Delaware

Delaware's coastline is compact — 26 miles of Atlantic-facing beach from Fenwick Island to Cape Henlopen — but the tidal story splits cleanly between two very different bodies of water. On the ocean side, barrier islands and inlets produce semidiurnal tides with a mean range of roughly 1.2 to 1.5 m MLLW. Behind those barriers, tidal lagoons like Rehoboth Bay and Little Assawoman Bay experience muted, lagged cycles shaped by the width and resistance of their inlet channels. The Delaware Bay adds a second tidal character entirely. From the bay mouth at Cape Henlopen northward toward the C&D Canal, mean range grows to 1.8 m and the bay's funnel geometry amplifies the incoming tide. This estuary drains a watershed that covers parts of five states, and its tidal currents influence everything from commercial fishing to horseshoe crab spawning on the spring tides each May. Semidiurnal symmetry means two nearly equal high waters and two low waters every 24 hours and 50 minutes. The best times for clamming, striper fishing, shorebird watching, and flat-water paddling all trace back to that cycle. Tides run about 50 minutes later each day — build your weekly activity window around that drift and you'll never miss a low-tide flat again.