The lull at high or low water before the level turns, when a gauge trace runs almost flat. Its length depends on the shape of the tide curve: some ports have a long high water stand or even a second high, which pilots value for moving deep-draught ships. Stand describes height; the matching still period in the current is slack water, and the two often happen at different times.
We get a good hour of stand at high water here, plenty of time to swing the barge in.
Also heard as
- stand of tide
- high water stand
- low water stand
Do not mix it up with
- Slack water: Stand is about the water level pausing; slack water is about the current pausing, and they rarely coincide in an estuary.
Related terms
Slack water
The short lull when a reversing current almost stops while it swaps between flood and ebb.
Agger
A double high water or double low water, where the tide peaks or bottoms out twice in quick succession.
Top of the tide
High water, or the short period around it, as dock workers and boaters say it.
Dead low
The very bottom of low water, when the tide has stopped falling and not yet started to rise.