Strange Port Time. Is that normal?

[shof515]

I am looking at a Canada cruise and i noticed Saint John, NB port time is listed as 3:00am as in 3 in the morning to 3pm in the afternoon. That is a very weird port of time to be docking in early morning. if that is the correct time, is it possible to get off the ship at like 4/5am in the morning?

[lstone19]

It might help if you gave us the date and ship. However, the Bay Of Fundy has some of the most extreme tides in the world so the early arrival may be based on tides. We were on Regal Princes at St. John a year ago and I heard to control our arrival, a tug was tied to the stern holding us back against the incoming tide.

 

 

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[lstone19]

Just looked at the itineraries and the port time at St. John varies a lot so almost certainly due to tides.

 

 

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[fishywood]

It is pretty common knowledge that the main attraction of Saint John NB is the Bay of Fundy having the most variable tides in the world. Port arrival and departure schedules entirely at the mercy of said tides; it the ship misses the small window in or out of the port it will either miss the call there or be stuck there and miss a subsequent port.

 

And there really is nothing "strange" about an arrival time in the wee hours of the early morning--it happens regularly in areas that the port cities are so close such as the eastern Med. Only difference in this instance is that Princess openly states it in the itinerary rather than put, say 7:00 AM even though they know it advance the ship will have to be alongside several hours earlier. In the Greek Isles there have been reports that the ships often arrive around midnight--giving the crew some unscheduled liberty in lieu of sleep--at ports with advertised arrivals at the "normal" time around dawn.

Edited January 10, 2018 by fishywood

[easyboy]

Just looked at the itineraries and the port time at St. John varies a lot so almost certainly due to tides.

 

 

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Agree. On our previous Regal sailing, we arrived at 5:30AM and sailed away at 3:30PM.

 

 

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[Pam in CA]

The entrance to the harbor is extremely narrow. You wonder, “How the heck is the ship going to sail in there?” Any variation in tide could be a major factor. The ship would want to enter the harbor when the tide is going in and sail when it’s going out. Hence the 12-Hour time between arrival and departure.

[lstone19]

The entrance to the harbor is extremely narrow. You wonder, “How the heck is the ship going to sail in there?” Any variation in tide could be a major factor. The ship would want to enter the harbor when the tide is going in and sail when it’s going out. Hence the 12-Hour time between arrival and departure.

 

High tide and low tide are about six hours apart. Successive high tides (or low tides) are 12 hours apart. I doubt they'd want to enter with an incoming tide as that could overpower the ship.

 

 

Looking at the Regal Princess schedule for this year, it is scheduled to be in St. John from 3:30am to 3:30pm on 9/26. High tide is at 1:01am, low tide at 7:13am, and then high tide again at 1:19pm. So it is entering and leaving with the tide going out (but those are the times at St. John. Given the Bay of Fundy tides, high and low tides at the entrance to the bay are likely very different since all that water is flowing within the bay).

 

On our cruise in October 2016, we were initially scheduled for St. John from 7am to 5pm on 10/24. Due to weather, that was postponed a day to 9am to 7pm 10/25. High tides on 10/24 were 7:36am and 8:03pm with low tide at 1:50pm so we were scheduled to arrive with a slight incoming tide and depart with an incoming tide. On 10/25, we approached the harbor (per the Log of the Cruise) at 7:34 and were alongside at 8:34 with high tide at 8:40am, low tide at 2:53pm, and again at 9:05pm. We departed at 8:44pm so would have an increasing outgoing tide on arrival and an outgoing tide departing.

[casofilia]

We have the same at Broome in Australia.

 

Please be advised that due to tidal constraints, Sea Princess will now call to Broome from 2:00 AM to 4:00 PM on Monday, October 15, 2017 instead of 7:00 AM to 6:00 PM as previously scheduled.

[Pam in CA]

High tide and low tide are about six hours apart. Successive high tides (or low tides) are 12 hours apart. I doubt they'd want to enter with an incoming tide as that could overpower the ship.

Doh! You’re right! [emoji3]

[CostaFortune]

Doh! You’re right! [emoji3]

 

 

 

Always!

 

 

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[lstone19]

On our cruise in October 2016, we were initially scheduled for St. John from 7am to 5pm on 10/24. Due to weather, that was postponed a day to 9am to 7pm 10/25. High tides on 10/24 were 7:36am and 8:03pm with low tide at 1:50pm so we were scheduled to arrive with a slight incoming tide and depart with an incoming tide. On 10/25, we approached the harbor (per the Log of the Cruise) at 7:34 and were alongside at 8:34 with high tide at 8:40am, low tide at 2:53pm, and again at 9:05pm. We departed at 8:44pm so would have an increasing outgoing tide on arrival and an outgoing tide departing.

 

Giving more thought to what I wrote and what I think the tides do there, I'm going to change what I wrote. For 10/25, the day we finally made it to St. John, we arrived just before high tide. Until high tide, water should be coming in (but starting to slack) which fits with what I posted above about a tug being used to hold us back. Departure just before high tide would also have been with the water starting to reverse and flow out of the Bay. But I'm not a mariner and from what I've read, the extreme tides of the Bay of Fundy are due to some interesting geological features there. So I may be all wet about what the water really does in the Bay of Fundy. I'd love to hear from someone who really understands what the water does there.

[lstone19]

Going back to the OP's questions, I'd say definitely tides. The tidal cycle is actually about 25 hours so if you look at Regal's schedule for this fall's Canada cruises, you see an alternating middle of the night arrival followed by a more normal morning arrival time seven days later, then back to middle of the night the next week.

 

An oft said expression in aviation is "a superior captain uses his superior judgement to avoid demonstrating his superior skill." The same can be said for ship captains. I'm sure most captains would prefer to avoid demonstrating their superior ship-handling skill by arriving at a time when there's no need to do so.

[LeeW]

Wait until you find out the ship time zone changes by 1/2 hour instead of an hour. We didn't actually make it into the port due to high winds and that narrow entrance, but we were 1/2 hour late to dinner on our TA.

[lstone19]

Wait until you find out the ship time zone changes by 1/2 hour instead of an hour. We didn't actually make it into the port due to high winds and that narrow entrance, but we were 1/2 hour late to dinner on our TA.

 

 

 

That’s St. John’s, Newfoundland with the 1/2 hour time zone. We’re talking about St. John, New Brunswick.

 

 

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