NAVIGATION BRIEFING

Whether racing or cruising, tides and current are important. But how accurate is the tidal information available, and how can you best use routing apps and software to navigate in tidal waters?

Wherever we have current (tidal or other) this will always influence the sailing wind and the boat’s course over the ground. At anchor we can accurately measure the wind speed and direction, which we call the ground wind. However, if we are just drifting the effect of the current will alter the wind speed and direction that we are measuring. This we usually call the sailing wind or apparent