Ask Captain Jim V8 · Gulf Coast Edition

Overview

Ask Captain Jim is a single-page web app that runs entirely in your browser — no app store, no install. Each time you open it or tap Refresh Live Data, it fetches two live data sources:

• NWS (National Weather Service) — hourly wind speed, gust speed, wind direction, and precipitation probability for the next 24 hours, from api.weather.gov.
• NOAA Tides & Currents — hourly tide height predictions and high/low tide events for today at your chosen station, from api.tidesandcurrents.noaa.gov.

It covers the entire Gulf Coast with 35 verified NOAA stations spanning Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and Florida. It runs those datasets through a scoring model calibrated to your preferences and presents everything on one clean screen.

Sailability Score

The large number at the top of the screen is today's Sailability Score — a single 0–10 rating that summarizes how good conditions are during the best available window.

The score is accompanied by a quality badge:

Beneath the score, a row of reason tags gives a plain-English summary: wind range, gust status, rain chance, storm risk, and wind direction during the window.

Best Sailing Window

Ask Captain Jim scans every daylight departure time (7 AM – 6 PM) in the next 24 hours of forecast that fits your Trip Duration preference, scores each block, and surfaces the best one. The departure and return times shown are the start and end of that block — if you check in the evening, the best window may fall tomorrow morning.

The window is also highlighted as a green shaded band on both the Wind and Tide charts so you can see at a glance how conditions look across the day.

Conditions Panel

Below the score card, four tiles show the key metrics measured during the best window:

Wind Forecast Chart

The first chart shows 24 hours of hourly wind data starting from the current hour:

• Teal line (Sustained) — steady wind speed in knots.
• Amber dashed line (Gusts) — peak gust speed in knots.
• Green shaded band — the best sailing window.

Tap anywhere on the chart to see the exact sustained and gust values for that hour. The note below the chart states the window start and end times.

Tide Charts & Table

Tide Prediction Curve

The second chart shows the full-day tide height curve in feet above MLLW (Mean Lower Low Water), with the best window shaded in green. Tap to read the exact tide height at any hour.

Tide Events Table

Below the chart, a table lists each high and low tide event for the day with its local time and height in feet. High tides appear in teal; low tides appear in muted grey.

All times are displayed in local time as reported by NOAA.

7-Day Forecast

Tap 7-Day in the bottom navigation to open the full-screen 7-day outlook. Each day card shows:

• Day sailability score (0–10) with quality badge
• Best departure and return window for that day
• Wind range and peak gust
• Precipitation probability
• Dominant wind direction

The 7-day view uses the same scoring engine and preferences as the Today view, so a day that scores green here will score green on the main screen when that day arrives.

Sailing Preferences

Open Sailing Preferences at the bottom of the dashboard and tap Edit on any row to open the Preferences sheet. You can set:

• Location / Marina — choose from the 35 Gulf Coast stations (grouped by region, Florida Keys → Texas), Custom GPS / NOAA Station, or Current Location (boat at sea) to use your device's GPS.
• Wind Min / Max (kt) — your ideal sustained wind range. Hours inside this band are rewarded; hours outside are penalized.
• Max Gust (kt) — any hour with gusts above this value is scored 0 (automatic no-go).
• Duration (hrs) — how long your sail will be (1–12 hrs in half-hour steps). Determines the width of the window the app searches for.
• Tide Preference — Any, Incoming (flood), or Outgoing (ebb).

Tap Save & Refresh to apply the changes and immediately reload live data.

Changing Location

The location bar at the top shows your active marina and NOAA station. Tap Change to open the quick-chooser:

Home Dock

Save your own dock as a permanent location, separate from live GPS and separate from whatever you pick for the day. While at your dock (or with your dock selected), open Change and tap 🏠 Save current location as Home Dock at the bottom of the dialog. It's saved for good — not just for today.

• Once saved, a 🏠 button with your dock's name appears at the top of the Change Location dialog for instant one-tap access — no need to be physically at the dock or re-request GPS.
• Pick a different marina or GPS location for the day and your Home Dock stays saved — jump back to it anytime with one tap.
• To change it later (e.g. you move slips), save again from the new spot.

All 35 Gulf Coast Stations

Marina Map View

Tap the Marina tab in the bottom navigation to open the full-screen Marina view.

On Mobile (phones)

The view opens in full-screen list mode. A map/list toggle button (🗺) appears in the top-right of the header. Tap it to switch between the marina list and the full-screen map. Tapping Focus Map on any marina card automatically switches to the map and centers on that marina.

