[Paddlewise] tides and currents: reading the water

Hi All-

I want to thank Dave for an excellent explanation of
the differences between tides and currents. i live and
paddle on the Hudson River in NY, and it is a tidal
esuary too- an "arm of the sea", tidal to Troy NY.

I always meet folks who don't differentiate between
tides and currents, and don't realize that you can
have a falling tide on a flood- the back end, and a
rising tide on an ebb, the same way. And that wind
waves don't indicate the current.

I have sorta gotten tired of correcting them, like who
needs to hear that from me? But it is a true
charcteristic of these systems, and if you want to
really understand your body of water then it's nice to
have a relatively accurate model to work off.

Eldridge is our bible for currents. Nice to have a
push both ways when you go out.

Thanks -

Jack Gilman


Dave Kruger wrote:
> First, some basic tide/current modeling:  the tide
is a _vertical_ 
change in the surface of the water which moves from
the ocean into the river. When the surface of the
water is rising, we call that a rising tide, 
and at its peak, the tide is at its highest (= "high
tide" on the tide book). 
When the surface of the water is falling, that's a
falling tide, and 
when the water reaches its lowest point, that would be
low tide on the tide book.

and:
> In a nutshell:  looking at the tide book for
Portland, expect the ebb 
to begin _before_ high tide by a couple hours, and
continue _after_ low 
tide for a couple hours. 

* Check out the Yonkers Paddling & Rowing Club
  online at www.yprc.org.
----------------------------------------------
  See you on the river!
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