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Time and tide wait for no man

27 January 2012
“The first time I set off round Britain, sailing friends said to me, ‘Once you leave the Solent, you can forget about tides’.   This turned out to be just about the worst advice I had ever been given.   The whole of our coastline is subject to tidal flows  - some gentle, but some, as through the Pentland Firth or around Ardnamurchan Point, faster than the maximum speed of the boat, and therefore potentially very dangerous.   

When you drive along a road, you can (generally) expect the road to stay where it is so, if you drive at 30mph, then you will cover 30 miles in one hour.   When you sail, however, the water over which you move is, itself, moving.   A sailing boat may travel, typically, at about six knots (think 6mph).   If the tide is moving in the same direction at, say, two knots, you will cover eight (6 + 2) miles in an hour.   If, on the other hand, the tide is moving in the opposite direction at two knots, you will only cover four (6 – 2) miles in the hour  - half the distance!   It follows that it is crucially important to take advantage of the tide.   

The tides flow, on average, for about six hours in one direction then for six in the other; there are places around the coast, however, (Land’s End and, again, Ardnamurchan Point) where the tide flows out along both sides of the land for six hours, and then back again for the next six.   It follows that, if you can time things so that you arrive at the point as the tide turns, you can benefit for twelve consecutive hours!   Obviously, a bit of careful planning pays dividends.”
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