#40 Dutchy Orange-G at high tide.

#40... It sounds like a magic number. Several times I had no idea what to write, or which model had not been featured. Therefore I'm happy I reached this milestone. It means I have to write only 10 stories this year. Since I didn't take a break this summer I will take a short break of about 2 weeks from here.
Regular readers of 50 Gs would have probably noticed. I very much like the Men In Rescue Orange and Rescue-G models. If you ask me which one I like most, I probably would tell you this one. Or if it ain't this one, it's one of the Riseman models.
The color orange is adopted from the clothing, vehicles and tools of rescue workers. The series is a tribute to people who risk their lives to save other people lives.
The color bright orange is not chosen because it's beautiful, but because it's highly visible. It shows big contrast with the mainly green, blue or gray colors of land and sea masses.
When the MIRO were announced for the September 2008 release, I was quite excited. Not only Casio revived the legendary "Men in ..." series, they also started of in an exeptional and very nice color. The Men In Rescue Orange series are Tough Solar Atomic Masters of G. In this case a Mudman, a Gulfman an Riseman model. For people who do not need the solar and atomic feature Casio released the Rescue-G series a few months later. Were the MIRO models only available in Japan, the Rescue-G models were only sold outside Japan.
Normally I would choose the Atomic Solar version, but this Gulfman has a feature I pretty much miss on the solar version. The tidegraph.
As you could have read in my G-Travels post, I live in the province Zeeland (Sealand) that is formed by (former) islands. If you are surrounded by sea with a tide difference around 4m (12ft), a good programmed tidegraph is pretty handy. As a child you learn here not to go to far in the sea when the tide lowers. Dangerous currents can draw you into open sea fast. Luckily we have a lot of good trained lifeguards patrolling the coast.
The MIRO and Rescue-G models have matching orange displays. The accents are deep black, which result in a deep contrast with the bright orange color.
A tidegraph on your watch is pretty handy, but only if it's programmed correct. What do you need to know...
First you need to know roughly the coordinates of your location. Actually only the longitude is important. In my case the longitude of Vlissingen, 3.6°E, is close enough.
Second it's important to know your local tides. If you live near open sea, you probably know your sources. I used to check my week calendar or my local paper. Nowadays I have an application on my iPhone telling me the tides where ever I am, using my GPS location.
The third and last thing you'll need to know is when the moon passes you latitude. In the Northern hemisphere this means that the moon stands in the south. On the southern hemisphere the moon stands in the north. A good way to find out when the moon passes over is to go to the worldclock page on Date and Time. It shows not only local time of many cities, but also sun and moon data. Of course not every city can be found, but Ghend, with a longitude of 3°41' is close enough.
When gathering these data, you'll notice there is probably an interval between the moon passing over and the high tide. This time is called the lunitidal interval. In some cases the interval can be negative. If so, subtract this interval from 12 hours and 25 minutes and you got the correct interval. The interval can be everything between 0 and 12 hours and 25 minutes, but normally it will be within a few hours before or after the moon passing over.
When you have entered the longitude and interval, you have a correct working tidegraph function on your Gulfman. It's a bit pity the latitude data can't be added. In the past there were G-Shock models that could calculate sunrise and sunset times with longitude and latitude data. This would have been a nice extra function.
Besides the tidegraph, the Gulfman shows the phase of the moon. This is not just a gadget function, but you need to know how to interpret this into the tidegraph.

Copyright image: Keith Cooley

At full moon and new moon you've got spring tide, because the gravitational forces of the sun and the moon are combined. At the moon quarters the sun and the moon are working in a 90° angle on the Earth, resulting in neap tide.
The tidegraph and moonphase display are not the only adaptations on the Gulfman for life and work on or at the sea. The salt water is not quite friendly for metals. When I'm on vacation in France, I always am surprised to see so many oldtimer cars in such a good condition. Here in Zeeland they would probably have been long rusted away.
The Gulfman is prepared for this. All metal parts outside the case are made of titanium, providing the watch it's rust resistance. The titanium brushed back shows a turtle that is cleaning his shell, probably from rust. The black structures at both sides of the display feel like a hard material, but appear to be resin when the bezel is bend a little (titanium does not stretch).
Unlike most G-Lide water sports models, the G-9100 Gulfman comes with a 24 hour timer with a repeat function.
With a world time function, three alarm with a hourly chime and a stopwatch, you can say this Gulfman is a complete watch.
So, is there more to see on this model? Actually at night you'll notice another neat feature, the Dual Illuminator. It was already featured earlier on the G-9000 Mudman. While normally only the display is illuminated, with dual illumination also the ring showing the functions of the button lights up. Both cool and effective. The Rescue-G Gulfman of course shows the symbol of the MIRO and Rescue-G series in the backlight, a gigantic rescue axe as used by fire brigades.

I think this eye catching Gulfman is both a real good looker and a great functional watch too. Also the titanium back might be a solution for people who have allergic reactions to stainless steel. Titanium is known to be anti-allergic. In a few weeks I will be escorting the last runner of the Coastal Marathon. I will be working close with several lifeguard districts and (para)medics. The marathon follows the shore of three islands (connected with dikes and constructions). Guess what I will be wearing at this years marathon.