Rhode Island

Rhode Island packs an enormous amount of coastline into the smallest US state, fronting Block Island Sound on the south coast and wrapping the long Narragansett Bay that cuts up through the centre of the state from Newport at the bay mouth past Providence at the head. Newport sits at the south-eastern corner of Aquidneck Island where the East and West Passages of Narragansett Bay open south to the open ocean, with Brenton Reef at the entrance to Narragansett Bay marking the offshore approach. The tide signature here is a moderate semidiurnal signal — mean range at the Newport gauge is about 1.1 metres, with two highs and two lows of comparable size about twelve and a half hours apart. Spring tides push close to 1.4 metres and neaps drop near 0.8. Inside the bay the range grows slightly toward Providence at the head, and the basin geometry concentrates currents through the narrow stretches between Conanicut Island and Aquidneck. Newport is the historical sailing capital of America — the New York Yacht Club moved its summer station here in the 1880s, the America's Cup defended out of Newport from 1930 to 1983, and the modern Newport-Bermuda Race fleet stages from here every other June. The cliff walk from Easton's Beach south past the Breakers to Bailey's Beach, the rocky shore at Beavertail State Park on the Conanicut tip, the working fishing fleet at Galilee on the South County coast, and the Block Island ferry crossing all read the table for different windows. NOAA CO-OPS runs the authoritative Newport gauge and the harmonic predictions for the entire bay; nor'easter and post-tropical surge in autumn and winter can lift levels well above predicted.