The high tides on the San Francisco bay — part of the annual King tides phenomenon — also bring with them extraordinary low tides.
On Thursday, while many locals were out documenting through photography the impact of the King tides, others were planning on taking advantage of nature’s effect on our shores with more recreational ideas in mind.
On Thursday evening the Cal Sailing Club, the Bay Area Sea Kayakers, and the Berkeley Racing Canoe Center held a clambake on the Ashby Shoal, the muddy sandbar that only becomes an island when the tide is very low. Paul Kamen (who happens to be chair of the city’s Waterfront Commission) was there and took the photos.
Kamen said the appearance of Ashby Shoal has prompted activities for the past 30 years or so. In the past the tides were at their lowest in the mornings so an Ashby Shoal breakfast was organized. This year, he said, an event around the cocktail hour was called for given the timing of the low tide.
Today is the last day of a three-day high tide period. King Tide events for the 2012-2013 season take place in four periods: November 13-15, December 12-14, January 9-11, and February 7-9.
The highest tide of the year for the San Francisco Bay — 7.2 ft — was yesterday at 10:34 a.m. See photos taken by Berkeleyside readers of high waters and breaches in our story and in our Flickr pool, and check out the California King Tides Initiative (on their website, Facebook page and via Twitter), a project that aims to document the impact of the tides in the hope of raising awareness of how rising sea levels will impact coastal regions in years to come.
Next year’s Ashby Shoal Holiday Clambake is scheduled for January 1, 2014.
Related:
King tides initiative raises awareness of rising sea levels [12.13.12]
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