To all leisure navigators

[Hurricane]

I've been sailing for most of my life and in large motor boats for many years.
Indeed, I pride myself with my standard of safety.

But earlier this year, I scared myself.
If Jennywren didn't have such an accurate logging and tracking system, I would have never known my mistake.
This summer, we cruised to the Costa Brava.
On arriving in the bay or Roses, we headed straight to one of the bays to check it out before checking in to our main berth in Marina de Roses.
We skirted round this particular bay, seeing if it would be suitable for anchoring later on.

Mistakenly, I left the zoom level on our main Navionics plotter at too high a zoom level.
I didn't think any more of it until a few days later when a local French boater who we had go to know said "Beware of the Dangerous Rock"
So, I asked him to point out where the rock was located.
I was horrified - it seems that we had missed it by just a few feet.
And we didn't know it was there.
My French friend said that a large motor boat had hit it only the week before.
And the rock isn't marked - the trades in the local boatyard seem to think that it brings them good income.
I lay in bed that night and tried to think how I could avoid such a mistake again.
The only solution I came across was that I have to be more cautious with my navigation.

I am recounting this story so that anyone reading this can take the same advice.
If, by posting this, I save a potential disaster, it will be worthwhile.

Sorry, I'm now going to shout.
SO PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE - EVERYONE - TAKE CARE WITH YOUR NAVIGATION - ESPECIALLY YOUR PILOTAGE THROUGH UNKNOWN WATERS.

Here are some pics/chartlets of how close we came to a disaster.

As I said above, we were using our Navionics charts on our Raymarine plotter - but zoomed out.
The only way I have of showing the Navionics charts on here is a copy from the Navionics website and so is not quite the same as the actual plotters' display.

And the next pic shows the CMAP charts and Jennywren's track as recorded on her PC system.
Not only did we pass inside the rock but we also turned around it.
Without this accurate recorded track, we wouldn't have known how close we had been.

This is a pic showing the same display from Jennywren's PC system but with georeferenced Google Maps images.
You can just see the rock in the satellite image.

As I said above - several days after, it frightened me.
I will be learning from this incident (which, thankfully, was a non-incident)
Maybe everyone reading this will also learn from my mistake and think more carefully every time they navigate their boats.

 

[Deleted User YDKXO]

A close shave Hurricane and a lesson learnt. I always treat electronic cartography with a high degree of scepticism because I've had too many instances of hazards which are not shown on my electronic charts and hazards which are shown but which don't exist or are in the wrong position. And we're not talking minor hazards either. I remember well being surprised that the breakwater outside Ibiza Town harbour was not shown on my electronic chart or the entrance to Barcelona harbour being in the wrong position. In the Adriatic there was a bloody great big rock in the channel to Marina Frapa with a cardinal mark on top of it which didn't appear on the electronic chart. On the east coast of Sardinia we came across a reef extending well off the coast which was only shown on the electronic chart at a very high zoom and which I'd missed when planning our route

I know I'm an old fashioned luddite but I still regularly buy paper charts and pilot books for our cruising areas. You cannot have too many sources of information for route planning and electronic charts are just one of those sources. I bet that rock you nearly hit appears on a paper chart or in a pilot book somewhere

 

[Nigelpickin]

Good point made, we always set off and remain with one chart zoomed out and one zoomed in to 250m
We also keep the iOS chart open with a track running for all of our trips - redundancy and so on.

We now also always have radar on at 3/4 m with overlay on one chart to cross ref the gps accuracy.
Most importantly, once a course has been set I follow the route manually at full zoom to check for any details that filter out at the higher level. It should be noted that Raymarine autoroute would probably have routed around the rock had it been usd and set correctly....worth the price of admission IMHO. (From memory garmin blue chart would also not let you hit a rock and allows safety ring fencing?

Uncharted hazards, now that's another matter....

