Actual Currents vs Bluewater Forecast

Actual Currents brings tidal currents to life with real-time animated particle visualization on a nautical-grade interactive map. See the actual flow of water in your area — not just tide times, but the speed and direction of tidal currents rendered as thousands of flowing particles over a detailed heatmap. Plan your trip with confidence by scrubbing through time to see how currents change throughout the day. FEATURES • Animated tidal current visualization with speed-colored particles and GPU-accelerated heatmap • Time scrubber — view current predictions for any time, past or future • Globe view with global ocean currents when zoomed out • Real-time wind overlay with global weather data • ENC nautical chart data with navigation aids, depth soundings, and depth contours • Satellite, bathymetry, and nautical basemap options • Route planning with current-aware analysis • Trip logging with GPS drift tracking • Location search to jump to any harbor or waterway COVERAGE • US Atlantic coast — Maine to Florida • US Pacific coast — Washington to California • Gulf of Mexico • Global ocean surface currents BUILT FOR BOATERS Whether you're sailing, fishing, kayaking, or navigating commercially, understanding tidal currents is critical for safety and efficiency. Actual Currents gives you an intuitive, visual understanding of water movement that tide tables alone can't provide. SUBSCRIPTION TIERS • Basic (free) — Real-time currents within ±3 hours of now • Pro ($4.99/mo) — Full historical and forecast access • Unlimited ($39.99/yr) — Full historical and forecast access with 7-day free trial Terms of Use: https://www.actualcurrents.com/terms.html Privacy Policy: https://www.actualcurrents.com/privacy.html

Bluewater Forecast is a map-first marine weather app for inshore and offshore anglers, surfers, sailors, divers and boaters. It puts the forecast on a chart and covers the next five days for 45 locations on the US Atlantic, Gulf, Pacific and Hawaii coasts. Turn on the layers you need and they render over your coastline. WHAT YOU GET (FREE) • Buoys — NOAA NDBC stations nationwide: wave height, period, wind, water and air temperature, pressure, updated every 10 minutes • Waves — height, period and direction from GFS-Wave, hour by hour to five days, with the swell trains split out • Wind & gusts — NOAA HRRR 3 km for the first two days, the NWS National Blend to day five, drawn as streamlines • Tides, water levels and currents — NOAA CO-OPS predictions, observed water level against the tide (surge shows as the gap), and tidal current stations • Radar and clouds — NOAA MRMS quality-controlled radar (non-precipitation echoes removed) and GOES-East imagery, plus forecast cloud and precipitation fields when the clock is moved forward • Sea surface temperature (NASA MUR), NWS marine alerts, NOAA artificial reefs, the NOAA nautical chart • A one-screen dashboard for your spot: conditions, tide, sun and moon, a five-day meteogram, the nearest buoys • Saved spots, and push alerts when a spot's wind, swell and tide line up BLUEWATER PRO • Inshore Topo — bottom structure for creeks, passes and flats from NOAA topobathy lidar and sonar surveys, rendered at about 3 m: 1 ft contours in the shallows, relief shading for holes and ledges, intertidal flats marked, and a 3D mode that tilts the chart over the surveyed bottom. Covers the 45 dashboard locations. • Temperature breaks — labelled isotherms from NASA MUR sea surface temperature, in °F • Fishing hotspots — a composite that scores where temperature breaks, colour changes, current edges, eddy edges and bathymetric slope coincide • Ocean currents and eddies — Copernicus Marine forecast currents as flowing particles, with sea-height rings that trace the eddy edges • Chlorophyll — NASA PACE ocean colour, the boundary between blue and green water DESIGNED FOR THE WATER A dark, high-contrast chart built to be read in sunlight. Forecast fields are prepared on our servers ahead of time, so most views load in about a second, and the last forecast for a saved spot stays on screen while a weak connection catches up. ONE CLOCK Move the time from now to five days out and every forecast layer follows — wind, waves, clouds, currents, tides. Observation layers fade when the clock leaves the present rather than presenting old data as a forecast. FREE TO USE The forecast, buoys, radar, charts and map are free. Bluewater Pro is an optional subscription managed on our website; sign in with a Pro account here and its layers unlock. Bluewater Forecast is an independent app, not affiliated with NOAA, NASA or Copernicus. It is a planning tool — never for navigation or safety-of-life decisions. Inshore Topo depths are relative to NAVD88 (about mid tide), survey dates vary by area, and conditions at sea change faster than any forecast.