Nungwi 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 01:00 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/Dar es Salaam local. Folk tradition, not a scientific forecast.

Next spring tide on Fri 08 May (range 1.6m). Next neap on Sat 09 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.

Nungwi occupies the northern tip of Zanzibar's Unguja Island, the point where the sheltered Zanzibar Channel on the west meets the open Indian Ocean on the east. The headland curves enough that the main beach faces north-northwest, which gives it a double character: calmer water in the morning when the onshore breeze is light, and afternoon colour as the sun drops toward the Tanzanian mainland across the channel. The reef flat extends north and east of the village. The tidal range at Nungwi is among the most dramatic anywhere on the East African coast. Spring range typically runs 3.0 to 3.5 metres between high and low water; at neap tides the range compresses to around 1.5 metres but remains clearly visible. At low spring water, the reef flat north of the village exposes for 400 metres or more — wide enough that the distant edge is a hazy white line rather than a visible transition. By high water, 3.0 to 3.5 metres of additional water covers that same flat and the beach narrows to a steep strip of sand at the foot of the beach bars. The tidal cycle at Nungwi runs on a roughly 6-hour-and-12-minute rhythm between the two daily highs, with the diurnal inequality meaning one high is typically 0.2 to 0.4 metres taller than the other in the same day. The most visible human expression of this tidal range is the morning low-water harvest. At spring low tides, local women — mostly from the fishing villages to the south of the beach — wade out across the exposed reef flat at first light to collect sea urchins, shellfish, and octopus from the rock pools and coral rubble. The harvest window is tide-dependent: it opens when the flat is exposed enough to walk safely and closes when the flood tide reaches knee depth, typically a window of 2 to 3 hours centred on low water. This is subsistence and small-scale commercial fishing of the oldest pattern on this coast, and it is governed entirely by the tide table rather than by market hours or weather. At the eastern end of Nungwi beach, the traditional dhow-building yard is one of the last active wooden boat yards in East Africa. Ngalawa outriggers (the small double-outrigger fishing canoes used all along this coast) and jahazi ocean dhows (the larger lateen-rigged vessels that trade between Zanzibar, the Tanzanian mainland, and sometimes as far as Mozambique) are built and repaired here in a yard that operates on tidal logic. The heavy timber hulls are moved to and from the water only at specific tidal states — a full low spring leaves the boats stranded too far from the water to launch without a large team; a full high spring reduces the working space on the beach. The yard works in the tide window between these extremes, typically launching or hauling out in the last 2 hours of flood or the first 2 hours of ebb, when depth is sufficient and the slope of the beach is workable. For snorkellers and reef walkers, the tidal state determines which part of the reef is accessible. At low water, the exposed flat is wide and some of the shallow pools hold interesting marine life — but the coral immediately below low-water mark is in the most active zone and snorkelling over it requires caution to avoid contact with the bottom in the swell. At mid-flood and high water, the flat is submerged to 1.5 to 3 metres and the snorkelling improves: the coral is covered, the fish are more active, and the visibility through the water column is typically clearer than in the surf-disturbed shallows of the very low-water period. The best snorkelling window at Nungwi is roughly 2 hours after low water through to 2 hours before the next low — the rising-to-high-to-early-ebb window when depth is adequate and water clarity is at its best. Shore anglers work the rock outcrops at the eastern headland on the incoming tide, targeting snapper (lutjanidae species), grouper, and the occasional kingfish running the reef edge. The flood tide from 2 hours before low water through to mid-flood is locally considered the most productive window, as the incoming water pushes baitfish into the reef crevices and larger predators follow. The angler tradition that rates fishing by solunar periods (moon transits) adds a secondary layer for serious anglers; the TideTurtle tide page shows these periods alongside the tidal curve. Tide predictions for Nungwi come from Open-Meteo Marine, a gridded global ocean model. Accuracy is typically plus or minus 45 minutes on timing and 0.2 to 0.3 metres on height. The Zanzibar Meteorological Agency (ZMA) is the authoritative local source for Zanzibar tidal data; for any activity where precise timing or height matters — boat launches, reef crossings, or the low-water harvest window — cross-check with ZMA's published tide tables.