Not sure where I picked up this gem.
Every year we welcome the spring equinox (22 Sept) as it heralds the coming summer months but for those of you who decide to go cruising at this time at the southern end of the bay or mooching along the shoreline – beware of the syzygy, an astronomical phenomenon that occurs every 18 years.
One of the definitions of syzygy is ‘an alignment of three astronomical bodies in a straight line’; in this case it happens to be the earth, moon and sun, which in September 2015, just happens to coincide when the earth is at its closest distance from the moon. The resulting gravitational pull on the Earth’s ocean will take our tides to extreme levels.
Running aground at high tide on 22 September 2015 while showing the grandkids a close-up view of Pope’s Eye or pushing the boundaries as you tack through the Hopetoun Channel at Geelong could see you in for a long wait for the next high tide to float you off – these levels will next be seen in 2033. Similarly the short cuts across the sand banks for the catamaran and power boat owners will have additional hazards as the tide falls below the LAT – Lowest Astronomical Tide.
On the plus side, you may now have a new word to use on the Scrabble board while waiting to float off. The full tally of 75 on a triple word score can never be attained as, with only two letter Y tiles per Scrabble set, a non-scoring blank has to be incorporated!
Geoff Raebel