Eldridridge Tide and Pilot

[erniem]

Could someone please explain to me what the bold type "High 0 55 after low " means ?

[brokesailor]

What page are you on?

[Rick486]

Originally Posted by erniem

Could someone please explain to me what the bold type "High 0 55 after low " means ?

That shows for the local you are looking at, i.e. "Vineyard Haven" for example, high tide occurs 55 minutes after the reference (Boston let's say) and low occurs 0 minutes (or maybe you left out the minutes) after (or before) the reference. The phrase just provides approximate times of high/low tide relative to a reference location such as Boston, Portland, and so forth.

[brokesailor]

Don't mean to hijack but:

I am trying to figure out a run from Chesapeake City to Cape May trying to use the tide in my favaor as much as possible using the Eldridge Tide Book.

The tide in the C&D floods and ebbs into the Bay. Is that correct?

So I would leave Chesapeake City before high tide so I can get to Reedy Point at high tide there? There is 4 hrs between high tide at Reedy Point and low tide at Cape May. Not a lot of time.

[brokesailor]

Oh and Which direction does the tide flood and ebb in the Cape May Canal?

[erniem]

Hi Brokesailor,

If I use Beaufort River pp 20 then I would add 30 min for the high and add 55 minutes for the low?

[Tempest]

Erniem,

Great Question,

I think you're refering to the stations where there is a difference of greater than 20 minutes between the highs and lows relative to the reference station for a particular location.

I don't have my 2012 eldridge yet. But, in 2011 for instance:
Using South Carolina, Beaufort, beaufort river The High ( Bold) is .55 minutes after high tide at the Battery. and the low would be 30 minutes after low tide at the Battery.
There's a 25 minute difference..between the highs and the lows relative to the reference station.

At least that's how I read it. I'm happy to be corrected if I've got this wrong.

[DRFerron]

This doesn't answer the original question, but I preferred the old Reed's Almanac (no longer published in the US) to Eldridge. I keep a copy of Eldridge on board but I've gotten into the habit of printing the tide tables that I need from NOAA directly and keeping them in my notebook along with the relevant sections of Coast Pilot, Light Lists, etc.

[Tempest]

Originally Posted by brokesailor

Oh and Which direction does the tide flood and ebb in the Cape May Canal?

Cape May Canal.

Floods 310 degrees (true) or to the Northwest.
Ebbs 130 degress (true) or to the Southeast

Timing is based on the Delaware Bay entrance.

C & D canal Floods East ( toward Delaware River ) and Ebbs West (towards The Chesapeake Bay) Timing is from Chesapeake city.

I believe, that IF you leave chesapeake city with the flood, you'll get some opposing current in Delaware bay for awhile, but then you'll pick up the turn to the southeast in Delaware bay. The transit of the bay takes more than 6 hours, so at some point you'll have to buck the current. I've made the trip several times, but haven't studied it in awhile.

There are several people here who do it every year and will be able to pinpoint the optimum departure and arrival timing better.

[SVAuspicious]

You don't care at all about tide. You care about CURRENT. See Current Station Locations and Ranges for great predictions. Tidal state and current are out of phase and while you can estimate current from state of tide you'll be wrong more often than right.

All of that is made more complex on the Chesapeake and Delaware by wind-driven effects.

Stick with the current tables.