From:	My location
To:

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▾ Search for a location by name.

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▸ Search for tides or currents.

Search for	one month three months six months one year	beginning  today Jan 1 Feb 1 Mar 1 Apr 1 May 1 Jun 1 Jul 1 Aug 1 Sep 1 Oct 1 Nov 1 Dec 1
on	Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat Sun
from	midnight 3 AM 6 AM 7 AM 8 AM 9 AM 10 AM 11 AM noon 1 PM 2 PM 3 PM 4 PM 5 PM 6 PM 7 PM 8 PM 9 PM	to  3 AM 6 AM 7 AM 8 AM 9 AM 10 AM 11 AM noon 1 PM 2 PM 3 PM 4 PM 5 PM 6 PM 7 PM 8 PM 9 PM 11:59 PM	daylight hours only
	Max Ebb Max Flood	between	and
followed by	Max Flood	between	and
Search

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▸ Search for YourCoast features.

Show only the YourCoast points which match all of your Yes or No selections below . Features marked '-' are ignored.

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▸ List of Chart on Every Deck charts.

Transparent rectangles on the map indicate nautical charts which are available for download as PDFs. Click on any rectangle to bring up its download chart and open in browser buttons.

Click a chart name in the list below to see its rectangle on the map, complete with its download buttons.

1. loading...

Don't see the chart you want? You can print custom charts at FloatingTrails.com .

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Track Measurements

	Distance in miles kilometers nautical miles	Course magnetic true
Full Path
Segment

Path	Latitude, Longitude in decimal degrees deg° min' sec"	Magnetic Correction
From
To
Start Over   Show Info (I)

Add a point to the track
Add my location

Measuring distance along a track

Follow the instructions below to draw a track on the map. The distance along the track, the coordinates of the endpoints, and the compass direction between the endpoints will appear in the table above as you draw.

Note: If your system does not have a hardware keyboard, some of the instructions below refer to keystrokes like Shift, Delete/Backspace, etc. which are not available to you. In most cases we describe an equivalent gesture which doesn't require a keyboard.

Start drawing by clicking anywhere on the map. If you're using a mouse or trackpad, a rubber-band line will follow the cursor as you draw. The "from" end of the line is indicated by a large dot, and the "to" end is indidated by an arrowhead. Tickmarks along the track are spaced every mile, kilometer, or nautical mile, as selected in the table above.

• Click to add another point.
• To delete the last point while you're drawing, either type Delete/Backspace, or click the symbol, which indicates the point to be deleted.
• To trace a curved path, either click and hold until a translucent red circle appears around the cursor, or hold down the Shift key. Whenever the red circle is visible, points will automatically be added to the path as you move the cursor. To delete points, trace backwards over the symbol.
• To finish the track, either double-click the final point, or type Enter/Return.
• To finish the track without adding the current rubber-band segment, type Escape.

Once you've finished drawing the track, the rubber-band line disappears. You'll see solid white circles at all the bends, and translucent white circles between them.

• To refine the track, drag any of the white circles. Dragging a solid white circle repositions an existing bend or endpoint. Dragging a translucent white circle creates a new bend.
• To extend the track without moving any of the existing bends, drag either endpoint a short distance, release, and continue drawing. You may combine this with click and hold or the Shift key, as described above, to extend the track with a curved path.
• To delete a segment of the track, double-click either the translucent white circle at its center or the solid white circle at its "to" end, or mouse over one of the circles while holding down the Delete/Backspace key.
• To delete the last segment of the track, press the Delete/Backspace key while the cursor is not on the track.
• Click the Start Over button, or double-click anywhere outside of the track, to erase the current track and start a new one.

Track distance and direction, and the coordinates of the track endpoints, are shown in the table above.

Distances can be shown in miles, kilometers, or nautical miles, as specified by the selector under Distance in the table header.

Course measurements can be shown as either magnetic or true, as specified by the selector under Course in the table header. The magnetic correction is calculated for the first point of the track, using the NOAA online calculator. The same value is used for all points.

