Simple Tides / Guides / Annapolis Tides

Annapolis Tide Chart

Annapolis — America’s sailing capital — answers to the Chesapeake Bay’s modest semidiurnal tide, barely a foot or two, where wind often moves as much water as the moon does.

The pattern

Two highs and two lows daily with only one to two feet of range — easy to ignore, until a sustained wind piles water a foot above prediction or blows it out below. Bay sailors read the tide table and the wind forecast as a pair, because on the Chesapeake they are co-authors of the water level.

Sailing the Bay

The Severn River and the Bay’s sailing grounds reward tide awareness: an ebb against a northerly builds an unpleasant chop, while the flood smooths the ride. Racers playing the Bay’s famous Wednesday night series factor current into every mark rounding. Shallow-draft boats should mind the skinny upper creeks at low water.

Rockfish and crabbing

Striped bass — rockfish, locally — are the Bay’s signature gamefish, and the spring trophy season and fall run both key on moving water around structure and channel edges. Blue crabbers work the creeks and rivers all summer. For the wider Bay, see our Chesapeake Bay tide guide.