Chart Corrections

We use paper charts for most of our navigation, they have many advantages over electronic charts, for example you can fold out the whole chart and have a look at the ‘big picture’. Another big advantage is that they still work if you have an electrical failure or an equipment failure. One problem with paper charts is that they need to be regularly updated to reflect new wrecks, changing depths of water, navigation buoys (and oil and gas rigs) that have been moved and new wind farms etc. This is where chart corrections come in, they are published by the chart’s publishers (we use Imray charts on Flamingo) and it is up to you to transfer them to your charts, traditionally with a purple pen. These charts are primarily aimed at commercial ships so it is important that they are accurate. Chart publishers regularly issue new versions of charts which effectively renders the old version redundant, this can become expensive; not a problem for commercial shipping but a big deal for us. If we are able to keep our charts corrected regularly we can continue with an older chart confident that we have kept it up to date.

We have managed to get all of the charts corrected tonight, I love correcting charts in the winter, nothing much seems to change so there is less to do. We are going to try to correct monthly rather than quarterly from the springtime onward so that we don’t have to buy too many new charts. Below I have shown an example of some chart corrections published by Imray, and examples of how they are applied to the chart.

You may notice that it was not possible to “Replace Whis with Bell at RW safe water pillar Lt buoy knob“ as there was no Whis to replace.
Belinda has however inserted “Bell” at the appropriate location so we will know what to listen for should we find ourselves fog bound at the junction of Knock John Channel and Knob Channel.