Our Blog
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Hydraulic currents: extreme flows in narrow passages
Understanding the physics, dangers, and navigation strategies for the ocean’s most powerful water movements I’ve transited Deception Pass more than 200 times in my commercial career. Even after all those passages, the power of hydraulic currents commands absolute respect. On a spring tide exchange, that narrow channel between Whidbey Island and Fidalgo Island transforms into
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Hydraulic currents: extreme flows in narrow passages
Understanding the physics, dangers, and navigation strategies for the ocean’s most powerful water movements I’ve transited Deception Pass more than 200 times in my commercial career. Even after all those passages, the power of hydraulic currents commands absolute respect. On a spring tide exchange, that narrow channel between Whidbey Island and Fidalgo Island transforms into
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Hydraulic currents: extreme flows in narrow passages
Understanding the physics, dangers, and navigation strategies for the ocean’s most powerful water movements I’ve transited Deception Pass more than 200 times in my commercial career. Even after all those passages, the power of hydraulic currents commands absolute respect. On a spring tide exchange, that narrow channel between Whidbey Island and Fidalgo Island transforms into
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Hydraulic currents: extreme flows in narrow passages
Understanding the physics, dangers, and navigation strategies for the ocean’s most powerful water movements I’ve transited Deception Pass more than 200 times in my commercial career. Even after all those passages, the power of hydraulic currents commands absolute respect. On a spring tide exchange, that narrow channel between Whidbey Island and Fidalgo Island transforms into
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Current Tables: Reading the Traditional Format
Current Tables: Reading the Traditional Format – Mariner Studio Current Tables: Reading the Traditional Format I learned to read current tables the hard way—standing on the bridge of a 190-foot vessel, watching my fuel consumption climb as we pushed against 3.2 knots of ebb in Deception Pass. The chief engineer appeared beside me, pointed at
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Using Current Data for Fuel Efficiency: Save Fuel by Working with the Flow
The fuel gauge dropped another quarter tank in just three hours. We were running at our normal cruising speed, making the same run we’d done dozens of times before, but today we were fighting a 2.5-knot ebb current the entire way. By the time we reached our destination, I’d burned nearly 40% more fuel than
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Current predictions vs observations: Understanding the gap
You’re approaching a notorious current station where predictions call for 1.8 knots of ebb at your arrival time. Your route takes you directly through the channel, and at your vessel’s 8-knot cruising speed, you’ve calculated a comfortable transit. But when you arrive, the GPS shows you’re making barely 5 knots over ground. The current isn’t
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Rotary currents: Understanding non-reversing tidal flows
Three miles offshore, the current meter showed 1.2 knots setting southwest. Six hours later, instead of reversing to northeast as expected, it had simply rotated to southeast at nearly the same speed. This wasn’t the familiar ebb-and-flood pattern we’d learned to anticipate—this was a rotary current, and it was teaching us that open water follows
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Ebb and Flood: Understanding Tidal Current Direction
I was standing on the bridge wing of our ATB watching the Delaware Bay buoys lean hard to the west. We were three hours past low tide, riding four knots of flood current up toward the C&D Canal, and I watched a southbound tug fighting that same current struggle to make even two knots over
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Current Stations: Real-Time Flow Monitoring
I watched a 40-foot sailboat get swept sideways through Deception Pass last summer. The skipper had checked the tide tables but ignored the current station data showing 6.8 knots of ebb. That oversight cost them three hours waiting for the next slack water window and probably a few years off their life expectancy. Current stations