Coordinates can be shown in either of two formats, as specified by the selector under Latitude, Longitude in the table header:

• decimal degrees
• deg° min' sec": degrees, minutes, and seconds

In addition to the data in the table, a popup on the map also displays the distance along the path, the coordinates of a point on the path, and the length and compass direction of a segment of the path. You can enable or disable this popup using the Show Info checkbox, or by pressing the I key. To show the length and compass direction of a segment other than the last, click the white circle of its endpoint or midpoint.

Working with Coordinates

If you want to know the latitude and longitude of a point on the map, just hover the cursor over it. The coordinates will appear in the From box of the table, and, if you have the Show Info checkbox checked, in the Info popup. Or (e.g. on a touch-screen device), just click the point. It will be drawn on the map as a zero-length track, and its coordinates will appear in the table.

If you have coordinates of a point and you want to see where it is on the map, enter them in the Add a point to the track box. The point will be drawn on the map as a zero-length track. You may enter coordinates in any of the three formats described above, regardless of which format you have chosen in the selector. At any time, you may use the Add a point to the track box to manually enter a coordinate instead of clicking a point, or you may click the Add my location button to add a point for your current physical location.

Note: To use the Add my location button, you must set privacy preferences in both your OS and your browser to allow bask.org to access your location. You will be prompted to do so if necessary.

If you switch to another tab (e.g. Tides or Weather) the track will temporarily disappear from the map, but it will come back again when you switch back to the Measure tab.

The Trip Planner has two main sections: the Map and the Info Panel. In a desktop or tablet browser, the Map is on the left and the Info Panel is on the right. In a mobile phone browser, only the Info Panel is visible at first. The Help text that you are reading now is in the Info Panel.

Tapping the Map button near the upper-right corner of the Info Panel switches to Map View, in which only the map is visible. From Map View, tapping the blue button in the upper-right corner brings back the Info Panel.

Click on any item below to read more about it.

• Map

  This is a Google map, with pushpin icons at kayak put-ins, tide stations, and other points of interest. Click a pushpin icon to display associated weather, tide, and current information in the Info Panel (see below). The selected icon will move to the center of the map, and a star will appear under it to indicate that it has been selected.

  There are several controls on the map:

  • Zoom controls (upper-left corner of the map):
    • Click the + button to zoom in.
    • Click the – button to zoom out.
    • Click the or button to change the magnification level. Digital maps have the annoying property that when you zoom in to get a better look at a feature (e.g. a street name), that feature often moves or even disappears from the map. Click the magnify buttons to simply make the map larger or smaller without changing its contents. If you're using a keyboard and mouse, you may also magnify by holding down the Shift key while using the scrollwheel. The range of magnification is 1:2 to 4:1, in seven steps.

      To restore the map to its unmagnified state, do any of these: click the button, zoom the map, or (after a Shift-scroll magnify) release the Shift key.

      While the map is magnified, markers are not clickable, and all of the other map controls are hidden.

  • Street View (below the Zoom controls):
    Drag the little man onto the map to show Street View at the dropped location (if available).
  • Map type selector (below Street View control):
    • Map: with or without Terrain shading.

    • Satellite: Satellite image, with or without Labels for roads and place names.

    • Nautical: NOAA ENC Nautical Chart, from the NOAA Chart Display Service. NOAA updates these charts every week, so what you see here is up-to-date. You can select from two styles: classic, with colors and symbols similar to traditional paper charts, and ECDIS, the modern international standard (IHO S-52).

      If you want to know what the symbols mean, download this PDF (10MB, 133 pages): NOAA U.S. Chart No. 1.

      You can print your own paper charts using NOAA's Custom Chart tool.

    • USGS Topo: USGS topographic map of the US and its territories, from The National Map. The maximum level of detail is less than that of the other maps, so you won't be able to zoom in as far.

      If you want to know what the symbols mean, download this PDF (2MB, 4 pages, possibly out of date for digital topos): USGS Topographic Map Symbols.

      You can print your own paper topos using the USGS topoBuilder tool.

  • Traffic button (below Map type selector):
    This shows the current traffic conditions of major highways.
  • Google Maps link (lower-left corner of the map):
    Click the multicolored "Google" to bring up the the same view in Google Maps, either in the Maps app (on a smartphone or tablet) or in your web browser. This feature is provided by Google, so it may change in future versions.
  • Pushpins on the map: The map has pushpin icons at tide and current stations, kayak put-ins, and other points of interest. The color of the icon tells you which type of location it is - see the Map key, below. For tide and current stations, Subordinate stations (see Map key) are indicated by paler-colored pushpins.

