do they have tidal currents in Colorado?
Flying blind
I did a long trip in AK in 2004 with 3 other people, none of whom were locals there. We had those little freebie tide table books, sure, but I kept wondering how the heck we were supposed to know which direction the water would flow.
To be honest, most of the time it didn’t matter much, the currents usually weren’t strong. But I remember exceptions, some to our advantage (big speed boost! and fun) and some that were not (like if we let up our effort we’d get pushed backwards PDQ). There were a couple of spots that were probably more dangerous than we realized–tidal current combined with shallow obstacles underwater, river mouth current, strong wind, barge wake). I understand the funneling concept but what I’m wondering is the whole notion of the main flow direction in a given area.
I would like to be a LOT better prepared next time. I didn’t even know there was such a thing as current atlases till an experienced paddler who moved here told me there was one for the area we’d paddled. He did say it wasn’t really necessary there, though (as we found out).
Now = not the same as Always
I like paddling the ocean (lived near it for the first 30 yrs of my life). My husband and I will not stay in CO forever. I’m not gonna wait till we move away to learn “seamanship” if I can start now.
Besides, people do travel. The waters here are fine for exercise, most skills practice, scenery, camping, but there’s something missing, and it’s not just tidal currents.
More To Consider
I paddle in an area affected by tidal flows more often than not. I always try and have an idea about what the tide is doing. I have learned that the tidal currents do not follow the tidal heights exactly, and that the currents and water levels are affected by other things in addition to the tide predictions.
The current is affected by geography, the amount of tidal differance, wind, and local conditions. A good example of such a state influenced by other things can be seen with a NE wind in my area. A NE wind will tend to push water out to sea irrespective of what the tide is doing. So, we can have a high tide that actually measures less water than low, or visa versa. Bottom line, local conditions need to be considered when considering what the tidal flow and tide level is going to do.
Happy Paddling,
Mark
Reed’s Nautical Atmanac
– Last Updated: Dec-01-06 5:14 PM EST –
Publishes East and West Coast editions annually.
Unlike Eldridge, Reed's east coast edition includes the Maine coast.
(and of course I mean Reed's Nautical Almanac - can't correct typos in headings)
travel…
hm … I forgot about that!
Check out John Dowd’s “Navigation” DVD. I’ve enjoyed that a lot. So Canadian, you can feel it. Everyone will tell you to get David Bruch’s Fundamentals of Kayak Navigation, and that’s the standard reference, but I enjoyed Lee Moyer’s Sea Kayak Navigation Simplified a lot more. A lot simpler and more to the point. Franco Ferrero’s short Sea Kayak Navigation has many of the same things in tabular form (the 50/90 rule, etc.). Nice to photocopy and stick in your chart case.
JTides and Reed’s
I use two sources for current info. That information along with tidal information is necessary for route planning when you are going to an unfamiliar area.
JTIDES - http://www.arachnoid.com/JTides/index.html
This is a program you download and it allows you to access accurate tidal and current information both US and worldwide. Great resource. I can’t say enough good things about it.
Reeds Atlas is a good resource to have. I infrequently use the current resources there. I particularly like the hour by hour pictures that they have althrough there aren’t that many of them. I keep my old issues as the pictures don’t change, just the actual data. So combining an old Reeds with an online source for the current and tidal data is all I need for planning.
Although I only paddle on the ocean, I don’t use current data every time I go out. Just when traveling to areas I am unfamiliar with or areas of interest such as Fishers Race, Popham - mouth of the Kennebec or Merrimack River in Salisbury.
Suz
Maptech for tides and currents
Maptech is by far the best computerized tide and current source I’ve seen, primarily becuase it seems to list literally all the current stations. JTides, for example, lists 9 current stations for Massachusetts, while there are hundreds in Maptech.
Yes, that hundreds includes a lot of minor ones that kayakers don’t need, like most of the 60+ in Boston Harbor. But many important ones are omitted from JTides, such as the south end of Plum Island Sound, the entrance to Waquoit Bay, most of those around the Vineyard and Nantucket, and so on. These are necessary when planning trips in those areas.
Anyway, Maptech is expensive, and will set you back around $200 for Block Island to the Canadian border or any other single region, or more if you want other regions. It’s also got a clunky user interface. But the information is there, the charts are beautiful – hi-res scans of NOAA charts with digitized features – and there are many trip planning functions that even kayakers can use (and plenty more for power boaters). Plus, the printouts are as good as NOAA charts, though you have to trim and tape the 8.5x11 pieces together.
Also, none of the automated current predictions seem to be reliable for quirky places like Woods Hole. So in those areas you still need to cross-check, consult Reeds or Eldridge, etc.
–David
Every year I buy…
Tidal Current Tables _____, Pacific Coast of North America and Asia, formerly published by NOAA. Tidelog’s Puget Sound edition is pretty good, too. Additionally, I have a Washburnes Tables keyed to the Strait of Georgia and Strait of Juan de Fuca. My Navigation library includes Burch, first and foremost, then Ferrero and Moyers books. Additionally, if you are planning any forays into the PNW, I would advise a look at Jeff Renner’s Northwest Marine Weather.
