Hey there, folks! Lenny Rudow here for BoatUS Magazine. Now
maybe you've already clicked on the subscribe button below.
If not, you should, because we come out with helpful boating videos all the time.
And today's topic is marine charts, like this one.
Now hold on a minute, people. I know what you're thinking:
Rudow, I don't even use paper charts in this day and age; I use my chartplotter.
Well, it may be true that we do navigate the vast majority of our time in this day and age with electronics,
however,
it's still critically important that you understand at least the basics of a paper chart, and on top of that,
what your chartplotter shows you is really very similar to what you see on paper.
But before we get started, people, one word of caution: Don't forget
things can and do change. When you look at your chart, it hasn't necessarily been updated to show the latest information.
Sand bars shift with storms. Buoys can be moved. So always remember:
Use your brain as you look at your chart.
This might seem a little basic people, but we still got to cover it. These are the basics. First off, look at the color differences
This tan color over here is land.
The white is water. Now, you might wonder what's that slightly blue shade. That's shallow water.
Prominent features on land that you may want to use to visually navigate by are
marked with a circle and a dot, like this water tank.
Now as you may guess, all of these numbers indicate water depth, but you have to keep in mind, in tidal areas
they indicate what's called mean low low water.
It's sort of an average low tide depth, and depending on the chart you're looking at it may be given in
feet, fathoms, or in metrics.
So you need to know just what chart you're looking at when you look at that number and then you also have to remind yourself
that if it says 10 feet, well what the given time that you're there, it could be 12 feet or it could be 8 feet.
Down here is the scale,
which you can use to measure distance.
All these funny circles are your compass roses. They help you determine direction of travel. Now, right about now
you're probably thinking to yourself, well, how do I use this compass rose on the scale to actually navigate?
Truth be told, folks,
it's really too big a topic to cover in a quick little YouTube video like this.
You really need to do some actual learning. What I would recommend is you go to BoatUS.com.
Check out our Chart Reading 101 article. It will prove very helpful.
But wait a sec! Before you do that, there's one more really important thing on here
you need to know about. See these red and green diamonds and squares and triangles.
The diamond shapes are buoys.
Triangles and squares are red and green fixed markers, and these teardrop shapes are lighted markers.
You'll also see notes next to these lighted markers. Here
it says FL R 2.5 S. That means it's a flashing red marker that flashes every 2.5 seconds.
Other items you may need to know about to navigate like wrecks and obstructions are also marked on the chart.
Is that all the information on a chart?
Oh heck no! There's all kinds of other stuff!
If you can learn place names,
latitude and longitude, the list goes on and on. But at least now, you'll know the basics of what you're looking at.
When you look at the chartplotter at the helm of your boat, it may have a slightly different
graphical
representation, but the information you're looking at will be just like it is on this chart. Now
we want to reiterate, it takes some real learning
to understand how to properly
navigate a boat. A quick, little YouTube video is not the place to study up.
You really need to do some more intense learning when you want to push off the dock and take your boat far awa.
But we hope that knowing the basics of what you'll see on a chart are helpful,
and we hope you'll leave your comments in the box below.