I need help with tides in Puget Sound!!! fustrated diver with tides

[yukoneer]

I just moved to Seattle 3 weeks ago, so did my buddy too - we have no experience diving according to tides.

Yesterday, was hoping to dive Edmonds Underwater Park, looked at the tide predictions, and it mentioned High Tide will occur 2 hours later - I thought, great, the water won't be so low since water's coming in. We arrived about 6:00-6:30pm last night.

When I got there with my buddy, the waves and current were ravaging... We didn't dive. It was fustrating.

When is the BEST time to go diving? I know people say "slack tide" what the heck's that? My guess is that it's the tide that the water is heading back into the ocean, right?

This is what I use to look up for tide predictions... Lets use June 26th as an example - what would be the best times to dive on that day according to the tide chart?



on the other hand, any shore accessible dives on Lake Washington or the other lakes? (so we dont have to worry about tides...)

 

[gcbryan]

I just moved to Seattle 3 weeks ago, so did my buddy too - we have no experience diving according to tides.

Yesterday, was hoping to dive Edmonds Underwater Park, looked at the tide predictions, and it mentioned High Tide will occur 2 hours later - I thought, great, the water won't be so low since water's coming in. We arrived about 6:00-6:30pm last night.

When I got there with my buddy, the waves and current were ravaging... We didn't dive. It was fustrating.

When is the BEST time to go diving? I know people say "slack tide" what the heck's that? My guess is that it's the tide that the water is heading back into the ocean, right?

This is what I use to look up for tide predictions... Lets use June 26th as an example - what would be the best times to dive on that day according to the tide chart?



on the other hand, any shore accessible dives on Lake Washington or the other lakes? (so we dont have to worry about tides...)

Tides will tell you how high or low the tide will be. This may have a bearing on viz (high tide may be better), and will affect how far you have to walk to get to deeper water or how deep a particular wreck will be. For the most part current tables are what you should be looking at not tide charts. Slack refers to current not tides.

If you look at current tables (corrected for your particular dive site) you generally will want to get into the water a few minutes before slack. There are two slacks (slack before flood and slack before ebb). Flood is loosely related to high tide and ebb to low tide.

2:51pm was slack before flood and 9:17pm was slack before ebb. When you were there the current was predicted to be .3 kts. The waves were wind related and can happen anytime.

You do need to look at a graphic representation of tides for larger than nornal exchanges (the difference between high and low tides). Yesterday was an extreme day with a high tide of 12' or so and a low tide of -3' or so. When there is a large difference between the two (15' in this case) currents coming after slack will occur much more rapidly. Days like this are generally not good days to dive at current intensive sites.

Hope this helps.
Gray

 

[yukoneer]

Alrighty - use current charts/graphics, not tide tables. I got that one.

Ok, I found this website: http://www.mobilegeographics.com:81/locations/1761.html

I am still confused on what it is telling me. Using the above graphic, what's what?

thanks again, I am struggling to learn. (I am raised in west virginia, a landlocked mountain state, so - please don't use aquatical terms that I might not know, i'm learning as time goes by...)


Also, at the bottom of that page - it says "max flood" is at 6:21pm - so, that's a good time for diving since the current's not moving until 9:58pm - right? (copyied and pasted the prediction below from the current table )

2005-06-25 3:40 PM PDT 0.01 knots Slack, Flood Begins
2005-06-25 6:21 PM PDT 0.32 knots Max Flood
2005-06-25 9:13 PM PDT Sunset
2005-06-25 9:58 PM PDT -0.00 knots Slack, Ebb Begins
2005-06-26 1:13 AM PDT -0.51 knots Max Ebb

 

[Doc Intrepid]

I just moved to Seattle 3 weeks ago, so did my buddy too - we have no experience diving according to tides.

Yesterday, was hoping to dive Edmonds Underwater Park, looked at the tide predictions, and it mentioned High Tide will occur 2 hours later - I thought, great, the water won't be so low since water's coming in. We arrived about 6:00-6:30pm last night.

When I got there with my buddy, the waves and current were ravaging... We didn't dive. It was fustrating.

When is the BEST time to go diving? I know people say "slack tide" what the heck's that? My guess is that it's the tide that the water is heading back into the ocean, right? (so we dont have to worry about tides...)

