PNW Current Atlas User Reviews

Customer Experience

Positive experience41.9% of reviews
Neutral32.3% of reviews
Negative experience25.8% of reviews

~ Based on 31 written reviews from the US App Store.

Is PNW Current Atlas Safe?

PNW Current Atlas appears mostly safe based on user ratings. AppsHunter Safety Score for PNW Current Atlas is 70/100.

This assessment is based on 33 user ratings, with an App Store average of 3.5/5.

Safety Analysis

54.5% of ratings point to a safe experience
18.2% of ratings suggest some concerns
27.3% of ratings point to a risky experience

~ Based on 33 App Store ratings for PNW Current Atlas.

Is PNW Current Atlas Legit?

PNW Current Atlas appears legitimate, with a few gaps. AppsHunter Legitimacy Score for PNW Current Atlas is 73/100.

Based on 73 of 100 points across 7 verification signals from App Store and developer data.

Top reviews

Fantastic

Great app, I use it all the time!

Charging 15$ for free trial

Tried to do the free 3 day trial and the app is trying to charge 15 dollars right away. If I had liked it I would have payed for the app no problem but without trying it I cannot say if it’s good or worth paying for.

Response from developer

Sorry you’re having trouble. This doesn’t make sense to us as the free trial is truly free and the price you’re seeing is not the price of the full app either. There is nothing in the app that costs $15. Many people start a free trial every day (for free) and this is the first we’ve heard anyone say that the app tried to charge for the free trial. Please reach out to support if you need more help.

Stopped working

Great app, used it regularly. Stopped working today???
Update: Started working again?!?! There appear to be gremlins in my phone, but not an app issue after all…

Response from developer

Can you reach out to support? We haven’t seen any issues with it not working. https://tinyoctopus.net/Contact

Free Trial not available

I like to try it out before buying. The app immediately showed “Free trial expired” after I had installed it for the first time.

Response from developer

Please email support@tinyoctopus.net and we’ll try to help. We have not seen or heard of this happening to anyone else.

Great app, more accurate than print version

The print version must round to the nearest hour, but that’s not a limitation for the app. The app reports correct times for each page of currents

Out of Date

The data is so inaccurate as to be a hazard. Clearly the algorithm is not even close to current tide data.

Response from developer

The data comes directly from the Canadian Hydrographic Service and is the official licensed source for the current atlas. That data is updated regularly. It is the best available. That said, local conditions (wind, rain, extreme tides, higher than normal river outflows, etc…) can lead to variances. If there is a specific issue you’re having please reach out to support and we’ll help. Note: if you are comparing the tides around a current pass which as Dodd or Active Pass, etc…. this app is not a replacement for a tide table - it is an atlas and as such it is not applicable for timing a current pass.

Costs money

The app costs a one time purchase fee of $19.99 which seems excessive given the limited scope the app has. The maps are very antiquated but the info is there.

Response from developer

FYI, this app replaces commercially available reference tables which cost about $9 a year. Our goal was to make the app both easier to use and not a yearly subscription like most other marine apps.

Interesting app

This is an interesting idea. I have seen these forecasts in paper form. There is limited geographical coverage but these waters are very very difficult to understand. My main complaint is I wish you could move a cross hair over the map and have it tell you the prediction for that area. It is hard to distinguish the meaning of the various arrows. I’d also suggest locating me on the map through gps.
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Response from developer

Hi. Thanks for the feedback. Unfortunately the source data is not geographically precise enough to have cross hairs and read a value. As for a GPS current location, the base charts are also not geo encoded either. This is because the source data is essentially those paper versions, now digitized. However the original source data was never precisely geo referenced to begin with. So we are hesitant to try and show something that is not there in the original source.

NOT a PNW ATLAS

This app provides no current information for most of Puget sound or any waters east of Whitney island. Last I checked both of these places are in the Pacific Northwest and they have currents. I want my $20 back.

