For the safety of oneself, the boat’s crew and the boat itself, the boater had best be prepared to take tides and currents into consideration when planning a voyage of any length in tidal waters. Failure to do so can result in the vessel’s running aground or, just as embarrassing and damaging, snapping off a mast in a collision with a bridge or utility cable stretched across a tidal river. It is not possible to cover every detail of the subject of tides and currents within the constraints of this seminar, but it will certainly give the student a solid introduction to the subject. To learn more, we highly recommend boaters take the CanBoat courses, B4: Near Shore Marine Navigation Level I and B5: Near Shore Marine Navigation Level II. Tides and currents are covered more extensively in those courses.