As Flatpick said, you should know what the water is doing around here before you get on it, or whatever he said. Understanding the tides is easy to learn and maintain. For what it’s worth, the nautical charts and understanding symbology are pretty important. Winging it might get you by for a while, but mother nature can get pretty dismissive of the careless among us.
Dogmaticus
web sites
I paddle in and near New York Harbor, and I check tide predictions regularly, for two reasons. First, while there aren’t many places around here where the tidal current is strong enough to completely prevent paddling, it can make a big difference in how long you need, and how tired you get, for a given distance. Second, the relationship between current strength and water level is hard to predict: At my club, the max level occurs at about the same time as the max flood current, while you would think it would occur at slack water. But at Hell Gate, seven miles away and in a different part of the harbor, the intuitive relationship holds.
I imagine the importance of local knowledge of the tides depends completely on where you are. Some places have a weak enough tidal current that it doesn’t matter much.
I get my predictions from Eldridge, wunderground.com’s marine forecasts, tbone.biol.sc.edu (which has all sorts of fancy plotting options) and, most interestingly, from tidesandcurrents.noaa.gov. I suspect the NOAA site has the original data that all the other sources use (they’ll even sell you the FORTRAN code for running your own predictions). In particular, NOAA has two kinds of current tables: the tables for primary locations, with predictions based on computer simulations, and the tables for secondary locations, which just give never-changing time differences relative to the primary locations. For instance, the East River at Hell Gate is a primary location, since it’s so scary, and then the middle of the Harlem River is just given as “20 minutes before Hell Gate.” I learned a lot about how the currents travel around the harbor by studying the secondary-location charts.
– Mark
REEDS
is a great resource.
yeah, i always check
But are they accurate?
Somewhere on the NOAA site about current stations and data there is a little comment that many of the calculations, in particular the secondary stations, are old and are not considered to be accurate. So while you may see all these nice current charts in books and your computer may produce reams of data about such stations, I wonder just how accurate it all is. I rather suspect the current station data near major shipping lanes is timely and good. Extrapolated data and station data from less important primary stations might be good or might be junk.
SK and MarkinNC Are Correct
– Last Updated: Dec-02-06 2:22 PM EST –
at least regarding the sounds of NC. The direction and speed of the wind matters a lot. The amount of fresh water emptying into the sounds has got to be an influence as well.
I think the most important tide information is when high and low are right AT the inlet. In the creeks, rivers, and sounds the tide can make you tired and miserable. At the inlets the tide can kill ya.
Nobeltec
Nobeltec Tides and Currents software is an excellent program for info. Not free, but not super expensive. Covers all of North and Central America and Hawaii.
All tide and current prediction data are just that. Predictions.
Tides can be altered by weather. Even weather far away.
Getting back to the actual question
I’ve only had a chance to scan this:
http://eezway.org/clinic/Oceanography/Resources/Tides.pdf
But it looks like an excellent and comprehensive reference on tides and tidal currents.
importance of local knowledge
We spend most of July on Muscongus Bay. None of the nautical almanacs nor the Coast Pilot have much information on tidal currents for this bay. When I asked a resident about sources for such information, his reply was “That’s what they call local knowledge.”
So, we started noting the currents, and next summer will start recoding our observations so we can use the currents to our advantage.
(The number of islands and depth variations results in a marvellous array of tidal current direction and speed)
I’ve read that
they got it all wrong
Thank you all, plus a tidbit of info:
Wow, I really didn’t expect many replies to my question. Wouldn’t you rather argue about skeg vs. rudder, soft vs. hard chine? 
Sounds like figuring out a specific place/time can be tricky. But I suppose if it were all cut-and-dried, it would take some of the wonder out of paddling.
Here’s a comment made by the guy I referred to in my initial post. Little did I know he read my post, till he e-mailed me saying he was working in the deep freeze of Alberta. He said I could quote him, so I will give exact quote of part of his advice (boldface added by me):
Current changes may lag tides considerably. If there’s a large basin “inland” from where you are, it has to keep filling long after you reach high tide. The reverse is typically also true. Baja is a good example. In the middle and southern part of the Sea of Cortez, tides and therefore currents are small. In the northern part however, tidal range goes up dramatically. It might be only 2-3 feet in Loreto, but will be 8 feet or so in LA Bay. Since the basin continues a couple hundred miles north, you will hit high tide at LA Bay, long before you hit high tide further north. So even though the tide is beginning to drop where you are, it’s still filling to the north! and you have a current against you (flooding north) paddling south while the tide is dropping. There’s no current tables for the area that tell you this, but if you study up on the basic principles it makes sense. What’s harder is to try to predict the times of these movements.
Is It Accurate for Currents?
The question was not about tide levels, it was about currents. My point was that NOAA states the tide current primary and secondary info, except at locations where there has been recent observations, tends to be dated and should not be considered accurate. All the publications and software rely upon the same NOAA dataset AFAIK and, therefore, one needs to take the predictions with a grain of salt in many cases.