WHAT ARE MARINE CHARTS LIKE?
By Katy Myrick

A marine chart is like a map, but instead of it being a map of land it is a map of the ocean. The depth of the water is shown through out the map. Knowing the depth of the water is very important! Whether you are a little sail boat or big vessel like the one I am on now it is critical to know the depth you are about to cruise into. You cannot see the ocean floor beneath you or the coral reefs, so you can easily run aground if you are not paying attention to your chart. This is particularly dangerous when you are coming close to land. On European charts depth is measure in meters, and other maps the depth is in fathoms. A fathom is 6ft. It is important to know the unit of measure or you could end up making a very expensive mistake.

When we tell the captain where we want to go we give him the "way points". Way points are the longitude and latitude coordinates of where we want to be. He then puts them into a computer and the ship is sort of on autopilot, and we go straight to that point. The navigator plots on his chart where we are going. They do that just in case something happens to the electronics so that they will know where we are. As long as we are in open ocean they use GPS to map where we are, but when we get close to land they will switch to radar, which is more accurate close to land. Also, when they get close to land they will use visual clues to help navigate like lighthouses.