Penzance -- well, much of England, actually -- has a big tidal range; about 7 meters/20 feet. Our ship is docked in a small enclosed basin with a sill across the entry; at low tide the sill keeps a minimum pool of water in (otherwise it would dry out completely.) It keeps the water level comfortably nearly constant and extremely calm. But the downside is boats in this inner basin can only come or go in the hour or two around high tide.
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| Here's a view of the gate open at high tide. |
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| The gate is still closed here, and this vessel is waiting to exit. |
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| The outer basin, which is allowed to dry out at low tide. Note that to accommodate these conditions the English boats have two keels so they can remain flat as the water recedes. Cinderella, having only one, traditional keel, would potentially fall over on her side. |
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| Here's a zoomed-in version so you can better see the twin keels |
In olden times, they used the tides to their advantage. Here's a tower on an island called St Michael's Mount. As we were arriving (at high tide, obvs) the tower is completely isolated. At low tide, there's a stone walkway that visitors can us to explore the island and the tower. One one of the locals told me it was associated with a female pirate in its history but I haven’t found that on google ... yet. (not my photos)
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