Tidal Streams, help with tidal flow, diamonds and atlases 

City Sailing Tidal Streams
How to work out tidal flow from tidal diamonds and tidal atlases.
City Sailing shows you how to work out tidal streams using tidal information from your almanac and applying this to your tidal stream or tidal diamond. This skill is essential for your Royal Yachting Association Day Skipper and Yachtmaster course and assessment. We go through this step by step for you and is a great accompaniment to your navigation course.
To work out tidal flow from tidal diamonds and tidal atlases, you will need to follow these steps:
Look up the relevant tidal diamond for your location in the tidal atlas. Tidal diamonds are diagrams that show the direction and rate of tidal streams at specific times and states of the tide.
Determine the time of high water at the nearest standard port to your location. This information is usually provided in the tidal atlas.
Use the tidal diamond to estimate the direction and rate of tidal flow at your location relative to the standard port at the time of high water. The tidal diamond will typically provide arrows or vectors to indicate the direction and rate of tidal flow.
Use the tidal atlas to determine the tidal height at your location at the time of high water. This information is usually provided in the form of a tidal curve or table.
Combine the information from the tidal diamond and tidal atlas to determine the direction and rate of tidal flow at your location. This can be done using vector addition, which involves adding the vectors from the tidal diamond and the tidal curve to find the resultant vector.
It is important to note that tidal flow can be affected by a variety of factors, such as wind and other environmental conditions. Therefore, the estimates provided by tidal diamonds and tidal atlases should be used as a guide only, and actual tidal flow may vary.
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