    Click any pushpin and it will be selected. The selected location is indicated by a colored star under the pushpin. Click the selected icon again, and a brief description of the location will pop up above it. The information displayed in the tabs of the Info Panel (see below) is specific to the selected location. The URL in your browser's location bar is automatically updated to specify the selected station, so you may bookmark a station or email a link to it.

    Visualization of the speed and direction of tidal currents is available on the map at current stations - see ebb&flow under Map key.

  • Map legend (lower-right corner of the map):
    A few controls provided by Google:
    • Keyboard shortcuts: list the available keyboard shortcuts for navigating the map (if your system has a hardware keyboard).
    • Scale: click to switch between kilometers and miles.
    • Report a map error: click to send a bug report to Google. Please use this only for problems with the map itself. For errors in the pushpins, send email to trip_planner@bask.org.
  • Map key (below the map): Click an icon in the map key below the map to hide all icons of that type; click it again to show them.

    Doubleclick a map key icon to show only icons of that type on the map. A thin black outline will appear around the selected map key icon. Click it again to restore the previous map view.
    Note: this doesn't work for subordinate or charts.

    • tide: Tide height prediction stations.
    • current: Tidal current prediction stations.
    • subordinate : NOAA tide and current prediction stations come in two types: Harmonic and Subordinate. Harmonic stations have detailed mathematical models to accurately predict tides or currents throughout the day. Subordinate stations make predictions by applying fixed corrections to the predictions of a nearby Harmonic (a.k.a. Reference) station. The pushpins for Subordinate stations are partially transparent, to distinguish them from Harmonic stations. Subordinate predictions are accurate only at the tidal extremes: high and low tide, max ebb and max flood. See Types of Stations in the NOAA Tide Predictions Users Guide for more details. The Reference station and correction parameters for a Subordinate station appear at the bottom of the Details Tab listing.
    • ebb&flow: Tidal current visualization.
      Arrows on the map show the speed and direction of currents at current stations, at the time shown under the tide graph. Drag the vertical red time cursor on the graph to see the currents change throughout the day. For Harmonic stations (black arrows), speed and direction predictions come from the NOAA CO-OPS server. For Subordinate stations (gray arrows with double-line arrowheads), speed predictions come from XTide, but direction predictions are not available, so the arrow always points in the mean ebb or flood direction for the station. For a small number of Harmonic stations (e.g Oakland Harbor Entrance, Southampton Shoal Channel, Benicia Bridge), CO-OPS provides actual measurements of speed and direction; these are shown with blue arrows when they are in service (they often are not). You can change the scale of the arrows using the selector under the tide graph. All arrows have white tick marks at knot intervals. When the scale is medium or large, there are also yellow half-knot ticks.
    • currents: Tidal current visualization.
      Shows the speed and direction of predicted currents in the SF Bay, the Delta up to Rio Vista, and the Bay entrance from Point Reyes to Pedro Point. Click on the map for a popup showing a detailed readout of the current at the clicked point. You have your choice of either a particle animation (the default) or static arrows, selected by radio buttons in the popup. The data comes from the NOAA Operational Forecast System. Predicted currents are available for every hour, approximately one week in the past through two days in the future. Specify the prediction time using the date and time controls in the Tides tab.
    • winds: Marine wind visualization.
      Shows the speed and direction of predicted winds in the SF Bay, the Delta up to Rio Vista, and the Bay entrance from Point Reyes to Pedro Point. Click on the map for a popup showing a detailed readout of the wind at the clicked point. You have your choice of either a particle animation (the default) or static arrows, selected by radio buttons in the popup. The data comes from the NOAA Operational Forecast System. Predicted winds are available for every hour, approximately one week in the past through two days in the future. Specify the prediction time using the date and time controls in the Tides tab.
    • put-in: Kayak access points.
    • destination: Interesting places to go in your kayak.
    • yourcoast: Access points listed on the California Coastal Commission YourCoast website.
    • restricted areas: Areas which have some restrictions on paddling activity. We make no claims about the accuracy or completeness of this information - consult official sources.
    • bay area water trail: Access points on the Bay Area Water Trail.
    • charts: Areas for which downloadable nautical charts are available, as part of the BASK Chart on Every Deck project. To download a chart, click on its rectangle on the map, then click the download chart or open in browser button in the popup. A complete list of charts is available in the Search tab of the Info panel.

