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TideFinder and TideCal are both tide search programs based on the GPL
licensed XTide
software which is distributed by FlaterCo at their website. Most tide programs give
you all the high and low tides, along with other information about
sunrise, sunset, moonrise, moonset and the phase of the moon. While
these are useful, this means you have to wade through tables and
numbers to find the information you need.
Both TideFinder and TideCal let you find the tides you are interested.
If you are a boater, and want a high tide for making a certain passage,
then search for that high tide. If you are a hiker, and want a low tide
for exploring tide pools, then search for that low tide. Both programs
use the tide/xtide software to compute the tides and other information.
TideFinder lets you select periods of tide coverage by duration and
presents the results of its search directly. TideCal does simpler tide
filtering, but it produces a file, suitable for use with iCal or Palm
Desktop, that contains the tide information that you want.
Suppose you want to hike to the lighthouse at Dungeness Spit on the
North Olympic Peninsula. The walk can be difficult when the tides are
high. There isn't much beach, and what beach there is will be rocky and
hard going. The round trip walk takes at least three hours, and usually
closer to four. If you want to reach the lighthouse around low tide,
you have to start an hour and a half to two hours before low tide. You
may also have other constraints, like driving time or dinner
engagements.
The traditional way to pick a good day to try for the hike is to scan
the tide tables looking for a low tide in the late morning or early
afternoon. This can be tedious. Tide tables are boring. Computers
should save you work, not give you work.
TideFinder lets you choose a location and set the desired high and low
tide limits that you wish to find during a particular time of day. So,
if you want low tides for a hike or to explore tide pools, or if you
want high tides so you can safely navigate, you can simply specify tide
heights in feet and when you want them. Then, tell Tide Finder to
search the tides over a range of days and show you the tides it found.
For more on how to use the program, check the Tide Finder documentation.
To download the TideFinder program, click here. The
zip file is about 5 MB and includes TideFinder, tide (a text version
of xtide) and hamonics.tcd from a recent version of XTide. (If you are using an older PowerPC based Mac, use this version of TideFinder instead.)
TideCal lets you choose a location and a time period. The tide program
computes the high and low tides, the moon phases and the rise and set
time of the sun and moon. You can include any type of these events in
the generated calendar file. In addition, you can put constraints on
the tides that should be included, specifying a height range and a time
of day range. If you are a smuggler and want to land on the rocky shore
after midnight, or if you fond of clamming, you can have the
information you need on your computerized calendar. For more
information on how this works, check the TideCal
documentation.
To download the TideCal program, click here. The
zip file is about 5MB and includes TideCal, tide (a text version
of xtide) and hamonics.tcd from a recent version XTide. (If you are running on a PowerPC based Mac, please use this version of TideCal instead.)
If you would like the source code and official distribution of XTide,
check out FlaterCo.
Remember, time and tide wait for no man.
For those who would just like to throw together an iCal calendar with sunrise and sunset events, you can download a much simpler program, SunriseSunset by clicking here. This uses a simple astronomical algorithm for computing sunrise and sunset and does not include the XTide software.
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