On Tablet / Desktop

The view shows a side-by-side split: marina list on the left, live map on the right.

Marina List

• Shows the built-in Gulf Coast marinas plus marinas near you found live through Google (within about 25 miles), sorted by distance.
• Every card has an ⛽🍴 Ashore button — fuel and food near the dock (see below).
• Use the search bar to filter by marina name or region. If nothing in the list matches, tap Search Google (or press Return) to look the marina up, or open the search in Google Maps.
• Each card shows name, star rating, distance, address (tappable → Google Maps), phone (tappable → dials), and operating hours.
• Tap Set Active to make a marina the active location and reload weather/tide data for it.
• Tap Focus Map to pan the map to that marina.

Map Panel

• An interactive map (OpenStreetMap) opens on your active marina and shows marinas as pins that cluster at lower zoom levels. Zoom in and each pin shows the marina's name.
• Tap a pin to see a pop-up with address, phone, hours, and a "Set Active" button.
• Use the GPS icon in the top bar to snap your current position onto the map.

Fuel & Food Ashore

The two things every crew wants to know before the dock are fuel and food. Every marina card has an ⛽🍴 Ashore button. Tap it and the card expands with what's near that dock:

• Fuel first — a marine fuel dock if one is mapped, the marina's own fuel listing, or the nearest road gas station as an honest fallback. If nothing is mapped, the app says so plainly: call ahead.
• Dining nearby — up to eight rated restaurants near the marina, with phone and menu/website links where we have them. Where we don't, the app shows the nearest restaurants, bars and cafés from OpenStreetMap with cuisine and distance. Many boats don't have a galley; this is for crews who tie up hungry.

Featured Partner Listings

Some Ashore panels include a ★ featured listing from a local dock-and-dine partner with an offer for Ask Captain Jim crews. Real partner offers say exactly how to redeem (show the screen or say the code word). Listings marked "Example listing" show how the spot works — that space is open.

Drawbridges Nearby

Opening schedules come straight from the Coast Guard's drawbridge regulations (33 CFR Part 117). A collapsible 🌉 Drawbridges nearby panel sits above the marina list, showing up to eight drawbridges within 60 miles of your active location, nearest first. Each entry gives:

• The bridge name, waterway, and Gulf ICW mile marker.
• Its opening schedule in plain English — e.g. "Daily 6a–7p: at :15 & :45 only."
• The VHF hail channel (Florida bridges monitor channel 09) and the federal regulation citation.

If your stretch has no drawbridges — like the entire Panhandle GIWW — the panel says that too, so you can stop wondering.

For the full list of 48 drawbridges from Texas to Florida's Atlantic coast, see Bridge Schedules.

Cruiser's Log

Tap Log in the bottom navigation to open the Cruiser's Log — trip reports from sailors, for sailors. Fill in what's useful:

• Trip date, boat name, departure and destination.
• Bridges you passed — tap each one from the list.
• Categories (check all that apply): ⚓ Docking / Marina, 🍽️ Restaurants / Ashore, ⚠️ Hazards & Cautions, 📝 General.
• Longest bridge wait — from "No wait" to "Over 1 hour" or "Bridge closed / restricted."
• Marina rating — 1 to 5 stars for the destination marina.
• How was it? — 👍 Good Stuff or 👎 Bad Stuff.
• Trip notes — conditions, bridge tips, anchorages, anything useful for fellow cruisers.

Tap Log This Trip → to share it. Recent Crew Logs, below the form, shows entries from other sailors grouped by marina, then by category, newest first.

Bridge Schedules

From inside the Cruiser's Log, tap Schedules in the top bar to open the ICW Bridge Schedules reference. It covers 48 drawbridges:

• 11 on the Florida Gulf ICW (33 CFR 117.287)
• 23 on the Florida Atlantic ICW (33 CFR 117.261)
• 4 in the Florida Panhandle
• 10 in Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama

Filter by waterway (FL Gulf ICW, FL Atlantic ICW, FL Panhandle, TX / LA / AL) or search by name, city, or mile marker. Tap any bridge card to expand its opening schedule and regulation citation.

Custom Location

For marinas not in the built-in list, open Sailing Preferences → Location → Custom GPS / NOAA Station.

• Custom Marina Name — a display label, e.g. "Clearwater Marina."
• Latitude & Longitude — decimal degrees (e.g. 27.9759, -82.8001). Passed to NWS to fetch the wind forecast grid for that exact location.
• NOAA Station ID — a 7-digit number from tidesandcurrents.noaa.gov/map. Used to fetch hourly tide predictions.
• Tap Use Current GPS inside the modal to fill in latitude and longitude automatically from your device.

