Sailing and Camping

Nautical charts

Nautical charts are a sailors map to the seas and are the key to charting your course when sailing. These charts vary and can cover the world or a small nook in a river. To use the information contained within the chart, the voyager must first be able to interpret what he is looking at so as to understand and read the chart correctly.

The first thing to take into account is that all charts have at least one thing in common, and that is a key. This key is a set of symbols and their meanings that is located somewhere on the chart itself.

The key

The key as it is termed allows the user to understand the knowledge that the chart is conveying; therefore, allowing the sailor to plot his voyage successfully based on that data.

Let us imagine a very basic nautical chart containing a large lake and a piece of land with a point running out into the water. At the end of this point there are three strategically placed X's.

The sailor looks at the mass in front of him and sees nothing where the X's are on the chart. Our sailor looks at the key and sees that this symbol is warning him that underneath the smooth water lies sharp rock formations that will shred the bottom of his boat.

The sailing chart has helped avoid unseen dangers. The key to sailing really is the key. Once the sailor understands and can follow the information he or she will be able to successfully plot their course on any body of water.