Morrocoy, Venezuela 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/Caracas local. Folk tradition, not a scientific forecast.

Morrocoy National Park protects a shallow cay system on Venezuela's central Caribbean coast, between the fishing town of Tucacas and the Cuare Wildlife Refuge at the lagoon's western end. The park is a mix of low mangrove cays, sandy beach islets, and shallow turquoise water over carbonate sand — the colour resembling the Turks and Caicos without the barrier reef. Boat access is the only way to reach the outer cays; launches depart from Tucacas's town dock. The tidal regime at Morrocoy is Caribbean microtidal: mean range 0.3 to 0.4 metres, mixed semidiurnal. The park's shallow water and the sheltering effect of the cay system produce a very calm inshore environment; swell energy is almost entirely absorbed before reaching the inner cays. The principal water-level variable in the shallow inner passages is wind direction — a sustained easterly trade pushes water west toward the Cuare lagoon, and a calm spell allows the water to drop back. The 0.3 to 0.4 m tidal range produces detectable current through the cay passages on the flood and ebb, but the passages are shallow enough that even the ebb tide rarely drops them below knee depth. The cays most frequently visited from Tucacas are Cayo Sombrero, Cayo Borracho, and Cayo Pelón. Sombrero is the largest and most developed, with beach chairs and basic food service; Borracho and Pelón are smaller, drier, and quieter. The snorkelling between the cays is on patch reefs in 2 to 5 m of water — brain coral, sea fans, cushion starfish on the sandy patches, and the usual Caribbean community of parrotfish, grunt, and damselfish. Visibility is best after several days of calm wind with no rain on the mainland; post-rain riverine discharge from the Aroa River to the east can reduce the bay clarity significantly. Flamingos are the signature wildlife at Cuare Wildlife Refuge, on the western edge of the park complex adjacent to the Cuare lagoon. The flamingo population here is one of the largest accessible from Venezuela's north coast; birds are present year-round but concentrations are highest November through March during the dry season. Boat access through the mangrove channels to the lagoon interior reveals the full flamingo flats in the early morning, before wind and boat traffic disturb the birds. Anglers fishing Morrocoy's cay system target snapper, grouper, and bonefish on the flats between cays. The inner lagoon flats nearest the Cuare mouth are the primary bonefish habitat; the fish move onto the shallow flats in the first two hours of the incoming tide and retreat to the channel edges as the ebb advances. Light fly tackle or spinning gear with a small jig produces consistent results on the bonefish; snapper work the channel edges at deeper stations throughout the tide cycle. Families from Caracas and Valencia use Morrocoy as the primary day-trip and weekend Caribbean destination for the western Caracas urban area — it is 3 hours from Caracas, 2 from Valencia. Weekend boat traffic between cays is heavy from November through April (dry season); midweek and May through October are quieter. The cays are at their most relaxed on weekday mornings in the off-peak season, when only a few other launches are on the water. Photographers targeting the flamingo flats need to be in a boat before dawn, positioned downwind of the flock, and shooting with a long lens by first light. The reflection photography in the shallow still water of the lagoon in calm conditions is the signature image of the Cuare section. Above the cays, the colour gradation from white sand through turquoise shallows to deep blue channel is most visible from altitude — drone regulations in Venezuelan national parks require permits. Predictions on this page come from Open-Meteo Marine, a global gridded ocean model. Accuracy is ±45 minutes on timing and ±0.2 to 0.3 metres on height. INAMEH is the authoritative tidal reference for Venezuela.