When I hear "West Tide" I assume people mean west flowing current. You have to be careful cause some people talk about the currents as tides and tides as currents which is confusing and inaccurate. In fact at the canal , the tide continues to rise or fall for about 2 hours after the current changes direction.
Typical scene is the current is running towards the east and the tide is rising. The current changes directions and starts to run west flowing from Cape Cod Bay to Buzzards Bay but the tide keeps rising!!
Then , without changing current direction at all , the tide starts to fall again about 2 hours later. Same thing happens at low tide. Its all because the tide swing on the east end (cape cod Bay) can be as high as ten feet but on the west end(Buzzards Bay) its only about 5 feet.