Steve, We ignore Notices To Mariners.
Since we range over an cruising path of more than 1,500 miles from Florida to Maine it would just be more time consuming than we have time to spare. We rely primarily on pre-planned GPS routes and cross-check with other inputs such as buoys, lighthouses, radar and visual views, depth, etc. I tend to put my waypoints near nav marks, put the nav mark description in the comment field on the route list of waypoints, print out the waypoint list, and refer to it and the chart to cross-check when arriving at the waypoints. Another trick is to note what the shallowest depth we should encounter on any particular trip and set the shallow alarm to just less than that. If the alarm goes off we reverse direction until we figure it out. When we come across an anomality, such as a buoy with a number different from the chart (I recall on the Cape Fear River there was changed [from what is on our charts] a whole lot of them, we just marked up the chart in pencil), we still rely primarily on our GPS pre-planned route while we absorb the larger picture until we are confident we are OK. If we loose that confidence we quickly reverse course and slow down until we figure things out. While the NTM notes many small changes, the overall picture seldom changes. Also bear in mind that things often change, then are published the NTMs after the fact, so you cannot rely entirely that a perfectly edited chart is 100% accurate. Offshore it doesn't matter, in the ICW the channel is usually obvious. If there are bunch of boat aground, anchor and scout the path in the (depthfinder equipped) dinghy. These days, what with the lack of dredging and our 8' draft, we only do the segments between Jacksonville and Fernandina, and from Moorhead and Norfolk anyway. We also ignore currents in general. We just figure they all cancel each other out in time considering our large cruising area. There are some places we try hard to go through with a favorable current such as the East River and Hell Gate in NYC, Plum Gut or The Race near Plum Island at the east end of Long Island and the Cape Cod Canal. However, I have taken Bandersnatch through all of these with a head current when I was determined to do so for whatever reason. The fastest currents we have encountered are slower than our normal seven knots, and we can still bump it up a knot or two. Keep in mind that speed is not so important to us. We are always home no matter where we go or how fast we are getting there. Sailboaters have an inherent desire to squeeze every last drop of speed out of every situation. Any time two sailboats are headed in the same direction it's a race. If I were on Steve's boat I am sure I would play the winds and currents the same way he does. Norm S/V Bandersnatch Lying Julington Creek 30 07.695N 081 38.484W > Interesting, Norm. How do you handle the various NTMs which the CG > publishes every month and changes to the Light List? Do you have a way to > upload those revisions to your charts? From what I can tell, neither my > Maptech program on the laptop nor my new chartplotter (Raymarine using > Navionics chips) nor my old Standard Horizon (using C-Map+ chips) have the > ability to be modified per the different CG releases/changes from the NTMs > or LightList. I signed up on their website a while ago and when I get the > changes I'll notate them on my paper charts. The usual drill is to look at > the paper chart, figure out my best route from A-to-B and then plot it on > the chartplotter. Since 95% of our cruising is L.I.Sound, Block, Buzzards > Bay and Cape Cod and Mass Bay I tend to try to play the currents so > depending on time of day of passage I'll plan the route accordingly. > > For example, on some trips East from OB to Stonington, CT for example, I > might start out along the coastline (either CT or L.I.) and then head out > to mid-sound. This way, by playing the currents, (and "planning" with my > Reeds or Eldridge next to me) I'll minimize the drag from a foul current or, > alternatively, maximize the lift from a fair current. Then after I've > looked at the paper charts and noted any changes written down from any of > the CG alerts, I'll put the waypoints in the chartplotter and take off. > > I don't want to seem really anal here (it sounds like it!) since 90% of the > time we're not in a hurry and we'll cruise the best heading the wind affords > us to minimize the motoring ..... > > > Steve Weinstein _______________________________________________ Liveaboard mailing list [email protected] To adjust your membership settings over the web http://www.liveaboardnow.org/mailman/listinfo/liveaboard To subscribe send an email to [email protected] To unsubscribe send an email to [email protected] The archives are at http://www.liveaboardnow.org/pipermail/liveaboard/ To search the archives http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected] The Mailman Users Guide can be found here http://www.gnu.org/software/mailman/mailman-member/index.html
