Titusville - The wind she Blows and reason

Here's the initial display of one tide and two current locations. Right away, you can see the level of the tide and the strength of the currents and whether they are increasing or decreasing

I like to entertain the fantasy that I am driven by pure reason and facts. If I see a better program or device, I like to evaluate it and adopt it if it's better than what I have. This technique has led me to switch from less capable programs and tools to what I had evaluated as better ones. I went from LORAN to GPS to chartplotters to PC navigation programs to iPad apps.

Click on the Tide icon and then the "i" (for info) and you will get this graphic with a slider that can be moved with your finger to any time you want. It even displays the rise and set times of the sun and moon. What more do you need?

The downside of having this approach is that I don't appreciate why everyone else doesn't see what I think are the obvious advantages of such improved ways of doing things. An example came up today, with the risk of boring you, concerning tides. There are numerous stand-alone tide apps for the iPad and programs for the PC. And yet, once again in my view, the tides and currents in Aqua Map are far superior to their offerings.

Likewise for currents. You again have a slider that you can move to any time you desire. What more to want?

Accessing the tide in Aqua Map, you get a graphic of the tide levels over 24 hours with a slider that you can move with your finger to any particular time you want which results in the display changing to show the tide at that instant. How can a paper tide table compete with that? In the lower area of the graphic is even the text of the exact times of high and low tides along with rising and setting times of the sun and moon. What more is there to know? And, it's free since it's part of the Aqua Map app.

As if that wasn't enough, you also have the choice of displaying a slider at the bottom of the screen that will change the times for all the tides and currents stations in view in the screen all at once. It's great of seeing how tides and current vary where opposing currents meet like Snows Cut. Not many programs can do this.

Likewise for currents. Again, you get a graphic with the speed of the current displayed and a cursor that you can move with your finger to any time you want. But as they say in TV commercials, "Wait, there's more." You can also tap on an icon and get a cursor at the bottom of the screen in Aqua Map that when moved, shows the tide and current changes of every station on the screen along with the time represented by the cursor. Try doing that with a text table. Or, try doing that with almost any other tide and current app.

With such obvious advantages, why doesn't everyone immediately can their tide and/or current programs and adopt Aqua Map? I've found that there is tremendous inertia in the way people do things. About the only way to get people to change from old habits is to have their previous app or program stop working - so strong is the hold of inertia. For me, if I see something better, I toss out the old right away, no regrets. Out with the old, in with the new. I'm finding that such is not the case with 99% of the people. Old habits die hard.

However, I'll keep promoting what I believe to be a better use of a person's limited time and perhaps some people will see it as an advantage to be taken. But then again, maybe I don't have the "one true vision" of what's best? Nevertheless, I'll proceed and maybe someone else will offer a better path and I may take that, Who knows, nobody is infallible.