Rheinwelle spots
Choose a spot
What is calculated?
ETA, direction and surf score instead of guessing from a map
SessionSpot collects AIS reports on the server by MMSI, merges positions with ship name, length, draught and type, and only forecasts ships that plausibly head towards the spot. Upstream cargo ships and tankers are weighted more heavily because they often create a clearly better surfable wave at the marina.
Wind · Zündorf
Wind today
Wind direction and strength help judge whether the ship wave stays clean or gets blown flat.
Ideal windS to SE
Ideal is a tailwind for upstream ships coming from the Bonn direction. The stern wave then often stands cleaner and is less blown flat from the front.
No reliable ship data
No reliable ship data is available right now
Rheinwelle data could not be loaded right now. Please try again later.
No ships, arrival times or wave ratings are shown while there is no current data.
No simulated or estimated live data.
Manual cross-check
Look at the ships yourself on MarineTraffic
Open the map in a new tab, check position, speed and heading with your own eyes, then switch back here. SessionSpot does not read anything from MarineTraffic.
Then switch back here and compare with the forecast.
Plain link to an external site. What is visible there without an account or subscription is decided by MarineTraffic; real-time data there is not free in every case. SessionSpot is not affiliated with MarineTraffic.
Your own observation
Note a ship you saw yourself
Optional: enter what you observed. The note stays in this browser only, is valid for 30 minutes and does not feed into the forecast.
No current note.
Stored locally in your browser only, not on the server. Not part of the forecast and not to be read as live data.
Safety first
Rheinwelle is a planning aid, not a safety guarantee
AIS data can be missing or delayed. Wave height is only a rough estimate. Current, commercial shipping, distance, local rules, life jacket, leash, a buddy and clear exit points matter more than any app forecast.
Note
A planning aid only, not a safety clearance
The Rheinwelle forecast is a rough estimate from AIS data. On the Rhine, commercial shipping, current, distance, local rules, experience, a buddy and safe exit points always come first. Only go out if you can really control the spot, your equipment and the conditions.
Data sources
Where the data comes from
Ship positions: AIS reports (AISStream, supplemented by VesselAPI). Water level: PegelOnline (WSV). Wind: Open-Meteo. All times are Cologne local time.