The iPhone was an odd journey for me. It started out as “why would I ever want one”, then became “I need a new phone so I might as well”. After about a month of using it, the iPhone is now one of those “how in the blue hell did I ever live without one?” type of items. 

While browsing through the App Store, I came across a couple of boating related applications so I gave them a try. After testing them for about a month, I can safely say: no boater with an iPhone should be without either.

The first is TideApp, a free application from Atlantis Technology. This app is pretty much what it seems: an electronic tide chart. It has all the reporting stations in the US and allows you to display past, present and future tide conditions for any of them. It also has a nice feature that lets you save stations to a favorites list for quick viewing. 

It does run a little bit slow on my generation 1 iPhone but you people with the 3G phones should have no trouble what so ever.

It’s a 100% free application so there’s no reason for you not to have it on your iPhone.

App Store Link: TideApp

The next app is one that I have thoroughly enjoyed using. Knot Time by Dustin Thomas is a knot tying guide for the iPhone. Now, if you’re anything like me you’ve stared at those blasted knot tying books with their little arrows and drawings for hours only to throw the book down in frustration and resolved to stick with your knots that you learned in kindergarden. 

Knot Time takes a different approach: it has videos of someone actually tying the knot and explaining the procedure as he goes! What a novel idea! I have actually learned more knots from this application than all the books, and posters and guides I’ve used in the past. 

I even learned how to tie the “Monkey’s Fist” knot. I can put one of those together without a problem now thanks to this. 

Its a big app, weighing in at 110mb but that size is really a drop in the pond of even the smallest of the iPhones. It’s priced it at a VERY reasonable $0.99 and, after using it for a while I would say that’s an absolute steal of a price.

App Store Link: Knot Time