Key West Main Ship Channel: tide and current notes

Key West Main Ship Channel is one of the 20 inlets and passes Anglrithm measures runs from, in the Lower Keys region. This page sets out the public facts about its water: the NOAA tide gauges around it and how their tides run, what is known about its current, and the structure outside it.

How the tide runs here

One NOAA tide gauge sits within 6 nm of the inlet. Highs are timed against Government Cut (8723178), the reference for the Atlantic coast and the Keys.

  • Key West CO-OPS 8724580ocean side, 1.0 nm
    Mean range 1.2 ft; highs about 1.6 hours after Government Cut.

For the water at the mouth Anglrithm reads Key West (8724580), 1.0 nm away: a gauge in the same tidal water, never one inside an inlet, on the Intracoastal or up a river, because those run late against the water outside.

From NOAA CO-OPS tide predictions, October 4, 2026 to November 15, 2026: the mean range between successive highs and lows, and the median time from the high at Government Cut to the high at each gauge. A description of this inlet's tide, not a tide table.

Current

Anglrithm has no NOAA current prediction station on record for this pass, so no page here gives the strength or timing of its flow.

Wind against the currentSmall real effect

Wind blowing against the current stands the seas up: shorter, steeper and more likely to break than the same wind over slack water, which decides how a drift sets up and how long a day stays fishable. That is physics about the water, not evidence about the fish; no study we found ties it to catch.

U.S. Coast Pilot 4, Chapter 3 (opposing wind and current on the Gulf Stream: sharply higher, steeper seas that can break; mechanism only). No catch study found.

Within 10 nm

106 of the 2,153 wrecks and reefs in the structure file lie within 10 nm of the inlet, from FWC artificial reef program and NOAA Office of Coast Survey charts.

  • artificial reefs10
  • wrecks37
  • charted obstructions59

Counts only. The positions are on the chart in the app, each with its source and retrieval date; this page lists none.

Spots that run from here

No built-in spot lies within 15 nm. Best Bets still ranks wrecks, reefs and open water from here in the app.

Other inlets in Lower Keys

Display only, not for navigation. Every figure here names its source; check the NWS marine forecast and the posted rules before you leave the dock.