Response from developer

Sorry that you are disappointed. The app description lists all the areas that the app supports. The free trial also allows you to see which areas are covered. Unfortunately the types of current charts this app shows do not exist for anywhere else in Puget Sound - that is why there is no coverage for east of Whidbey Island. We wish they did exist and we could add them.

Great tool

Great tool. It would be even greater if you could scrool to different areas.

Ok

As previously said, pretty much the current atlas, does not show time adjustment for daylight savings time

Response from developer

Thanks for the review. We just wanted to let you that the PNW Current Atlas fully corrects for daylight savings time. Internally the data sources are in UTC and all dates/times shown in the app are converted to the local time zone that your iOS device is set to. This conversion is fully PST and PDT time zone aware. If you are having issues, please reach out to support.

Cannot cancel trial!!!

The trial is counting down and I want to cancel. The area covered is too small. I used to have a print version that went further north, you would just flip to the right page. So I want to cancel and guess what? Not possible, the app will end up charging me in 10 hours. What do I do? Delete it?

Response from developer

Hi. The app is NOT a subscription - you will not be charged anything. When the trial ends the app simply stops working, unless you choose to continue (by making an in-app one-time purchase - nothing is automatic billed). So if you don’t want to continue to use the app there is nothing you need to further do.

Current App

Pretty much a digital version of Murray’s tables and the Canadian Current Atlas. Needs to have the date time boxes upgraded to show all info and the “legend” doesn’t transfer as its supposed to, to the top of the page. Colouring of the arrows to indicate speed would be very helpfu!

Date and time widget could be better

Would be nice if dates included day of the week or at least a calendar widget. e.g. If I’m going sailing Saturday it would be nice not to have to look at a calendar first to find day off the month. Also would be nice if time was in format selected in ios settings. I like military (24hr) time. Other applications like Navionics and Predict Wind do it that way.

Other than that, this app is quite functional and definitely easier to use than the hard copy.
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It seems incomplete

Where is the chart that shows the currents north of Gabriola to Campbell river?

Great App, times seem to be off

Update: Thank you for the quick response. We do find the app very useful in seeing current trends where there is no Navionics current data.

The currents seem to be off by an amount of time. (1hr late?). Navionics is correct for the points they report out on, comparing to exact places.

Response from developer

Yes the app is fully DST aware. Internally everything is in GMT/UTC and converted to the timezone your device has set, i.e. your local time. Current atlas charts are not appropriate for timing current passes like Dodd, Gabriola, Active Pass, etc. As an atlas, charts were never designed for predicting restricted areas but rather large scale patterns. In fact the closest current “arrow” on charts near a pass is likely outside the actual pass as defined by a current and tide table. Always use an official current table for transiting passes. As for the chart time spacing between pages, there is no standardized length of time between chart pages because the time duration between each low and high tide varies for each tide cycle. There are a set number of charts for each cycle and the time is divided to space out the charts to match the cycle duration. Hope this helps. And thanks for the info on the support page not working. We’ll get it fix asap.

Excellent tool

When used in conjunction with current information for passages from my Navionics app, this gives very useful information on what currents are doing outside of passage tables. Looking forward to having more coverage further North to Desolation Sound.

Fantastic App

Great to see this being done, hopefully they expand north to cover the inside passage soon. Thanks for having it, easy to visualize and a way to plan trips with currents in mind.

Are times corrected for Daylight Savings Time?

The developer does not say. Overall a good tool but a prudent mariner should cross check the physical book and annual supplement. This app is developed with data from CHS. They do not correct for DST. From observations, I suspect times are UTC + 8.

Response from developer

Yes it is corrected for daylight savings time and that information is available on the app support page. We will add it to the app description in the next update.

One page of the book

Just one page of the Current atlas. Fine for the SJI cruiser, but a rip-off compared to buying the book.

Response from developer

Sorry that you feel that the ease of using this app when compared to the book and then having buying to buy yearly reference tables is not of value. It is more than one page of the chart atlas, not to mention having official CHS reference data for life for a one-time price of an app that is cheaper than the book (which is now out of print).