High Tide in Mumbai : Me & N95

Tides have always held a fascination for man.And it was not until Newton came that we truly began to understand as to why tides occur.A tide in its simplest form can be said to be periodic rise & fall in large bodies of water due to the gravitational pull of moon.The gravitational attraction of the moon causes the oceans to bulge out in the direction of the moon. Another bulge occurs on the opposite side.Therefore, there are two high tides and two low tides. The ocean is constantly moving from high tide to low tide, and then back to high tide. There is about 12 hours and 25 minutes between the two high tides.

The high tide at Mumbai on 24th july

Spring Tides occur When the moon is full or new.The combined gravitational pull of moon and sun causesvery high tides and the low tides are very low.Spring tides are especially strong tides They occur when the Earth, the Sun, and the Moon are in a line.

Neap Tides occur when sun and moon are perpendicular to each other (quarter phases) resulting in low high and low tides.

Spring tides and neap tide levels are about 20% higher or lower than average.

The third type Proxigean Spring Tide is a rare( once every 1.5 yrs), unusually high tide. This occurs when the moon is both unusually close to the Earth (at its closest perigee, called the proxigee) and in the New Moon phase (when the Moon is between the Sun and the Earth).

The highest tides in the world are at the Bay of Fundy in Nova Scotia, Canada.

So it was lifetime opportunity to go & watch the highest tide of the century for mumbai today. So despite all the warnings of BMC to stay indoors i went out to see the unusually high tides at 5.05 meters, with a guilty conscience although. And i am not sorry i did.Armed with my N95 i did have some opportunity to click those fun filled moments that always satisfy an amateur photographer.



Oh how can one explain the fun you have when you get drenched by a wave that comes all of a sudden without any expectation. Or how you feel when you wait for another wave like that only to be disappointed with the meek show put up. Then again another high wave comes to tease you.


And looks like i was not the only one to go. It looked like the whole of mumbai had turned up to watch the show put up by nature. And they were not disappointed going by the smiles they held on their faces.



Above are some of the photographs clicked using N95.Though most of the times i was afraid of ruining it, thankfully it survived the experience. Looking forward to more such experiences. I will leave you with one pic of the high rises at nariman point.