Syzygy

What a brilliant word eh?

What it describes is a rather wonderful and rare conjunction of planetary bodies.

Namely the Sun earth and moon. As the moon just now is very close to earth, the bodies being aligned in effectively a straight line cause absolutely huge tides due to the resulting gravitational pull.

This happens in an18 year cycle, and as we are approaching the vernal equinox in March, Its actually on the 20-21st. ( the Autumn equinox is in September ) this alignment will be incredibly powerful.

To give an idea of the height of tide expected, our local standard port is Liverpool, the HAT or highest astronomical tide for Liverpool is 10.3 metres, this is literally the highest tide that can ever be, however on March 21st the predicted tide height is 10.2 metres of course if low pressure adds an element of amplification to that it could be bigger! 

  So there you go, Syzygy.

It's times like this that make me really glad we live on a boat!