Recommendations for Canadian tide/current iPhone apps; guide books for Johnstone Strait?

[andrewabernathy]

I live in Seattle and I have a couple of tide and current apps I use on my iPhone, but unfortunately they don't seem to have any Canadian coverage, and I had the same problem with other apps after a bit of searching on the app store. So I'm wondering if anyone can recommend any tide and current apps that do cover Canada, especially the BC coast.

The immediate motivation is that I'm looking to do some kayak camping around Hardwicke Island in Johnstone Strait in a month or so. It looks like for this trip Johnstone Strait Central is the best current station, and Yorke Island for tides, and I've found the info online, but I'd love an app that lets me pick stations from a map, for future use and for any places we pass on our trip.


Also, any recommendations for guidebooks and/or web sites covering that area? The BC Marine Trails site is a great resource for finding launch and camp sites, and I subscribed to that, but I'd also be interested in doing a bit more general paddling research for that area.

Thanks!

-andrew

 

[alexsidles]

Andrew,

I don't know any iPhone apps for tides. I always check my tides using either a Garmin heldheld or a printout of whatever tide stations Fisheries and Oceans Canada recommends.

But I can recommend a guidebook. Most guidebooks that cover this area cover only the fabulous Broughtons to the west of Hardwick. Luckily for you, though, John Kimantas's Wild Coast 3 has complete coverage of your intended area. Kimantas's is also the best guidebook overall, so it's fortunate that he has your coverage. There's enough detail in his book that you could spend years visiting every site he describes. His book his pricy at $35, but it's head and shoulders above the rest.

Alex

 

[andrewabernathy]

Thanks, Alex. I think you meant Wild Coast volume 1, not 3 – looks like v1 covers the east side of Vancouver Island where I'm looking. Hopefully I'm right — v1 is the one I ordered.

I did find a tides & currents app that seems to cover that area: Ayetides. It shows multiple current stations around that island. Need to compare it with a more authoritative source, and I don't want to rely on one app too much, but seems helpful.

-andrew

 

[eriktheviking]

... So I'm wondering if anyone can recommend any tide and current apps that do cover Canada, especially the BC coast.

-andrew

The best tide app I have found so far is AyeTides (and AyeTides XL on iPad) that has good tide coverage but there are not many current stations in the database.

 

[andrewabernathy]

The best tide app I have found so far is AyeTides (and AyeTides XL on iPad) that has good tide coverage but there are not many current stations in the database.

Thanks for the pointer. AyeTides turns out to have a surprising number of current and tide stations in the area I was looking at. (Like, I really want to figure out where they're getting the data from before I trust it; one of the current station locations is clearly placed on land.) If it turns out to be reliable enough, will be super helpful.

(Other stuff interceded to cause me to have to cancel this trip, but hoping to try again next year sometime.)

 

[cougarmeat]

Another "Hats off" for AyeTides. If you also use iNavX, they work together. If you have a iPad with no Cell data plan (like I do) be sure to download the needed data to the device before you leave your wifi zone.

If you are at a desktop machine, deep zoom.com is good for the San Juan area. But it doesn't venture into Canada.