  Note: some of these controls are provided by Google and may change in future versions.

• Info Panel

  This panel has some buttons at the top (Tide, Weather, Details, ...) for switching between several tabs. Below the buttons, the selected tab contains various information and controls.

  • Tides tab: A text table of tides or currents, below a graph of the same data. On current graphs, positive (blue) values are flood currents, negative (green) values are ebb currents. Use the clickable text (< Day > | << Week >> ...) between the graph and the tables to get a prediction for another day, or to select how many days of predictions are displayed.
    

    Below the date selection links there is a link to the marine weather forecast for this area, followed by any warning messages for the station or the weather. Below that there are links to the NOAA tide or current predictions, the Windy.com wind forecast, and the FloatingTrails.com annotated map, all for the place and time shown here.

    The vertical red cursor line on the graph marks the time of day. A corresponding entry in the tables indicated by a small red bar at the left of the entry; click on another table entry or another part of the graph to move the cursor, or just drag the cursor on the graph to change the time. You may also move the cursor with the [ and ] keys, or, when your mouse is over the tide graph, the scrollwheel (Shift-scroll moves it faster). The selected time and date appear below the graph.

    In ebb&flow mode (see Map key, above), the speed and direction of the current at the selected station are also shown.
    Click the × in the upper-right corner of the graph to collapse the graph and hide the weather link and warning messages. Click the + to bring them back.
    Note: The tide and current predictions are done by XTide version 2.15.3. By default all of the tide and current prediction stations are based on up-to-date NOAA data downloaded from the XTide website (harmonics-dwf-20210110-free.tcd). Click the Details tab to see where we got the prediction data for the selected station.

  • Weather tab: The NOAA marine forecast for the selected icon is displayed. Some links at the top bring you to the NOAA point forecast for a nearby location, the Magic Seaweed surf report (for coastal sites), and the Windy.com wind forecast.
  • Details tab: A brief description of the selected location. For tide and current stations, you'll see a description of the TCD data on which predictions are based.
  • Directions: Get driving directions from the specified location to the selected map marker, or vice-versa. Directions will be displayed in a separate Google Maps window. The From input defaults to "Home", which will work if you've registered your home address with Google. Click the My location button to fill the From input with your current physical location.
    Note: To use the My location button, you must set privacy preferences in both your OS and your browser to allow bask.org to access your location. You will be prompted to do so if necessary.
  • Search tab: This tab has a few different kinds of search:
    • Search for a location by name: Type something into the text box. The list of all locations matching your text will be displayed as you type, and your typed input will be auto-completed whenever possible. Case is ignored for the match. If you type two or more words, you'll see all locations containing those words in the order typed, e.g. san bay matches San Francisco Bay, San Pablo Bay, San Diego Bay, etc. If you really want to match two adjacent words, separate them with a + instead of a space, e.g. San+Diego.

      You may use one or more asterisks (*) as wildcard characters. An asterisk within a word matches anything except spaces, For example, san* matches San, Sandy, Santa, etc. There is an implied asterisk at the end of the last word that you type - if you don't want this, type a space after the last word. To show all the sites, just type an asterisk by itself.

      Check the Exclude hidden markers checkbox to leave out any locations whose markers have been hidden by the controls in the Map Key (below the map).

      Check the Only points within the current map area checkbox in the Search Results listing to show only locations which are within bounds of the map window.

      Hover your mouse over any of the search results to see where it is on the map.

      Click any of the results to select that location. The Tides, Weather, and Details tabs will now show data for the selected location.

