The gravitational force of the Moon and to a much lesser extend, the sun's force pull on the earth. The side nearer the moon gets pulled harder, than the middle, and the far side gets pulled slightly less. The result is a tidal bulge on both sides of the earth, as the earth spins it carries us people through both bulges once every twenty four hours.

Tides affect our shores in two major ways being first that they initiate a rise and fall of the water level and second by generating tidal currents.

"Spring tides" are those tides which fall onto the date and time when Sun and Moon are lined up with each other and when Sun and Moon oppose each other such is called "neap tides."

The tides effects on the shore line will vary from area to area due to moon phase, location from where observed, tilt of the earth's axis, time of the year, depth and contours of ocean's bottom, Coriolis effect and any obstractions which could lessen or increase the tidal forces.

Tidetables for the Monterey area are available by clicking on Santa Cruz Monterey tides.