 

[MapisM]

we were using our Navionics charts on our Raymarine plotter - but zoomed out

Am I understanding correctly that the obstruction was actually included in Navionics charts, but only visible when zooming in (as also Deleted User mentioned)?
In a sense, that's even more misleading than an obviously "poor" mapping... Chartplotter software engineers obviously don't go boating, I reckon. :ambivalence:

Thanks for the highlight, and well done for missing the danger, no matter how.
After all, a bit of luck is essential for any sailor, 'innit...? :encouragement:

 

[Nigelpickin]

Am I understanding correctly that the obstruction was actually included in Navionics charts, but only visible when zooming in (as also Deleted User mentioned)?
In a sense, that's even more misleading than an obviously "poor" mapping... Chartplotter software engineers obviously don't go boating, I reckon. :ambivalence:

Thanks for the highlight, and well done for missing the danger, no matter how.
After all, a bit of luck is essential for any sailor, 'innit...? :encouragement:

Think it's more a case of OICU as a new acquaintance of our describes it. Operator Induced Cock Up. The software is fine, the rocks show up and Hurricanes point is that he omitted to set the appropriate zoom level, he was inshore skirting around 10 - 20m after all.
There's nothing misleading about dynamic detail zooming although I do think that auto zoom and pan around hazards would be a good idea and I'm sure it must exist somewhere if not at release level then in dev.

 

[jfm]

Thanks Hurric. A useful reminder. I suppose it underlines the case for two screens, one set to a view of the whole bay and one zoomed in and automatically following the boat, but having said that I would admit to not being super diligent every second and therefore I can see how all of that happened to you (or rather, didn't happen, but nearly did!)

 

[Bandit]

I cant read your second chart down the CMAP PC Chart but I assume the grey shaded sea bed is 10m to 5.1m and the blue shaded area is 5m below datum or less, as an Admiralty or SHOM Chart. So if the rock was a danger to your boat it should be marked blue as less than 5m on the second chart?

I am not a fan of the cartographics on electronic charts they struggle to get the definition of print and some of the shortcuts are confusing vis a vis a paper chart.

An Admiralty liesure portfolio would be a contour line with light blue shading inside it at 10m, a line with solid blue shading inside at 5m or less , all below datum.

THe navionics chart you show shows everything less than 20m (I assume metres not feet) shaded in blue and less than 3m shaded in a slightly darker blue.

To me solid blue at 5m is the warning sign with a liesure boat as almost all draw less than 5m then mentally calculate the tide in to it above datum.


Perhaps the navionics can be set up to show anything at less than 5m below datum as shaded blue and the shaded blue line at 10m?

 

[julians]

Yes.myou can change the shading on navionics so that blue is used in deeper areas

 

[Deleted User YDKXO]

Am I understanding correctly that the obstruction was actually included in Navionics charts, but only visible when zooming in (as also Deleted User mentioned)?
In a sense, that's even more misleading than an obviously "poor" mapping... Chartplotter software engineers obviously don't go boating, I reckon. :ambivalence:

Maybe I'm wrong but as I understand it, when electronic charts are being developed, it is the software engineers who arbitrarily decide which features to omit as the chart is zoomed out. In other words we boaters are dependent for our safety on the whim of some acne ridden, coked up software geek who may have been having a bad day when he decided that Hurricane's rock wasn't going to be visible on his chart when zoomed out beyond a certain range

Actually there was a good article in last month's Passagemaker magazine about this very subject which featured the story about the round the world racing yacht, Vestas, which hit an island in the Pacific simply because it was not shown on their Navionics electronic chart at the zoom level they were using at the time

More here http://www.yachtingworld.com/blogs/elaine-bunting/volvo-ocean-race-yacht-bristling-technology-hit-well-known-reef-60753

 

[MapisM]

Think it's more a case of OICU as a new acquaintance of our describes it. Operator Induced Cock Up.

I don't think it's fair to put that down entirely to OICU, as your acquaintance calls it.
I've seen many times obstructions disappearing while zooming out, but still at a scale which I would have considered more than sufficient for pilotage.
And anyway, in an age where smartphones can almost suggest us when to go to the toilet, you would expect some more clever tricks to be included in chartplotter software, rather than just showing/hiding details out of the blue, so to speak... :ambivalence:

 

[MapisM]

Maybe I'm wrong but as I understand it...

