The Quay Is the Worst Place in Town to Leave a Car

The options around parking on harbour quays are set out side by side below, with the conditions that genuinely favour one over the other.

Why quays flood

Quays are built at a height that suits loading boats, which means only slightly above the highest working water level. On the largest spring tides, particularly combined with low pressure and onshore wind, water simply comes over the edge.

Ports often publish predicted overtopping dates, and locals move their vehicles without being asked. Visitors returning to a car standing in salt water is a routine annual event in a great many harbours. Salt water damage to a vehicle is frequently extensive and insurance treatment of a signposted risk varies.

Reading the warnings

Painted lines, tide boards and signs stating that the area floods on high tides are literal rather than decorative. Where a quay has a stated closure period around high water, that period is based on records rather than caution.

Empty spaces on an otherwise full quay at a particular time of day usually mean the locals know something. Harbour offices will tell you directly whether a space is safe today, and they are used to the question. A tide table plus the sign on the wall answers it without needing to ask anybody.

Working access

Lorries, forklifts and cranes need swing room and turning space on a quay, and a parked car removes it. Blocking a slipway, a lifeboat launch route or a fuel berth causes real operational problems and occasionally emergencies.

Gear stacked on a quay is somebody's equipment and moving it to park is not an option. Many harbours have permit-only areas that are enforced strictly during working hours. The general rule is to park where other visitor cars are and not where the vans are.

Spray and corrosion

Even without flooding, a windward quay in a blow coats vehicles in salt spray that accelerates corrosion. Rinsing a vehicle with fresh water after a coastal trip is a genuinely worthwhile habit. Salt gets into brake components, sills and electrical connectors more than into visible paintwork.

On the water, sand blown into door seals and window channels causes wear that shows up months later.

Parking a street back from the water solves most of this at the cost of a two-minute walk.

Alternatives that work better

Most harbour towns have an overflow or park-and-walk car park slightly uphill and it is usually cheaper. Arriving early is the difference between choosing a space and taking whatever is left at sea level.

On the water, public transport into harbour towns is often better than expected, because they are historic settlements on established routes. Where a town has a one-way waterfront, parking before entering it avoids a slow circuit in traffic. Walking in from a distance also gives you the approach view, which is generally the best one.

Prices and opening hours on a seasonal coast are close to fiction outside the season.

If it does flood

Never drive through standing salt water on a quay, since depth is very hard to judge and edges are not always visible. A quay with water over it may have no distinguishable boundary between road and harbour. Wait for the tide to fall rather than attempting to recover a vehicle during the peak.

Photograph the situation for insurance purposes before anything is moved. Report it to the harbour office, who will have dealt with the same thing many times.

Side by side

The takeaway

Park uphill, walk down, and check the tide before you leave a car at sea level.

The best hours on any shore are the ones before the car parks fill.