Tidal Stream app

[cpedw]

Is there a useful Android app to show tidal streams?

I have used Boatie which gives a nice graphical display and can be scrolled to show streams at different times. But it has several shortcomings:
1. It only works when online.
2. It doesn't give absolute stream rates, just varying sizes of arrow.
3. It doesn't give much detail on the west coast.

I have seen Absolute Tides in the Google store. It seems to do about what I want. Has anyone any experience of it? I don't want to chance £2 without a confident recommendation!

I know I should treat myself to a Tidal Atlas but I've never found it an easy way to find the information that I want.

Suggestions?

Derek

[Storyline]

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I know I should treat myself to a Tidal Atlas but I've never found it an easy way to find the information that I want.

Suggestions?
Derek

Yes, get the NP218 - really cannot imagine sailing without one. How to you do your passage plans to make sure you make tidal gates etc ?

Usually we write a week's worth of Dover high waters in the middle page margin in one go . Not that it is necessary to save time when cruising but it is just convenient

A graphical app on tablet or phone would also be good though. The plotter on Storyline has animated tidal arrows that are real time but these are located at the tidal diamonds on the Admiralty chart. A moving overview of the whole area would be great - let us know if you find one

Edit: have you seen the gorgeous wind graphics on the Meteo Earth app ? If this sort of presentation could be used with the extrapolated fixed point tidal data we have it would be great imo.

[cpedw]

Yes, get the NP218 - really cannot imagine sailing without one. How to you do your passage plans to make sure you make tidal gates etc ?

Usually we write a week's worth of Dover high waters in the middle page margin in one go .

I rely on pilot books which relate flows to Oban and Ullapool tides. I didn't (till I got the tablet with a tide heights app) have easy access to Dover tides.

Edit: have you seen the gorgeous wind graphics on the Meteo Earth app ? If this sort of presentation could be used with the extrapolated fixed point tidal data we have it would be great imo.

Meteo Earth is impressive; something like that (less fancy would be OK) for tidal streams will do.

Derek

[cpedw]

Well I was overcome by profligacy and bought Absolute Tides for 2015. It does tide heights for lots of places including Oban either in tables or graphs, using UKHO data. It has the capacity to do many more secondary ports. That's all fine but is mostly available in a lot of free apps too. It only works in portrait mode; my tablet holder is better in landscape.

Tidal streams are dealt with by showing the Tidal Atlas page by page. So it shows spring and neap stream strengths and scaled arrows and in addition it tells what time of day that page applies on your chosen date. It doesn't say whether tides are spring or neap or between at the time in question though that is available from the tide heights pages.

My conclusion is it's not quite what I was looking for but is better than anything else I've found. £2 for a year is reasonable. Once the data has been bought and downloaded, it works offline. Maybe I'll get used to using the tidal atlas through it.

The serious trial will come next season .

Derek