Slack water

Slack water, which used to be known as 'the stand of the tide', is a short period in a body of tidal water when the water is completely unstressed, and therefore no movement either way in the tidal stream, and which occurs before the direction of the tidal stream reverses. Slack water can be estimated using a tidal atlas or the tidal diamond information on a nautical chart. It is a common misconception that the time of slack water occurs at high and low water, that is, at the greatest and lowest height of tide. In fact, the time of slack water, particularly in constricted waters, does not occur at high and low water, and in certain areas, such as Primera Angostura, the ebb may run for up to three hours after the water level has started to rise, and the flood may run for three hours after the water has started to fall. Thornton Lecky, writing in 1884, illustrates the phenomenon with an inland basin of infinite size, connected to the sea by a narrow mouth. Since the level of the basin is always at mean sea level, the flood in the mouth starts at half tide, and its velocity is at its greatest at the time of high water, with the strongest ebb occurring conversely at low water.