A chart plotter is a wonderful thing.
It is also, occasionally, a very confident liar.
Trust the screen. Verify with your eyes. Always know where you are — not just where the dot says you are.
Charts and Plotters
Charts are the language of the sea — depth, hazards, markers, aids to navigation.
A chart plotter shows them in real time. Learn the symbols, not just the map.
Apps as a Second Brain
Navionics, Aquamap and similar apps on your phone or tablet are a useful backup — and often more up to date than a five-year-old plotter.
Two independent devices, showing the same picture, catch errors that a single device cannot.
Markers, Beacons and Buoys
Red to port, green to starboard — coming into port. Cardinal marks, isolated dangers, safe water marks. All say something specific.
Learning them is a rainy-Sunday job that pays back every trip.
Situational Awareness
Where am I now? Where am I going next? What's around me?
Ask those three questions every ten minutes and most navigation problems dissolve.
- Do you carry at least two independent nav devices?
- Are your charts up to date?
- Do you know the local marker system by sight?
- Are you scanning for other traffic, not just the screen?
- Could you get home without the plotter if you had to?
- Charts are the language of the sea — learn them.
- Two independent devices catch single-device errors.
- Situational awareness is the real navigation skill.
- Know how to get home without your primary electronics.