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Hi- I'm a new NSPN member, and a first-year paddler. Pungo 120--for now. I've logged just under 150 miles since July, mostly on the Castle Neck circuit (8 trips). Also one Plum Island circuit. I plan to get to know the Plum Island Circuit well--partly as a training run for the Blackburn Challenge, but mostly because it's a beautiful paddle. When I did Plum Island, I launched at Pavilion Beach at two hours before high tide. My plan was to go up the inside and down the outside. When I set out, I decided to go the other way around, to get the ocean leg out of the way while I was freshest. It probably didn't matter much in that regard, since it was unusually calm for nearly the whole trip. Still, it worked out reasonably well; I reached the mouth of the Merrimack almost exactly at slack water. The downside is that I was soon paddling against a waxing ebb. That lasted for about an hour and a half. Good workout, anyway. I think my tide timing would have been good if I had stayed with my original plan to go up the inside. I was eager to find out where the floods met in the sound, but I missed that. Based on the amount of uphill paddling I did, I'm guessing that--at least on that day--the floods met much farther south than I anticipated. But maybe the ebb acts differently from the flood. I have a lot to learn about tides and currents. And that's my primary set of questions for now. When the tide's coming in from two directions and meeting somewhere in the middle (as with Plum Island Sound and Fox Creek), where exactly do the two floods meet? Always the same spot? (I'm guessing not.) Does one flow always dominate? (I'm guessing not.) After the tide crests, do the ebbs part from the same spot where the floods met? (I'm guessing not.) On one of my Castle Neck loops, I got to the Argilla bridge before there was enough water. I bumped the bottom about ten yards from the bridge (I was coming from the Castle Neck River side). In ten minutes' time, there was enough to sneak through with only a bit of scraping. The floods actually met under the bridge, as I recall. This was somewhere in the neighborhood of three hours before high tide. That's my one data point so far. I'd love to hear from anyone who has more knowledge of the local tides than I do (I imagine that's most of you, if not all of you). I'm also looking to connect with people to do these two circuits. My ideal paddling buddy is someone who sometimes likes to hammer it out at race pace, who sometimes likes to sit and drift with the tide for six hours, and who equally enjoys all types of paddles in between. Just for fun, here's a photo of my last trip around Castle Neck. The high was 11.0. Cheers, Mark