Paper Nautical Charts

[SkiprJohn]

The advantages of paper nautical charts.

I truly love to open a paper nautical chart, spread it out on the chart table (2'x3' preferred) and enjoy a cup of coffee while planning a sail. I even like doing that at home on our lanai table picking out water depths in exotic places and imagining the anchoring and diving and what the places and people look like. Requires no power or computer to do it.

I've had a fascination with charts and navigation ever since pulling my first watch as a "deck ape" on the bridge of a destroyer in the early 60s. I was mesmerized by what the Quartermaster (Navy Navigator) and his strikers were doing and how they could determine exactly where we were. Amazing how quick and good they were without electronic navigation.

I like paper charts as a backup to electronic navigation and have collected charts of the West Coast to the Horn, South Pacific, Indian Ocean to the East side of Africa, Australia and New Zealand. I have kept one of each to use when I circumnavigate. From time to time I pull them out from their hiding place (an old trunk) and look at them. Something I can hold in my hand and place on a table.

Disadvantages:

Get out of date. Nav aids move or change. I think the newest I have is 1989.

They get moldy and mildewed if not kept in a dry place. A stack of charts 3 feet high weighs a lot and takes up a lot of space.

Summary:

I will continue to carry even the old charts with me as a backup to electronics. They don't require power or a computer and never need new batteries or recharging. If they get splashed with seawater or get stepped on or thrown off the chart table they don't go belly up on me. I can always update them with a notice to mariners.

Besides, for me there is a great deal of nostalgia and memories of a lot of hours on the bridge of the many ships I served aboard. Some good and some not but always fascinating.

So, how do you as cruisers and liveaboard sailors feel about having and saving those old charts?

JohnL