In Fuerteventura, the tide makes a difference, so it’s essential to know the status of the sea level at every moment, especially if we’re planning a trip to places exposed to the open ocean. Very often, they would only be accessible at low tide, while at high tide, they’re entirely underwater and inaccessible and invisible.
While the above is only inconvenient, things can quickly get more serious, even dangerous. Imagine wandering along the coast at low tide, under some cliffs. Then, the tide goes up, and a beautiful beach gets lost underwater. The ocean is crushing the cliffs, and there’s no way of escaping. It’s a scenario that has happened on Fuerteventura more than once.
The better and more responsible way is to be a conscious, aware traveler who understands and respects the local conditions – and knows how to read a tide chart. It’s not a big deal, and you can find it online easily, just browse “tide chart Fuerteventura.”
You’ll get a bunch of hits, but my favorite is this one: https://www.fuerteventuraplayas.com/en/fuerteventura-weather/fuerteventura-tide-chart
As you can see (also on the screenshot), it gives us the following information: 1) the day of the month, 2) the moon status, 3) the time of sunset and sunrise, 4) all 3-4 tides.
How to read a tide chart? First, let’s decide on the day; let’s say we plan our trip on Saturday, the 5th. As we can see, the first high tide will be at 2:55 during the night. The first low tide of the day will be at 9:03 in the morning. The next high tide is at 3:13 p.m. (at 15.13 in the afternoon), and the last low tide of the day is at 9:10 p.m. (at 21.10 in the evening). Besides the time, there’s a number in meters, for example, 1,2m for the first high tide and -1m for the last low tide. This number is important because it tells us how much higher – or lower- the water gets regarding the average sea level in the area. If this number is fairly high (around 1m for Fuerteventura is fairly high), this means the high tide will be pretty high (potentially even more dangerous to be stuck somewhere), while the low tide of -1m tells us the water will go away significantly, so we’ll be able to see also things that would normally be underwater, which is good.
Knowing how to read a tide chart, you can now visit Fuerteventura’s coast much more safely!
IMPORTANT! You’re fully responsible for your safety when exploring locations that might be affected by the tide. The information on this website might be subjected to errors and should not be relied on.
