One of the trickiest things to research for the book is tidal information; times, flows, rates, directions, quirks. There are numerous sources to consult and amusingly, they don’t always correlate. I sometimes find myself forced to choose between the damned lies of one and the shameless mistruths of the other. A bigger problem is coverage. Almanacs don’t always provide information for the specific location that you need and the selection process for which locations they do decide to cover seems to border on the random!
Into the breach steps The United Kingdom Hydrographic Office. Their ‘Admiralty Sailing Directions’ Pilot books are thorough, meticulous, dauntingly authoritative. These hefty tomes tower over the rival pilots and almanacs, being quite frankly the nearest thing to maritime Bibles. Of course, they still can’t always provide all the information you need about every place, but they come pretty close and let’s face it … there is only so far that you can quantify the sea.
Yesterday I paid over thirty quid on eBay for second-hand copy of NP 37 West Coasts of England and Wales Pilot which is a more up to date edition than my current copy. This might sound like extravagance, but it’d still be a bargain at twice the price.
All due thanks to the Hydrographer of the Navy. Britannia still Rules the Waves.
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