshore Atlantic waters target barracuda, wahoo, and the pelagic species that move through the Gambia River outflow plume. The plume of relatively fresh, turbid water extends 5–10 km offshore at peak ebb and acts as a feeding aggregation for predator species. Bird watching begins from the city itself: the mangrove fringes along the south and east sides of St. Mary's Island hold kingfishers, herons, and egrets at any tidal stage, with the greatest activity during the low-water exposure of the tidal mudflats. Pelicans work the river mouth on the current rip off Banjul Point throughout the day; ospreys and fish eagles are resident on the mangrove edge. All tide predictions for Banjul come from the Open-Meteo Marine gridded model. Timing accuracy is ±45 minutes; height accuracy is ±0.3 m above Chart Datum.