Chart Updating

[dslittle]

Quite a long time ago, a friend showed me a whiteboard with his passage plan and relevant items of info along the course written on it.
I took that on board (pun intended) as good practise and bought a whiteboard for my own planning. It has proven invaluable in the cockpit for an instant update on state of tide, wind forecast, tidal gates, entry times, harbour layouts, relevant phone numbers/radio channels, points of interest etc which saves leafing through almanacs etc on arrival.
l also take a photo of the whiteboard before setting off for posterity (but on the litigation point, it shows that I had a passage plan…).
As far as I am aware, there is absolutely no requirement for me to do so but it makes me happier!!!

 

[James_Calvert]

Quite a long time ago, a friend showed me a whiteboard with his passage plan and relevant items of info along the course written on it.
I took that on board (pun intended) as good practise and bought a whiteboard for my own planning. It has proven invaluable in the cockpit for an instant update on state of tide, wind forecast, tidal gates, entry times, harbour layouts, relevant phone numbers/radio channels, points of interest etc which saves leafing through almanacs etc on arrival.
l also take a photo of the whiteboard before setting off for posterity (but on the litigation point, it shows that I had a passage plan…).
As far as I am aware, there is absolutely no requirement for me to do so but it makes me happier!!!

I write that stuff down on the blank facing page of my log book. Not immediately available on deck obviously... just realised it would be if I also took a photo of it on my phone, maybe something to try next year. Thanks for the idea!

 

[requiem]

I write that stuff down on the blank facing page of my log book. Not immediately available on deck obviously... just realised it would be if I also took a photo of it on my phone, maybe something to try next year. Thanks for the idea!

For day-sailing my habit has been to keep a small notepad with the specifics of weather and tide, along with other notes of relevance. I've also found it useful to simply add anything location-specific to the chart itself. For example, if the local notice to mariners mentions dredging or survey work being performed in a certain area, I'll mark that area and paste in the text of the notice. That way when I'm at the helm and check my phone or tablet the information is readily apparent.

 

[Sandy]

I have travelled from being an ardent paper is best proponent (all my training and my navs job on paper) through to my last sea job and Middle East/Indian Ocean deployment where paper folios weren't even held onboard, not even for planning. I can honestly say that the officers who had come through in the electronic era planned as thoroughly as I ever did and the electronic charting systems added to rather than detracted from situational awareness and, in my belief, were safer. Obviously certified ECDIS systems with their large displays and combined with big ship power supply arrangements a different kettle of fish than a small sailing vessel with a chart plotter and a tablet.
My boat has paper charts on board. I use them for an overview, but most execution and planning is now done using electronic charts (although I always produce a paper pilotage plan in a notebook if going in anywhere new). I am confident in my abilities to conduct paper navigation and do still practice occasionally (although it doesn't add to any satisfaction I take from my sailing). With improvements in reliability of small boat systems (including through multiple devices) and with younger sailors having been completely immersed in an electronic world I suspect that the direction of travel is only going one way...

Thankfully we have a choice. I LOVE my paper charts and maps as I can see a much bigger picture and in more detail than a chartplotter, tablet or smartphone.

I am sure you are correct about the direction of travel for the young, but sadly they will miss the sheer joy of trying to find the pencil sharpen at 0300 hours.

 

[Thistle]

Thankfully we have a choice. I LOVE my paper charts and maps as I can see a much bigger picture and in more detail than a chartplotter, tablet or smartphone.

I am sure you are correct about the direction of travel for the young, but sadly they will miss the sheer joy of trying to find the pencil sharpen at 0300 hours.

I agree, especially about the big picture. For much the same reason, although I have a GPS unit with 1:50000 OS maps I dislike trying to route-find on the bike on its 4" screen. I have a board which mounts on the handlebars and takes a full A4 page (equivalent to a 14" screen.) I print out the relevant sections of the map and can then see clearly where I'm going. On a long ride stopping occasionally to change maps isn't a hardship!

 

[arc1]

Thankfully we have a choice.

This - choice is king; being able to use whatever serves you and your boat best in different circumstances.
Oh, and keeping an open mind before this becomes as emotive a topic as anchors or led Vs pyrotechnic flares!

 

[Sandy]

pyrotechnic flares!

I have strong views on pyrotechnics. I am pro.

 

[MADRIGAL]

Thankfully we have a choice. I LOVE my paper charts and maps as I can see a much bigger picture and in more detail than a chartplotter, tablet or smartphone.

I am sure you are correct about the direction of travel for the young, but sadly they will miss the sheer joy of trying to find the pencil sharpen at 0300 hours.

