Caution - Ports & Passes.

[Conrad]

Because there are no official Canadian tide & current books printed anymore, I picked up a copy of Ports & Passes, thinking it would fill in the gap. Today as I’m heading toward Seymour Narrows, the P&P indicated a 2:51 slack but I’m already fighting the tide. Now that I’m looking at other sources, official and otherwise, I find out that the slack is 1:51. And no, daylight savings is not a factor.
So don’t trust Ports & Passes!

 

[MurrayM]

Well, that's hardly a confidence booster. One hour at Seymour Narrows is a big deal

 

[Ken E.]

That's pretty shocking. I've always relied on P&P.

 

[Conrad]

Well, that's hardly a confidence booster. One hour at Seymour Narrows is a big deal

Yes, when you factor in a boost due to the ebb, and instead end up fighting a flood as you’re heading to the narrows, it delays you even more. In today’s case I arrived 1 1/2 hours after slack.
Survived though!

Okay, that was overly dramatic...

 

[MurrayM]

Sure glad we timed it right in sea kayaks...

 

[Bill V]

Because there are no official Canadian tide & current books printed anymore, I picked up a copy of Ports & Passes, thinking it would fill in the gap. Today as I’m heading toward Seymour Narrows, the P&P indicated a 2:51 slack but I’m already fighting the tide. Now that I’m looking at other sources, official and otherwise, I find out that the slack is 1:51. And no, daylight savings is not a factor.
So don’t trust Ports & Passes!

Why do you say daylight savings time is not a factor, seems that 1:51 regular would be 2:51 DST. Could P&P have used DST as the base and adjusted it to DST again? I've used P&P for years and found it to be pretty accurate.

 

[Conrad]

HUGE APOLOGIES! Ports & Passes is correct.
One of my data sources is my always reliable MFD, which supported my original assertion. However, it had just come back from repair, and I’d missed an internal setting. That and the mysterious current I was fighting led me to an erineous conclusion.
Again my apologies and we can all go back to trusting Ports & Passes.

 

[rsn48]

Well, almost trusting P&P. There was an article in Pacific Yachting about 5 years ago where the author relying on P&P's timing for a rapid, can't remember which one, but I think Hole in the Wall. When he got to challenging area, he realized the timing was off. P&P had either put a "+" where a "-" should have been or vice versa. The article was to warn others of possible P&P errors and not to rely on one source.

 

[Conrad]

That report was why I kinda jumped the gun.

 

[Alaskan Sea-Duction]

Good to know. I use P&P and found it accurate. However I do double check with CE.

 

[JDCAVE]

Every year, I go to this CHS site and download PDFs for all primary and secondary stations and prepare bookmarked PDFs. I put copies on my iPad and my navigation NUC.

https://www.chs-shc.gc.ca/publications/tables-eng.html

I have a spreadsheet that I use for Dents, Gillards and Yucultas.

Jim

 

[Conrad]

Good idea Jim; still adjusting to the lack of printed tide tables.

 

[bshanafelt]

Jim has in the past shared his extremely accurate tables.

Thanks again for that in past years - sadly I don't expect to be able to use them again this season.

 

[soin2la]

Today as I’m heading toward Seymour Narrows, the P&P indicated a 2:51 slack but I’m already fighting the tide. Now that I’m looking at other sources, official and otherwise, I find out that the slack is 1:51.

One of my data sources is my always reliable MFD, which supported my original assertion.

In today’s case I arrived 1 1/2 hours after slack.

I just caught up to this thread. If I am reading you correctly and your timing was based on the MFD, weren’t you actually ahead of slack?

And then this puzzles me:

I’m looking at other sources, official and otherwise, I find out that the slack is 1:51

What were the “official and otherwise sources” that wrongly agreed with your erroneous MFD and contradicted P&P, as well as the DFO Canadian Current Tables?

And was that missed “internal setting” the adjusting to PDST?

 

[rcsomany]

Glad to hear that we can trust P&P cuz I just bought 2021.
Although paper Canadian Tide and Current Tables are no longer sold, PDFs of the familiar volumes can be downloaded (for free) at https://charts.gc.ca/publications/tables-eng.html
As a paper backup, Volume 5, for example, takes about 35 sheets of paper to print in booklet form.

 

[rsn48]

Okay so I've gone into Tides and Currents, Vol 5 & 6. Now in the past when purchasing the "books" that was all I needed. Now when I go to the referenced sites to download, I can't download Vol 5 & 6 but each individual location. Is there anywhere I can go to download all of Vol 5, for example?

 

[rcsomany]

Links on this page https://charts.gc.ca/publications/tables-eng.html
...lead here...
https://charts.gc.ca/documents/publications/tables/TCWL_2021_Volume5.pdf
... and here...
https://charts.gc.ca/documents/publications/tables/TCWL_2021_Volume6.pdf

 

[rsn48]

Thanks, looks like I'll be going through a lot of paper and ink, more expensive rolling your own, so to speak.

 

[rcsomany]

Save paper & ink

I just keep the full volumes on a laptop and write the tide and current info into my notes for the upcoming passage. That puts the relevant info right at hand rather than buried in the book.
If I have an internet connection, however, I use ... https://www.waterlevels.gc.ca/eng/find/region/1
... because the work of applying secondary port changes to the tabulated ports is done for you.
For example, we're in a marina near Sidney which is a Secondary Port that you calculate on Fulford. However, this page...
https://www.waterlevels.gc.ca/eng/station?sid=7260
... gives you seven days' tides from whatever starting date you specify.