Eldridridge Tide and Pilot

[jimrafford]

If you are going to use eldridge for it's hourly current tables you will need to know when high is.
Jim

[brokesailor]

Auspicious: You are right! Thanks for the coaching. You must admit though that the difference in time between slack current and high/low tides at least in our neck of the woods is almost insignificant.

[SVAuspicious]

Focusing on current vice tide and planning accordingly saves me about two hours on the run from Annapolis to Cape May.

[DRFerron]

Originally Posted by SVAuspicious

You don't care at all about tide. ...

Stick with the current tables.

You mean don't care about tide in the context of the original question, correct? Because we do care when high tide is when it comes to getting in and out of certain areas that we cannot access at low tide.

[davidpm]

You guys make me feel like such a slacker.
In my life jacket which I always wear when on the boat is a pocket that holds a hand held chart plotter. I turn it on an click on the little T or C and there it is.

It is a real chore however because I have to click to another screen first to find out the time. Then click on the current or tide icon then figure out which line item is closest to the current time and then figure out if it coming or going. It takes at least 2 seconds.
You would think that for 500 bucks they would at least highlight the correct line for the time of day, sheesh

[SVAuspicious]

Originally Posted by DRFerron

You mean don't care about tide in the context of the original question, correct? Because we do care when high tide is when it comes to getting in and out of certain areas that we cannot access at low tide.

Of course you are correct Donna. We just need to consider the proper factors for the needs at hand. Factors include wind speed and direction, current, tide, time of day, and visibility. Sometimes multiple factors are at play.

I recently crossed the bar at the mouth of the Rio Dulce River at Livingston Guatemala. We had to look at state of tide to ensure we could clear the bar, be aware of current for its effect on speed and steerage, and time-of-day so we could see in an area with few marks (even the local fishing fleet stood off until dawn). There were anchorage issues as well as bureaucratic ones.

Heading through the C&D and down the Delaware I pay attention to current and time-of-day for each person on watch.

On the other hand if I'm headed from Annapolis to Galesville I usually just go. *grin*

Mostly I do all the lookups on the Internet before heading out and take notes. Anything I do aboard is just confirmation if there is time, so I don't have the challenges that davidpm has.