Feedback Tab

Help keep marina data current for every sailor on the Gulf Coast. Tap Feedback in the bottom navigation (the speech bubble icon) to open the feedback form. You can report:

Select a category, fill in the marina name and details, and tap Send Report →. Your email app opens with the report pre-filled and addressed to the Ask Captain Jim team. An optional email field lets us follow up if we need to verify the report.

Subscription & Free Trial

7-Day Free Trial

When you first open Ask Captain Jim, a 7-day free trial begins automatically — no credit card required. A countdown banner at the top of the screen shows how many days remain. You have full access to all 35 Gulf Coast stations and every feature during the trial.

Free Tier (after trial)

After the trial ends, Ask Captain Jim remains free with access to 5 Tampa Bay & Pensacola stations:

• Tampa — Hooker Point
• Tampa — Egmont Key
• Tampa — Gandy Bridge
• Pensacola
• Pensacola Beach Pier

Locked stations are marked with 🔒 in the location dropdown and on marina cards. The 7-Day forecast, the Cruiser's Log, the Feedback tab, Custom Location, and GPS location also require an active trial or subscription.

Paid Subscription

A subscription unlocks all 35 Gulf Coast stations and every feature. Plans are $5.99/month or $49/year (save 32%), or $10/month for the Gulf + Atlantic bundle — both editions on one subscription. Tap Upgrade → in the trial banner, pick a plan and tap Start Subscription → — checkout opens in a new tab via Stripe. When your payment is complete, return to Ask Captain Jim, enter the email you used at checkout, and tap I've paid — Activate ✓ to unlock everything.

Already subscribed on another phone or computer? On the welcome screen, tap Already a subscriber? Restore access →.

Scoring Algorithm

Each hourly period is scored on a 0–10 scale, then the best consecutive block matching your trip duration is selected.

Hard disqualifiers — score becomes 0

• Wind below 4 kt or above 26 kt
• Gusts above your Max Gust preference
• Precipitation probability ≥ 70%
• Forecast text contains "thunder," "severe," or "tropical"

Scoring deductions (starting from 10)

Window selection

For each candidate departure time, the app averages hourly scores across the full duration and also considers the minimum score in that block (70/30 weighted blend). This guards against windows that look good on average but contain one dangerously bad hour.

Tips & Troubleshooting

Data won't load

• Check your internet connection — the app requires live access to NWS and NOAA APIs.
• NWS occasionally returns HTTP 500 errors. Wait a few minutes and tap Refresh Live Data.
• If a banner warning appears, the app continues showing the last successfully loaded data until you refresh.
• Weak signal at the dock? If a load drags or fails, a 📶 banner suggests the fix most boaters already have aboard: marina Wi-Fi or your boat's Starlink. When the connection returns, the app refreshes itself automatically.
• Using Starlink underway? Starlink Roam plans work while you're moving, within 12 nautical miles of shore. Farther out, Starlink switches to Ocean Mode, which is billed per GB on top of your plan. Check current rates in your Starlink app before an offshore passage. Ask Captain Jim uses very little data, but streaming video aboard adds up fast.

GPS location not working

• Your browser must have location permissions granted. Check your browser or phone settings and allow location access, then try again.
• GPS auto-selects the nearest of the 35 built-in NOAA stations — coverage spans the full Gulf Coast from Port Isabel, TX to Key West, FL.

Score seems unexpectedly low

• Check your Wind Range in preferences — a very narrow range (e.g. 12–14 kt) will score most days poorly.
• A "No-Go" on gusts overrides everything. If today is gusty, no window will score above 0.
• Verify you have the correct location — tide and weather data are highly location-specific.

Refreshing data

Tap the ↻ Refresh button at the bottom of the main screen, or the circular arrow icon in the top bar. NWS updates its hourly forecast grids roughly every hour. Weather data is always fetched live; marina map data is cached for 24 hours.

Dark / Light mode

Tap the moon/sun icon in the top-right corner to toggle between dark and light themes. Your preference is saved automatically.

Navigation tabs

• Today — the main dashboard with live score, best window, and charts.
• 7-Day — ECMWF-powered 7-day sailability outlook.
• Marina — full-screen marina list and interactive map.
• Feedback — report marina status changes, corrections, or app feedback.
• Log — the Cruiser's Log, Recent Crew Logs, and the Bridge Schedules reference.

The Help button in the top bar opens a short in-app guide; this page is the full version.