Baja California Sur

Baja California Sur is the southern half of the long Mexican peninsula that separates the Sea of Cortez from the open Pacific, with Cabo San Lucas at its southern tip where the two ocean systems meet at Land's End — a granite arch in the water at the foot of cliffs the locals call Finisterra. The tide here is a moderate mixed semidiurnal signal — two highs and two lows of unequal size each day — with a mean range at the Cabo San Lucas harbour gauge of about 1.1 metres, climbing past 1.6 metres on the largest spring tides and dropping near 0.6 on neaps. The Sea of Cortez side runs a different signal from the Pacific side: the gulf is a long narrow basin that amplifies the tide as it propagates north, and at its head near Puerto Peñasco and the Colorado River delta the range exceeds nine metres on spring tides — among the largest tidal ranges in the eastern Pacific. Cabo sits at the bottom of the gulf where the two regimes mix. The defining recreational use of the table is the world-class sportfishing industry — striped marlin, dorado, tuna, and rooster fish are read for the bite-window timing on the change of tide, and the Cabo charter fleet at the IGY Marina runs by tide-and-bite calendar. Surf at Costa Azul, Cerritos, and the Pacific-facing breaks at Todos Santos read the swell more than the tide; the famous Lover's Beach at the base of the arch is a tide-cycle destination because the swimmable Pacific-side cove is only walk-accessible at low water. The Mexican Navy (SEMAR) and CICESE publish the authoritative tide tables; Open-Meteo Marine drives the gridded predictions on this site.