Woods Hole current today

How the current through Woods Hole works

Woods Hole is the water between the southwest tip of Cape Cod and Uncatena and Nonamesset Islands, with Buzzards Bay to the northwest and Vineyard Sound to the southeast. The channel through it, Woods Hole Passage, is made up of The Strait, a spur called the Branch at The Strait's west end, and Broadway, the southern entrance to The Strait from Vineyard Sound. The Coast Pilot calls the passage a dangerous waterway with "severe east/west currents", bordered by ledges and shoals: Middle Ledge on the south side of The Strait, Great Ledge between Little and Great Harbors, and a rocky shoal reaching more than 0.3 mile west of Penzance Point.

Which way is flood. At 5 feet, the depth this page shows, NOAA's station in The Strait heads 77° true on the flood and 261° true on the ebb. Flood runs east, toward Great Harbor and Vineyard Sound. Ebb runs west, toward Buzzards Bay.

How hard it runs. The Coast Pilot says the current at times exceeds 4.5 knots in the narrow part of the passage, and the Coast Guard has reported 5.0 knots. It gives about 3.5 knots in The Strait south of Penzance Point. Either end is far gentler: about 0.8 knot at the north entrance in Buzzards Bay, and about 1.3 knots at the eastern entrance to The Strait in Great Harbor. NOAA's predictions for The Strait on October 1, 2026 peak at 4.30 knots westward and 3.81 knots eastward.

Speed changes with depth. This page shows The Strait at 5 feet, NOAA's default depth for the station. Deeper, the same current is much weaker. On the afternoon of October 1, the westward run peaks at 4.30 knots at 5 feet, 3.63 knots at 14 feet and 2.90 knots at 21 feet. That morning's eastward run peaks at 3.81 knots at 5 feet and 0.79 knot at 21 feet.

Slack is not high or low tide. On October 1, NOAA predicts high water at Woods Hole at 12:31 pm. The current in The Strait turns west at 2:37 pm and runs hardest west at 4:57 pm. Low water comes at 6:35 am, and the current turns east at 7:58 am. Take the turn from the current predictions, not the tide table. The two sides of the passage do not share a tide, either: NOAA gives a mean range of 1.79 feet at Woods Hole and 3.82 feet at Chappaquoit Point, in West Falmouth Harbor on Buzzards Bay.

Limits. These are astronomical predictions. The Coast Pilot says both the speed of the current and the time of slack water are affected by strong winds.

For how moving water forms seams and rips, see how to read a rip. Whether bass face into moving water is a separate question: do striped bass face into the current?. The same tables apply through the fall run (when do stripers leave Massachusetts).

Boaters: the Coast Pilot says buoys in the narrowest part of the channel are sometimes towed under by the current, and that strangers should attempt the passage only at slack water. Its buoys are colored and marked for passage from Vineyard Sound to Buzzards Bay.