Another Messina straight thread

[Mikedefieslife]

Seen a couple of threads on the Messina strait.

I'm looking to go south to north this week. The weather doesn't look the most favourable, but presumably tide is king given the strength of the currents there.

Anyhow, has anyone used the following website for tide tables and currents?

http://www.correntidellostretto.it

Just wondering as to its accuracy. Also probably a daft question, but which way are the tidal flows through the straight, as they are mostly measured at Messina itself?

 

[Tranona]

When I went through also S-N barely noticed the tide. Kept to the Sicily side and apart from seeing a couple of swordfish boats and having a diver pop up in front of us at the northern end it was a bit of a non event - particularly compared with our tidal gates here!

 

[theoldsalt]

https://www.sailingaedis.com/blog/2...ing-boat-without-getting-eaten-by-seamonsters

 

[Mikedefieslife]

https://www.sailingaedis.com/blog/2...ing-boat-without-getting-eaten-by-seamonsters

So The northwards flow starts 1h50 before HW in Gibraltar. HW in Gib is at close to 3pm on Wednesday. That's 4pm CET. Which means around 2:10pm CET.

Potential gusts of 24knts from NW around that time too should make it interesting.

 

[PuffTheMagicDragon]

Your biggest headache is more likely to be the constant ferry traffic than the current, which is quite predictable. The Guardia Costiera don't take kindly to pleasure boats interfering with this traffic; this happens quite regularly to participants in the annual RolexMiddleSeaRace, which takes place during the last week in October.

 

[Yngmar]

We use http://www.sea-conditions.com/en/ quite a lot, mostly for the excellent swell forecast, but it also has surface currents. It's based on an Italian research project. There's a phone app for it too. Forecasts up to 24h in the future are free, longer costs a few buckazoids.

 

[charles_reed]

For anyone used to UK tidal gates it is a major non-event - still best to time it right - I've been through 5 times and only got it wrong once. As in the rest of the Med, prevailing winds are as significant as the HW differences between the two ends.

 

[sailaboutvic]

We been both ways , twice just last year , as in posting #2 not a lot to talk about , the most current we got was on a spring just as we ended going N to S it did slow us down a bit but once we got a bit further you could notice the different .
Keep close to Sicily the closer the better and you be ok .