Soufrière 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/St Lucia local. Folk tradition, not a scientific forecast.

Soufrière is the oldest town on Saint Lucia, founded by the French in the 1740s and named for the sulphurous hot spring activity that is geological visible in the hillside to the east. The town sits in a broad bay flanked by the twin Piton peaks — Gros Piton at 770 metres to the south and Petit Piton at 743 metres to the north — and the combined effect of town, bay, jungle, and volcanic peaks in a single view makes the approach by sea one of the most dramatic harbour arrivals in the Caribbean. The tidal range in Soufrière Bay is mixed semidiurnal and Caribbean microtidal: spring range approximately 0.3 to 0.5 metres. The Caribbean swell in the bay is moderated by the Piton headlands but not eliminated; in winter months when Atlantic storm swells wrap around the southern tip of Saint Lucia, Soufrière Bay can see 0.5 to 1.0 metre swell that makes the anchorage rolly for boats. The Sulphur Springs caldera is the dominant geological attraction, 3 kilometres east of town on the road toward Fond St Jacques. The Springs — dubbed the Western Hemisphere's only drive-in volcano — are a hydrothermal field where hydrogen sulphide gas vents from fissures, mud pools bubble with superheated water, and the ground around the vents is stained yellow, orange, and grey by sulphur and mineral deposits. The temperature of the active vent areas exceeds 170 degrees Celsius at depth; the surface mud pools are 50 to 80 degrees. The area is guided — independent wandering off the paths is prohibited and enforced by attendants who are genuinely protective of the site after an accident in the 1990s. The volcano thermal waters feed the Diamond Mineral Baths, 2 kilometres from town — a botanical garden with a small waterfall and thermal bath complex built originally in 1784 for French troops and still operational. The Piton hiking trail to the summit of Gros Piton (the larger and more accessible of the two) takes 3 to 4 hours round trip from the base at Fond Gens Libre village, with a mandatory guide (hired at the trailhead). The trail is strenuous, gaining 600 metres through dense vegetation; the summit view takes in the whole south coast of Saint Lucia, the islands of Saint Vincent to the south, and on clear days Martinique to the north. Petit Piton is technically more difficult — a rock scramble requiring ropes in the upper section — and sees fewer ascents. Both Pitons are UNESCO World Heritage natural features and the guides are a condition of the designation's management plan. Soufrière Bay is the anchorage for the charter yacht fleet transiting the Windward Islands circuit; mooring buoys are managed by the Marine Management Area. Shore access from anchored boats is by dinghy to the town dock. 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 Saint Lucia Meteorological Service and the Caribbean Meteorological Organization provide regional sea-state data.