Sailing Preparations Phuket Thailand - Tides

It’s one day out before we leave for Phuket, Thailand. We’re going to be bareboat chartering a Cat 4600 from the Moorings. Today I’m doing some final prep work. I have downloaded the World Tides 2015 App for $2.99. When I arrive and during the trip I want to be on top of the tides (pun intended).

Here is a screen shot directly from the App for the day we head out from the Moorings Base.

So looks like we are going to be dealing with some pretty hefty tides and we need to take care. Notice here also the pic of the moon showing it is new thus we should expect even higher and lower tides a few days later with a spring tide. Potentially we’re looking at 3 meters. That’s a lot. With such tides we also need to be thinking about currents. (No we are not heading out at 3am – that’s just in the middle of the screen shot. We’ll plan on an early departure as soon as our eyes open and 2 cups of fresh coffee and fresh fruit are in the tummy)

Particular attention needs to be taken when anchoring. And this may mean an adjustment of the anchor rode length during the night. With this App onboard it’s going to be pretty convenient. We’ll know exactly what phase of the tide we’re in at anchoring time and can plan accordingly around the depth. This makes me feel very confident that we’ll not have any issues with tides. Even little things like beaching the dinghy we’ll know how far up the beach to pull it. What about tying the dinghy to the pier? Don’t forget about that one?

Do you really understand Tides? Are you CONFIDENT AND COMPETENT? You should take our Coastal Navigation Course. We talk all about tides and predictions and what to do – and we talk about currents and how to calculate courses based on known currents etc etc.

Take the Coastal Navigation Course now also available as an iPad App