Tide times - source to trust?

[mlines]

Just wondering which system to trust, or just to understand why there is a difference in the first place.

Tide tables show high tide on Saturday morning at Warsash is 10:27, this is consistent across the tide tables so this is the "correct" version as far as I am concerned.

My electronic systems show High Tide as being at 11:03

As we are towing down and slipway launching this 30 minutes makes a difference as the slipway window (Mercury) is +- 2 hours and we would arrive around 12.30.

 

[Nigelpickin]

My navionics shows as follows

High tide, as shown in the graphic, of 14ft reached at 10:30 but the water stays at this level for 1 hour. Navionics gives the time of high tide as 11:02 in the text above the graphic.

Could it be the mean of the high tide given the plateau in the curve, as it were....but the printed tide table shows the time that the water reaches maximum height and thus there is a discrepancy?

But 10:30 looks good for high tide.

 

[BruceK]

I think local geography may come into it. For instance all the tide tables for Conwy show the low tide an hour before it actually is in the estuary, just under a mile from the sea mouth. Regardless of this knowlege I always get caught out trying to catch the water taxi which is not available during 1 hour either side of low. Plenty times I've sat at the quay for 2 hours waiting for the water to come in enough for the taxi to reach the jetty. Yet Beacons slipway, a couple hundred yards from the mouth, high tide is spot on. Seems we have a 7 hour ebb to a 5 hour flood with only high being correct to the table.

 

[jlandells]

I find the most reliable source to be the almanac. Whenever I go out, I work out the relevant tidal curves for any areas that are likely to be critical - even if that means doing a bunch of secondary port calculations.

Maybe I'm just old fashioned...

 

[benjenbav]

I think Reeds print the time of the first of the double tides and, the electronic version may show the time of the second if it is the higher of the two.

 

[paul salliss]

Almanac every time for me

 

[henryf]

Yes, the Almanac. I suspect your electronic chart is quoting the middle of the stand.

The great thing about Almanacs is they fill in the detail explaining exactly they are telling you.

Henry

 

[burgundyben]

When you get to Mercury pop into the chandlery and ask for a copy of the ABP Port of Southamton tide tables, that shows the double high water times and gives you more info on the tides in Southampton that you could ever imagine, this will give you the exact times and curves and how to correct for wind and air pressure.

It also shows a %age of MHWS for each tide which is a useful insight too.

(Bit of a local tide nerd, copy, copy kept by the bed!!)

 

[Andrew38]

Your RYA training courses always teach that the almanac times are mid-hour - so you have 30 minutes of slack water before or after.

 

[ctva]

Easytide every time. UKHO is probably the source for most almanacs and good apps.
http://www.ukho.gov.uk/EasyTide/EasyTide/SelectPort.aspx

 

[superheat6k]

Download the App 'Boatie'. Best value app I have paid for.

Works for me on the Hamble and indeed other places I have been to.

 

[colingr]

Plus one for Boatie