Spring Tide

When I was a kid, my family used to go to Port Dickson for short vacation during the school holidays. Port Dickson is a town situated next to the Strait of Malacca in Peninsular Malaysia. It has a long stretch of beach.

We usually stay at a holiday resort in Kemang Bay; Kemang Bay also has a public beach known as Blue Lagoon by the locals. It is a favourite spot for many picnickers & fish anglers. The sea here is calm with small waves because it is surrounded by rocky hills on both sides.

I used to play in the sea either in the mornings or late afternoons because the tide in Blue Lagoon usually rises to its maximum water level (high tide) at midnight & retreats to its minimum water level (low tide) at mid-noon. So, one would need to walk quite far out to reach the sea in the afternoon. Anyway, it was much more interesting looking for tiny crabs along the sand ridges on the beach. They usually come out from underneath the sand ridges dug by them when the tide retreats to look for food & play in the sun. I used to think of these ridges as the freeways in the crabs’ kingdom. They resembled many wavy horizontal lines along the beach.

We usually have our meals at a restaurant next to the beach. I used to hear many stories about the beach from the restaurant’s owner. I remember one of them particularly well because on that particular evening, the owner reminded us not to swim too far out to the sea. This is because the seabed is not flat. During the low tide, you will be able to see many puddles of water all over the beach. During high tide, these ‘holes’ on the seabed can be dangerous traps. It is an illusion that the water level is lower than actual because you are actually standing on a higher seabed. Many people had tripped & fell into them when they try to waddle back to the shore.

According to the restaurant owner, on the afternoon the day before, a father took 3 children to the seaside for fishing. 2 of them were his own children while the other one was his niece. All of them were below 12 years old. They sat on a big rock furthest from the beach as it was during the low tide. They were too absorbed in fishing without realising that the tide has risen quicker than usual because there was a spring tide that day.

“Tide is caused by the gravity forces of the Moon and the Sun acting on the Earth. Around new and full Moon when the Sun, Moon and Earth form a line (a condition known as syzygy), the tidal forces due to the Sun reinforce those of the Moon. The tides' range is then at its maximum: this is called the "spring tide," or just "springs" and is derived not from the season of spring but rather from the verb "to jump" or "to leap up." The effect is enhanced even further if the line-up of the Sun, Earth and Moon is so exact that a solar or lunar eclipse.”~ From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia~

What happened to the man & the children? Well, the man clutched two of the younger children, one on his right hand and the second one on his left. He managed to walk back to the shore which was about 800 meter away. The water level was already chest high. When he went back for the last child, he had to swim out because the water had already risen above his chest. He panicked when he could not find the last child. Many scenarios went through his mind. The child could have panicked, slipped from the rock & fell into the sea or he could have attempted to swim back on his own. The sun had set by then . The search was fruitless. The child was never found.

Today is the Chinese Mid-Autumn festival, where the moon is at its fullest & brightest tonight because it is at its closest distance to earth. Who knows, there could be a spring tide today.