Homer, try this:
http://www.toolworks.com/bilofsky/tidetool/

It works on cheap handhelds. Its free. Its effective.

You want to dive in the Sound, because its fascinating compared to the lakes. Just learn how. Slack tide is when the tide has either just stopped comming in, and before it starts going out, or just after shes gone out, before she starts coming in again. Theres a hell of a lot of ocean coming into the Sound and going out each time, so many sites in the Sound can be pretty interesting if you don't pay attention to the tides.

The sine wave-looking curves running above and below the horizontal line are the tides moving in and out. The apogee of each curve, the highest point top or bottom, is slack. Thats when the tide is neither moving in nor out. It's slack.

Tides in the Sound are really important (as you've already seen). People get swept away and drown annually it seems. Don't minimize the importance of checking slack times every time you head out.

You're looking to start gearing up around 20 minutes before slack hits (esp. if you're on a boat - the skipper will give you a heads up). Your goal is to be in and out before slack is over.

There are some sites, such as over in Hood Canal (which ain't a canal) where slack is less important, but if you're out on a boat in the Sound its wicked important. Take your Palm device out there on the boat with you, and check online now and again for updates.

Best,

Doc

 

[gcbryan]

Alrighty - use current charts/graphics, not tide tables. I got that one.

Ok, I found this website: http://www.mobilegeographics.com:81/locations/1761.html

I am still confused on what it is telling me. Using the above graphic, what's what?

thanks again, I am struggling to learn. (I am raised in west virginia, a landlocked mountain state, so - please don't use aquatical terms that I might not know, i'm learning as time goes by...)


Also, at the bottom of that page - it says "max flood" is at 6:21pm - so, that's a good time for diving since the current's not moving until 9:58pm - right? (copyied and pasted the prediction below from the current table )

2005-06-25 3:40 PM PDT 0.01 knots Slack, Flood Begins
2005-06-25 6:21 PM PDT 0.32 knots Max Flood
2005-06-25 9:13 PM PDT Sunset
2005-06-25 9:58 PM PDT -0.00 knots Slack, Ebb Begins
2005-06-26 1:13 AM PDT -0.51 knots Max Ebb

No, that's not a good time. Max Flood is the worst time. It's when the current is at it's max speed. You want to dive when it says slack, ebb begins or slack, flood begins.

Those are the periods when current is changing from an ebb to a flood (changing directions) and therefore it stops moving for a while. No current. That's when you want to be in the water.

I couldn't get your link to open but assuming it's for edmonds you have the right info. You just need to plan to be in the water a few minutes before slack so that slack occurs halfway through your dive.

Gray

 

[MXGratefulDiver]

There's a local book called "Northwest Shore Dives", by Stephen Fischnaller that can help you. In the front of the book is a very good explanation of how to use tide and current charts. Each site description also contains information on what current chart to use, and what corrections to apply. I have found them to be pretty accurate.

Not all dive sites are described ... but most of the popular ones are.

Mr. Fischnaller also gives a pretty good seminar at LDS's and dive clubs from time to time. It's a good $45 investment for local divers.

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

 

[yukoneer]

gray, and all else - thanks for the help/suggestions! I think that we understand it now, since we dove edmonds 2 days ago and it was perfect.

 

[David Thiesfeld]

I have some links to additional online current resources posted on my website, under the PNW diving tab. You can find NOAA's official predictions, and they list it for the whole year, so you can print it out and take it with you.

Another interesting NOAA site is the one that displays the actual recorded exchange that occured in the last 3 days. It shows a graph of what was predicted, verses what actually occured. It also shows what the water temps have been running. This one is great to use when slack didn't occur when predicted, and you can look at why it didn't (sometimes).

regards-

 

[donooo]

And besides all of that. We know from racing sailboats all over the sound that tides and currents can be 30-45 minutes off real easy. Also winds can have a giant affect on surface currents. If the wind is against the current you can have more white caps and if the wind is with the current you might have what appears to be more flat water. This can easily be contrary to what you expect to see. The best bet is experience, you had a great dive at Edmonds, try and figure out why it was great and what might screw it up next time. The extremes tend to have the biggest chance of error. Little water moving, chance of little error.

adios don O