Cuando sube la marea, me gusta sentarme más lejos de la orilla.

Because this sentence describes a habitual situation: whenever the tide comes in / rises, I like to sit farther from the shore.

In Spanish, cuando + present indicative is normal for repeated, general situations:

• Cuando llueve, me quedo en casa.
• Cuando sube la marea, me gusta sentarme más lejos de la orilla.

If you were talking about one specific future time, Spanish normally uses the subjunctive instead:

• Cuando suba la marea, me sentaré más lejos de la orilla.

So sube here suggests a general pattern, not one single future event.

Yes. Both are grammatically correct.

• Cuando sube la marea
• Cuando la marea sube

Spanish often allows this kind of word-order variation. In this sentence, sube la marea sounds very natural and fluid. Putting the verb first can sound a bit more like introducing the event itself, while la marea sube can feel slightly more neutral or straightforward.

The difference is small here, and both would be understood easily.

Because Spanish commonly talks about the tide as something that rises or goes up:

• sube la marea = the tide rises / the tide comes in
• baja la marea = the tide goes out / the tide falls

So subir is a very natural verb here. It works much like English to rise when talking about the tide.

Because me shows who is doing the liking.

With gustar, Spanish structures things differently from English. Literally, me gusta is closer to it is pleasing to me.

• me = to me
• gusta = is pleasing

So:

• Me gusta sentarme... = I like sitting down...

If you remove me, the sentence loses the person who likes the action.

Because the thing being liked is the whole action sentarme más lejos de la orilla, and an infinitive action is treated as singular in Spanish.

Compare:

• Me gusta nadar.
• Me gusta leer.

But:

• Me gustan los libros.
• Me gustan las playas tranquilas.

So here the subject of gusta is the infinitive idea sentarme más lejos de la orilla, which takes singular gusta.

Because after gustar, if you like doing an action, Spanish normally uses the infinitive.

Examples:

• Me gusta caminar.
• Me gusta nadar.
• Me gusta sentarme más lejos de la orilla.

You do not use a fully conjugated verb there in the same way English does. So not me gusta me siento or anything like that. The action itself is expressed with the infinitive: sentarme.

Because the verb here is sentarse, not sentar.

• sentar usually means to seat someone or, in other contexts, to suit someone
• sentarse means to sit down

So:

• Voy a sentar al niño. = I’m going to seat the child.
• Voy a sentarme. = I’m going to sit down.

In your sentence, the speaker is sitting themselves down, so the reflexive form sentarse is needed.

Because Spanish attaches reflexive pronouns to infinitives.

So:

• sentarme = sentar + me
• levantarme = levantar + me
• ponerme = poner + me

That is the normal pattern with infinitives. Here, me gusta sentarme is the correct structure.

A form like me gusta me sentar is not correct.

Because más lejos is the standard and most natural way to express physical distance in a sentence like this.

• lejos = far
• más lejos = farther / further away

So:

• más lejos de la orilla = farther from the shore

Lejano exists, but it is more like distant and is less natural in this context. For actual location and movement, lejos is usually the better choice.

Because Spanish uses lejos de to mean far from.

This is just the normal pattern:

• lejos de la ciudad
• lejos del ruido
• más lejos de la orilla

It works similarly to:

• cerca de = near
• lejos de = far from

So the de is required here.

Here orilla means the shore, the edge of the water, or the waterline.

That makes it a very good choice for a beach context. It refers more specifically to the edge where land and water meet.

Compare:

• orilla = shore / water’s edge
• playa = beach
• costa = coast

So más lejos de la orilla means farther away from the edge of the sea, not necessarily farther from the entire beach.

It is very natural here, because the sentence begins with a time clause:

• Cuando sube la marea, me gusta sentarme...

In Spanish, when a subordinate clause comes first, a comma is often used to separate it from the main clause. In very short sentences, natives do sometimes omit it, but the comma is perfectly standard and helps readability.

So this punctuation is a good model to follow.

Then Spanish would usually switch to the subjunctive after cuando.

For example:

• Cuando suba la marea, me sentaré más lejos de la orilla.

That means something like When the tide comes in, I’ll sit farther from the shore.

So the contrast is:

• Cuando sube la marea... = whenever the tide rises / as a general habit
• Cuando suba la marea... = when the tide rises next time / in a future situation