Besides this, there is the joy of discovering that you have a chart correction to enter when the boat is in winter quarters and you can only dream of sailing again next spring. Unless you are in in the Med, the Canaries, or the Caribbean for the winter …

 

[Neeves]

Besides this, there is the joy of discovering that you have a chart correction to enter when the boat is in winter quarters and you can only dream of sailing again next spring. Unless you are in in the Med, the Canaries, or the Caribbean for the winter …

Please keep up to date, despite their being a number of people posting here from the Med or Caribbean, and worse the old colonies Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, US and Canada - this is a UK centric forum - and please don't forget it!

See Post 16 and a riposte in Post 18.

We use paper and electronic charts and in our part of the nether regions of the world we find that the natural features don't change much, if at all - though physical features did change markedly in HK. The chart features that do change are navigation buoys - and they are commonly (in the nether regions) self explanatory (with eyesight) due to their shape, colour or lights.

I have wondered how circumnavigators, on a yacht, cope having left Blighty with a full set of appropriate paper charts, of not inconsiderable weight, are able to maintain upto date chart changes.



Jonathan

 

[NormanS]

Some parts of the West Coast of Scotland were surveyed in the 1860s, with leadlines, and some of the more out of the way parts haven't been fully surveyed since then. New rocks are being occasionally found, often the hard way, mainly by fish farm work boats. Other areas are of sand, which can change all the time, so caution is required, particularly on a first visit after the winter. I occasionally visit a particular anchorage, tucked in behind an island, where the BA chart gives 3.4m. It actually dries at LAT.

 

[DFL1010]

Appropriately enough, landed in my inbox this morning:
Grounding of chemical tanker Key Bora

 

[MADRIGAL]

Some parts of the West Coast of Scotland were surveyed in the 1860s, with leadlines, and some of the more out of the way parts haven't been fully surveyed since then. New rocks are being occasionally found, often the hard way, mainly by fish farm work boats. Other areas are of sand, which can change all the time, so caution is required, particularly on a first visit after the winter. I occasionally visit a particular anchorage, tucked in behind an island, where the BA chart gives 3.4m. It actually dries at LAT.

The same is true for Georgian Bay and parts of Canada’s rocky east coast. Even shipwrecks that occurred two hundred years ago are being found when these areas are being re-surveyed.

 

[MADRIGAL]

Appropriately enough, landed in my inbox this morning:
Grounding of chemical tanker Key Bora

Very interesting. The electronic chart had been (accurately) updated automatically, so the bridge team didn’t realise it was a recent correction. They say that “rocks don’t move”, but this one apparently did, as a result of dredging operations nearby. The master put more faith in local knowledge that proved to be wrong than in the recently corrected official chart. Thanks for posting that report.

 

[Robin]

Mea culpa.

mea too.

 

[claymore]

A very nice lady from Timezero, whose name is Alice regularly emails me with chart updates.
I choose to update them if I can see that I would be affected or perhaps safer or perhaps wealthy enough to afford it at the time.
I do update annually but it's a bit of a waste as not much changes where I sail

 

[dansaskip]

... a friend showed me a whiteboard with his passage plan and relevant items of info along the course written on it.
I took that on board (pun intended) as good practise and bought a whiteboard for my own planning. I.......

I too have been doing this for a long time - the board is A4 size and I hang it over one of the coachroof winches where it is easily visible. Saves many trip down to the chart table to check on things particularly when single handed. Don't know why more sailors don't do it.

Thankfully we have a choice. I LOVE my paper charts and maps as I can see a much bigger picture and in more detail than a chartplotter, tablet or smartphone.

I am sure you are correct about the direction of travel for the young, but sadly they will miss the sheer joy of trying to find the pencil sharpen at 0300 hours.

I too love my paper charts but perhaps Sandy you should use a self propelling pencil - no need to find that dratted pencil sharpner

 

[Sandy]

I too love my paper charts but perhaps Sandy you should use a self propelling pencil - no need to find that dratted pencil sharpner

I keep breaking the lead on my self propelling pencil hence relying on old technology.

 

[requiem]

Very interesting. The electronic chart had been (accurately) updated automatically, so the bridge team didn’t realise it was a recent correction. They say that “rocks don’t move”, but this one apparently did, as a result of dredging operations nearby. The master put more faith in local knowledge that proved to be wrong than in the recently corrected official chart. Thanks for posting that report.

A week or two earlier and it seems they wouldn't have had that ENC update either. Ironic that it also appears the grounding saved them from being swept into the pier by the tidal stream.

Not having the local charts immediately at hand, I'm curious if they included the survey date? That would be my first go-to when comparing conflicting sources. I saw a similar discrepancy at the mouth of a Greek harbour, but the ENC annoyingly lacked a survey date and a certain popular app doesn't include such details.

The IMO's publication on accuracy of ENCs also has this illustration of a shoal hiding between soundings: