The trip planner is a very useful tool for trip planning.

Drawing the directions of swell, tide, and wind will give you an easy to reference visual, as well as highlighting any wind against tide issues that may occur (choppy days). Once filled in you can either store it in your map case or laminate it (to stop it getting wet) for reference whilst on the water. I laminate my plans as once filled in, you can write notes/update details with a chinagraph pencil in situ.

1. Enter the date at the top of the planner.

2. Either draw a rough sketch of the area you are planning on paddling in or copy and paste in a map of the area (you will need the MS Word version to be able to do this - email me if you would like a copy)

3. Enter tidal stream info from chart/guidebook etc

4. Enter the tidal port and from tide tables enter the appropriate tide times (Reeds Small Craft Almanac is a good source). Remember to adjust for BST!

5. For your info, enter local HW/LW times as appropriate.

6. Draw line of tidal coefficient to see if springs neaps etc (I use Reeds Small Craft Almanac)

7. The wind direction and speed can be found on various weather websites MetOffice, BBC Weather, XCWeather, WindGuru, Windfinder, Windy etc. Surfline is also a good source of swell (incl. Secondary and even any tertiary swells). Another source of weather related data is the MarineTraffic app (not the Desktop version) - find a ship nearby and click on the position tab for Wind, Direction and temperature.

8. HW N. Shields is at 0152. The NW flow starts at around +0330 HW N. Shields. Therefore The NW flow will start around (0152 + 0330 =) 0522 (Note: hours and minutes). Using the 50/90 rule we can then work out the tidal speed: 0522 = 0%, 0622 = 50%, 0722 = 90% 0822 =100% 0922= 90% 1022 =90 50% 1122= 0%.

The SE flow starts at -0220 HW N.Shields. Therefore, as HW N.Shields is 1354, the SE flow will start at (1354 - 0220 remember. this is HHmm) 11:34. Once again using the 50/90 rule we have 0% at 11:34, 50% at 12:34, 90% at 13:34 100% at 14:34 etc

To get the tidal speed: As both NW and SE steams at springs run at 2 kts, at neaps the tidal stream will be half of the springs figure ie 1 kts. As we are just below the average tidal coefficient (from Reeds Small Almanac) , I will assume the max rate (100%) for the day will be about 1.4kts. Therefore, 90% will be about 1.3 kts and 50% will be around 0.7kts..

To make life easier I've entered the times based on the NW/SE flow times to the relevant columns. So, I am going to suggest a start time of 0922 or there abouts. ie 0930 in reality. Since when did you ever leave on time! Besides there are many things like wind etc that can affect the actual tide times - it is not an exact science. I then plot each hour on the planner from 0922 along with the flow rate % and tide value.

Having entered all the data into the planner you can immediately see if there are any issues with wind or swell over tide and make your leadership decisions accordingly. Based on what we have entered to the planner, I am not very sure I would venture out with a group at 09:30, and paddle around Flamborough Head. With the NW tide and a pottentially SE wind, things will get very lumpy around the head. It is a very exposed place to be in sub optimal conditions. Even departing later at say, 10:00 may still be an issue (?), and of course the wind will be picking up later to a F4... I would leave it for another day and head for coffee and cake.