Tag
Charts
The NOAA Coast Pilot is not a chart. It is a book, currently in 9 volumes, last fully revised between 2023 and 2025. For everything a chart cannot tell you, it is still the first thing to read.
Charts
Every chart smooths the coastline. A close look at three NOAA charts of the same Massachusetts shore, at scales of 1:80,000, 1:40,000, and 1:20,000, shows what each one chooses to leave out, and why.
Weather
The NOAA marine forecast is a closed dialect. A retired Coast Guard meteorologist in Cape Elizabeth, Maine, walks through what the words actually mean for a 26-foot boat on a Friday afternoon.