Bought a "tide watch", a casio G-shock (A$160). The tide watch indicates the phase of the moon (neap or spring tides) and also a graph to indicate what the tide level was doing in present time (rising=flood tide, falling=ebb tide, high tide, low tide)
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| Casio G-shock tide watch. |
It's really just a general indicator and tidal accuracy is plus or minus 30-60 minutes around around my area. The tide tables still need to be read, for accurate high-low times and levels. But the watch is great for general critical tide information at a particular time/date, which can help influence navigation decisions for the better.
A caveat before rushing off to buy a tide clock/watch. They only work in certain regions and are useless in some areas. A tide clock map of the world need to be looked at first. My sailing area is on the borderline of where tide clocks work. They need to be in semi-diurnal tide zones. These are two highs and two lows per day with similar low and high levels. My area and north to Cape York peninsula (Cairns etc) has "mixed tides", the two lows and highs per day are different levels. The tide clock still works but isn't as accurate, could be plus or minus an hour or so out, but its still good enough for my needs.
Referring to the tides types map below. It looks like Australia's east coast/Tasmania and all of NZ coasts are good. Most of the Atlantic ocean coasts are ok. A fair bit of SE Asia is ok too.
Don't get a tide clock or watch if you live in Perth, Western Australia. Gulf of Thailand. Gulf of Mexico. Diurnal tides occur in these places (Only one high and one low tide per day).
Mixed tides are in Southern Japan, west coast USA, Carribean and Indonesia. So the tide clock watch won't be as accurate there and you might want to talk with locals/fishermen etc in those areas about it first.
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| Tide clocks only work accurately in the "green" semi-diurnal tides areas. |
TIDE CLOCKS (quartz, analog)
A few month's earlier...
I was looking into "tide clocks". These are also a good way to go and can be bought online for around $60-350 AUD. Some trailer sailers have them on a bulkhead where they are easy to read, as most of them have a 4" to 8" inch (100-200mm) diameter clock face. They have a specialised clock mechanism that has 12.5 hour half days which is in line with the moons cycle.
I'm old school and like to see the product in a shop, however up in the reletively "remote" coastal cities/towns of NE Australia, with mixed tides, they are very rare items in stock. On a road trip to Cairns, 400km north of home base, visited "Whitworths" marine chandlery, a very well stocked sailors dream store. They had a plastimo keel boat tide clock, for long distance yachties, a very well built heavy, solid, high quality piece of kit with a matching $350 price. Its face was only 4 inch but it was a bit too bulky heavy for a small 18 foot TS, it would be great in a bigger boat like a 25-40 footer.
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| Plastimo tide clock - 10cm chrome, Whitworths. |
There were some nice ones online too. Like 20cm budget stainless steel case ones made in Northland, New Zealand. Cruising electronics - Rarity and Hansen. They also have a nice "time and tide" clock, very well priced.
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Rarity and Hansen 20cm tide clock, NZ.
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| Rarity and Hansen 20cm "time and tide" clock, NZ |
(NZ a world cruising hotspot area, especially during the south Pacific cyclone season, so its well serviced for marine gear and yacht refits). (They also have "Royal Mariner" the heavy-duty good stuff, on par/price with the plastimo one).
TIDE WATCHES (digital).
As a TS is so small with limited space, i discovered and looked into digital tide watches. These range from economic simple $100-$160 eg Casio's. to complicated bluetoothed computers for surfers and Rolex challenger athletes, costing many hundreds of dollars on upwards.
The 2023 G-shock tide watch was the only budget one i could find in jewllers up here, it has a stated 2 year battery life, but it might last longer if the red LED light isn't used much.
(Tried to find the cheaper/simpler superceded 10 year battery life 2022 model, which was a nice round shape one advertised at BCF, but as usual nothing in store) They can be found second hand on ebay etc, if willing to take a punt.
My G-shock watch is very lightweight, so it's almost unnoticeable to wear. However it is very robust, takes 20 bars underwater pressure (200m = 666 feet) and is an accurate time piece. It's 52mm width makes it easy to read.
It has far more functions than the earlier WS1300H, most of which i will probably never need or use (stopwatches, timers, alarms etc) (Casio, please bring a simple cheap tide watch back..) I just like seeing what the tide is doing at the present time, and where i am in the tide cycle, how many hours to the next low or high tide). Usually that time is when aproaching anchorage or a tidal estuary, places likely to run aground in the near future (and how much caution to apply to navigation, eg more cautious on a falling tide)
(For tide/trip planning say day or two ahead, tend to use my mobile phone app's or the hard copy tide tables while resting at anchor, sometimes the coast guard tells you weather/tide info on VHF radio) Still all the inbuilt functions might be good for others who love tech and don't have tide tables/VHF's etc on them.
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| G shock tide watch. Comfortable to wear and easy to read. |
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| G-shock tide watch. waterproof strap design |
It's also handy having this tide watch for any beach related activities. From walking the dog to going for a swim or surf, fishing, snorkelling or travelling around on 4WD coastal road trips.