Yup, maybe you're wrong, and if so both of us are. But I don't think so...!

 

[julians]

Just checked on my navionics and all rocks remain visible at all zoom levels ( which is the behaviour you would want) until you go out so far that you revert to the Base world map.

So sounds like the acne ridden coked up software engineer did a decent job here (there's nothing like a sweeping generalisation to annoy people)

 

[PCUK]

I think this story shows that chart plotting is not 'navigating'. Glad it had a happy ending.

 

[Nigelpickin]

I don't think it's fair to put that down entirely to OICU, as your acquaintance calls it.
I've seen many times obstructions disappearing while zooming out, but still at a scale which I would have considered more than sufficient for pilotage.
And anyway, in an age where smartphones can almost suggest us when to go to the toilet, you would expect some more clever tricks to be included in chartplotter software, rather than just showing/hiding details out of the blue, so to speak... :ambivalence:

I agree that the software could be improved but in its current form it's very good. In fact the parameters can be changed by the operator to create a digital landscape that suits the environment in which they wish to navigate; it just didn't happen in this case. I'm sure that we've all done something similar but if the system works and the rocks are clearly marked on the navionics charts then there's not a great deal more the coke heads can do

Have to say tho, the way that Navionics deals with the TSS zone in the E channel is a bit frustrating....

 

[Nigelpickin]

I think this story shows that chart plotting is not 'navigating'. Glad it had a happy ending.

No it doesn't.

The OP didn't look at a chart and didn't zoom his MD in to monitor his inshore route. What it shows is that it's easy to forget to do the basics and thanks to the OP for reminding us.

It's a side effect of the thread that's bringing out the luddites

 

[Hurricane]

Here is a zoomed in pic of the one you had difficulty reading

Maybe I didn't explain earlier - the purple line is our recorded track.

As you can see, we were in 20m of water all the time so there was no obvious reason to worry.

Yes, Admiralty Leisure products are great but we don't get the same detail of coverage in the Med as in the UK.
That said, maybe I should have found the appropriate Admiralty chart for that area - I did last year for Sardinia.
Having said that, it wasn't the lack of charts so much as depending upon an unzoomed Navionics chart that didn't show the danger clearly.

@JFM
Yes two plotters is our usual method.
Generally, I use the Raymarine Navionics for our main navigation on one display/plotter and the PC with a huge database of charts as an alternative on the other display/plotter.
The PC has more than 2500 charts loaded - mostly scans of paper charts so there is loads of data there.
But we were doing a short coastal passage during which we switch the PC display to and from a radar view.

Anyway, back to my point of posting.
Even if you think you are the greatest navigator out there, please listen to this message and take care.
After my scare. I thought that this case isn't important - in the future, it could be something else.
Taking care whilst doing everything is the only solution.

 

[MapisM]

That said, maybe I should have found the appropriate Admiralty chart for that area - I did last year for Sardinia.

That was before you knew the highly sophisticated pilotage technique that is common practice in Sardinia, i.e. just look forward from the flybridge.
I have yet to see any chart, electronic or not, anywhere near the level of detail provided by crystal clear water - and even better with good polarized sunglasses!

 

[Portofino]

It's easy with tech to get complacent .
I like paper out and plotter ,only one bit old now but it's a guide only that's my view .
Cap Ferrat has a hidden rock SE corner ( not sure if it's marked ?) it like Hurricanes example catches boats and super yachts

I guess the lesson when approaching unfamiliar bays is to look @ others -locals and go slow and double check everything
Paper n plotter .
BTW I have a load of v detailed paper better than anything I've ever seen of the islands in the bay of Naples and some other Italian minor islands - the sort of thing you could frame and be proud to put on a wall such is the detail .No idea how much they cost .

 

[ronsurf]

I suppose it's visitors 'navigating' by chartplotters rather than paper charts that keep that boatyard in business.

I would have had a quick squint at a proper chart before relying on an electronic one. And I don't even regard myself as a safe navigator. But a close call is always good to refocus your standards!

 

[davidej]

Pretty much the same problem wrecked that round the world yacht off East Africa