    • Search for tides or currents: In conjunction with the Tides tab, you can search for tidal extremes (max ebb, low tide, etc.) within a specified time period, at the tide or current station selected on the map. A period of one, three, six, or twelve months starts on the date selected in the Tides tab. You can restrict the search to certain days of the week, hours of the day, and a given tidal range. Optionally, you can look for sequences of high and low tide, or max ebb and flood within the specified hours. All matching days are displayed in a table. Click on a date in the table to see that day's tides displayed in the Tides tab.
    • Search for YourCoast features: Looking for a dog-friendly sandy beach with no fee? You can find it with this function. Select Yes for the features that you want, No for the features that you don't want. Only the matching YourCoast locations will be shown on the map.

      Check the Only points within the current map area checkbox in the Search Results listing to show only locations which are within bounds of the map window.

    • List of Chart on Every Deck charts: This is a complete list of all the downloadable chart PDFs offered by the Chart on Every Deck project. If you click a name in the list, its outline will be visible on the map, and a download button will appear.
  • Measure tab: Measure distances along a track, and get coordinates of points on the map. See instructions in the Measure tab of the Info panel.
  • Help tab: You're looking at it now!
  • Map button: This isn't a tab. It switches you to full-window Map View in which only the map and its controls are visible. In Map View, there's a button in the upper-right corner, labelled with the name of the last tab you visited, which will bring you back to that tab of the Info Panel.

• Need More Screen Space?

  If you're working on small screen, there are a few ways that you can make the most of the available area:

  • Use Map View: Click the Map button at the top right of the Info Panel to show only the map and its controls. When viewing only the map, the blue button in the upper-right corner brings back the Info Panel. The keyboard shortcut for both of these is m.
  • Minimize the tide graph: In the Tides tab, click the × in the top right corner of the graph to hide the graph and some of the text below it. Click the + to bring them back. The keyboard shortcut for both of these is g.
  • Hide the page header and disclaimer text: Click the × in the upper-right corner of the disclaimer text (at the bottom of the page, under the Info Panel), to hide both the disclaimer and the header bar at the top of the page. Click the + to bring them back. The keyboard shortcut for both of these is h.
    Note: The disclaimer and header are automatically hidden in Map View.

• Keyboard Shortcuts

  If your system has a keyboard, the following shortcut keys can be used.

  • Plus and Minus, i.e. = and -: zoom in or out. These shortcuts are built in to the Google map.
  • Shift-plus and Shift-minus, i.e. + and _: change the map magnification level (see magnify in Map > Map key). You may also magnify by holding down the Shift key while using the scrollwheel.
  • Shift-zero, i.e. ): reset the map magnification level.
  • Arrow keys, i.e. ↑, ↓, ←, →: move the map view by a small amount. These shortcuts are built in to the Google map.
  • [ and ]: move the time cursor (vertical red line) on the tide graph.
  • m: enter/exit Map View.
  • g: hide/show the tide graph.
  • h: hide/show the page header and disclaimer text.
  • i: hide/show the info popup above the selected station on the map.

  The following keystrokes are equivalent to clicking the indicated Map Key icon:

  • t: hide/show the tide stations.
  • c: hide/show the current stations.
  • s: hide/show the subordinate tide and current stations.
  • l: hide/show the legacy tide and current stations.
  • e: hide/show the ebb&flow arrows.
  • p: hide/show the put-ins.
  • d: hide/show the destinations.
  • y: hide/show the yourCoast access points.
  • r: hide/show the restricted areas.
  • b: hide/show the bay Area Water Trail access points.
  • C: hide/show the Chart-on-Every-Deck chart outlines.

  The following keystrokes are equivalent to clicking the indicated Info Panel tab button:

  • T: Enter the Tides tab.
  • W: Enter the Weather tab.
  • D: Enter the Details tab.
  • I: Enter the DIrections tab.
  • S: Enter the Search tab.
  • M: Enter the Measure tab.
  • H: Enter the Help tab.
  • m: Enter/exit map View.

  The Measure tab (see instructions in the tab itself) also responds to a few keystrokes:

  • Delete or Backspace: delete a point from the track.
  • Shift: automatically add points to the track without clicking as you draw (hold the Shift key down).
  • Enter or Return: finish the track.
  • Escape: finish the track without adding the final segment.

  The map has its own set of keyboard shortcuts, provided by Google, that work when your focus is on the map. Click the link at the botom of the map to read about them.